Except it would be a lot cheaper to do it in Taiwan or china since they already have fabs and they can pay their fab employees less. This whole service/renewable crap is bull****. Really everything can be made cheaper somewhere else. Sure America still has the best uni's in the world and smart people come here invent something here and then make it elsewhere. You have that one smart person + the people who invested in him make a lot of money. However a majority of people won't invent anything useful. America greatest economic boom came from its strong manufacturing base. Since the rise of the internet/globalization in 2000 America has created a net of 0 jobs and real wages have gone down. In the past 60 years that has never happened.
The good news is that the Obama Administration recognizes this and is making another "czar" position to try to revive the manufacturing sector. Given the current political climate, nothing will probably come of this, but its a step in the right direction. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125081257608948029.html edit: just noticed this article was nearly a year old
As long as the dollar is the world's reserve currency, I don't think our manufacturing base will recover. It's an uphill battle. Our nation's niche is supposedly leadership, innovation, and technological dominance, then we're supposedly a society of leaders and engineers/scientists. Ignoring our education system, the problem with recruiting home grown scientists comes from the lure of untold riches in the financial sector. If you lose ten geniuses to Wall Street, even one of them could've created a meaningful invention with several thousand jobs attached to it. Sure, they could've invented some exotic derivative to give a poor sap a loan that he doesn't deserve, but that's not gonna happen now regardless. That trend hasn't reversed since the last two years. These weaknesses can be recoverable, but finding a way to take care of our elderly in a costly and efficient manner is the most important roadblock to resolve. You do that, resolving our debt and financing the budget doesn't have to be shed in a catastrophic light.
Like i said, if thats the way to get a job, its how its is. But then what OTHER jobs? Lets not act like its also business' prerogative to ship those same jobs overseas. Simple economics, sure. Simply selling out on the people, sure as well. The economic model explains economics. Time and time again it doesnt care to explain people's lives at stake. Businesses and economists can play the game. And still PRETEND as though employees are naturally behind the trend and you can just "get another job if you know better". What jobs? These jobs. I agree, its time for people to look to themselves to create their own industries again. Its obvious government can only do so much about jobs. And businesses themselves aren't helping. Create legal, non drug trade, self sustaining industries that provide food and shelter. Things are changing. The automation beast is taking over. Time to start "growing your own" but legally.
Previous innovations have advanced the American business climate to the point where you have to be one of the big boys (read, able to throw 100mill around) to do anything substantial. We are now so comfortable as to be risk-averse to the kind of process that brought Bell, Edison and even Gates to the limelight. If you are some new startup in tech: If wall street doesn't cripple you, regulation will. And if you get past that, get ready for an army of lawyers from the established companies to tie you up in lawsuits for years (while your stock hits bottom). You will probably have to setup "shell" branches in some Asian country to convince Wall Street that you are cutting costs, and prevent them from looking too hard at the 3 simultaneous lawsuits you have going on. Tons of tech companies with innovative, smart people that could have created lots of jobs have died this way (or bought out). Bottomline: the American system has EVOLVED and it probably isnt going back. Some would argue that this is a necessary "evil" of capitalism... after a while, creative destruction just becomes destruction, at least for one set of people. I'm starting to sound like Dubious
Not exactly. To build a renewable / energy efficient infrastructure a lot of the jobs cannot be outsourced. You can't outsource installing and growing green roofs or building wind farms.
I was unemployed for about 14 months and have been working again for about 4 1/2 months...I forgot how good it feels to get a paycheck and of course also forgot how crappy it is to have a boss...lol.. My cousin has been unemployed for about 5 months now with his benefits are expiring this week...still hard finding jobs and he said he and his g/f can't even get minimum wage jobs, which I find hard to believe but not out of the realm of possibilities...This affects me b/c he's renting my place and will now not have any money to pay me...he's family so I don't mind letting him stay a little while, but not indefinitely... There has to be a better way to jump start the economy...people need jobs to spend and have to have the circulation of money and boost consumer confidence...We have to be able to enable people to spend, not save...not sure how we go about doing it but with unemployment benefits set to expire, there will be some tough times for the unemployed...if they don't have any money saved, it's going to be real tough...
Business's prerogative will always be to make the most money. That's how our system is set up. Shareholders are brutal - the markets are brutal. They do not care for corporate citizenship and CEO's are chosen on their ability to drive increased profits. Employees, citizens, the environment, business practices - all are secondary. That is why before OSHA you had people losing arms and legs working in unsafe conditions. Laws and regulations are the only counterbalance to that. If you don't require businesses to follow certain financial rules, anti-trust rules, environmental and product quality rules - then they will just do whatever makes the most money. Why should a business owner worry about outsourcing jobs? Employment of Americans is not his responsibility - he has to deal with angry shareholders and a board that will question his every move. That's why you need regulations. People who believe the markets will resolve themselves are right - they will...they will do what's best to make the most money and if you deregulate, they will not regulate themselves, that's just absurd!
Very cool and very disturbing...I knew it was bad, hell I lived it,but damn Cali, Miss & Michigan were sucking wind before and now its completely ridiculous... Hope they pass the extention to help, but then what...how does that jump start the economy in a way that stimulates growth and encourages businesses to hire...Unemployment won't do that, there has to be incentives for businesses to hire, like tax breaks, etc...IMHO
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U cannot export those and they are not money makers unless subsidized. Renewable energy is crap. I hope we realize that soon and take the steps needed. I hope ethanol is the first victim.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aMHdYaKUGkHA Summary : no major effect. Giant discount retailers are not necessarily a good analogy to exporting manufacturing. The people who work in a Wal-Mart are Americans. I suppose you could argue that everything in Wal-Mart is manufactured in China - but that is true with just about every store there is. Singling out Wal-Mart seems to be a popular trend though.
I totally agree but there is something wrong with our kids and I don't think government prodding can fix it. Being smart and getting an engineering degree is generally looked down upon by high school - college age kids. I've seen some documentaries about students in China and it was scary. It seemed as if high-achieveing students where actually looked up to by their peers.
