Are We Going To Make Things?
There are signs the economy may be stabilizing. Notice I said “stabilizing,” not recovering. Besides the big questions of when a recovery will start, and, more importantly, when unemployment will begin to drop, there is also a question in my mind about American manufacturing. You remember American manufacturing, don’t you? You know, where Americans made things with their hands or operated machinery that made things, and where men and women could get decent paying jobs with benefits, and they didn’t have to know the square root of some number, what the hell Excel was, or know the symbol for copper; which is, ah….ah…well I know, but I just don’t want to make any of you feel dumb.
In reading over some things recently, I found that the U.S. now ranks BEHIND every other “industrialized” nation in percentage of national economic activity that is from manufacturing, except France. (At least the French have an excuse. Hey, you can’t make wine and washing machines too! Or is that, you can’t drink wine and make washing machines too?) According to the World Bank, less than 14% of our economic activity now comes from manufacturing. It makes me wonder how long it will be before we’re no longer called an industrialized nation. And we’ve dropped 4 big percentage points in the last decade!
Will the current administration put together some kind of manufacturing policy for the country? They don’t have to do a hell of a lot to be better than the Bush Administration on this. As millions of manufacturing jobs disappeared, the Bush people gave the standard answer they gave for everything economic: “We can’t do anything about it, this is a free market economy.” Thus Bush and his people answered until the country was on the verge of economic collapse, then they decided it wasn’t THAT MUCH of a free market economy,* and they asked taxpayers for 700 billion bucks to help banks and insurance companies.**
In just six months, the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress are already well ahead of Bush and Co. according to an article by Louis Uchitelle that was published in the NY Times. He says that the “stimulus bill” includes a “Buy America” clause for the purchase of American made goods for infrastructure work. Further, he says, “And trade agreements negotiated by the Bush Administration-agreements that would make the United States more open to imported manufactured goods-have (now) been allowed to languish in Congress.” He also cites government loan guarantees as a way the new administration is trying to jump-start new manufacturing plants, frequently in wind and solar energy equipment. He notes a plant in Toledo where the owner is beginning to make solar panels, and he now has 100 workers. The author further notes that the number of loan guarantees under Bush was zero, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. They didn’t believe in government action, except to cut taxes for very rich folks, and in that, they were great.
That’s not to say that he feels things are perfect now. He also chides the Obama people for following in the steps of the last couple administrations in permitting China to keep their currency at an artificially low rate of exchange, thus hurting American manufacturing. This is a sensitive issue with the Chinese, and I don’t know where it will go. It’s easy to say, “Just put the heat on them,” but for one thing, we need them as some sort of counterbalance to that wacko in North Korea, Kim Jung (mentally) Ill, I mean Il.
Whatever the new administration has already done, we will need much more to revive a sector so devastated by neglect. It is not only a matter of economics, but of national security! (A word history is below)
*Remember many well fed, well supplied Communist leaders in Russia and elsewhere essentially made the point, "We want all people to be equal. We just want to be more equal than the rest of you."
**Something I think was VERY distasteful, but necessary. The point is though, the time to avoid economic collapse was well before the summer of 2008, and they needed to quit hiding behind these “free market” statements.
Word History:
Shimmer-This goes back to an Indo European root "skai," which had the meaning "gleam or shine." The Old Germanic derivative of this was "skim." Old English had "scimerian," which meant "to glitter." (The "sc" was pretty much pronounced like modern "sh.") Close English relative German has "schimmern," and another relative, Swedish, which is North Germanic, has "skimmra." Notice, in North Germanic the "k" sound was retained from the original Germanic, but in West Germanic (English and German), it became the softer sounding "sch/sh."
In reading over some things recently, I found that the U.S. now ranks BEHIND every other “industrialized” nation in percentage of national economic activity that is from manufacturing, except France. (At least the French have an excuse. Hey, you can’t make wine and washing machines too! Or is that, you can’t drink wine and make washing machines too?) According to the World Bank, less than 14% of our economic activity now comes from manufacturing. It makes me wonder how long it will be before we’re no longer called an industrialized nation. And we’ve dropped 4 big percentage points in the last decade!
Will the current administration put together some kind of manufacturing policy for the country? They don’t have to do a hell of a lot to be better than the Bush Administration on this. As millions of manufacturing jobs disappeared, the Bush people gave the standard answer they gave for everything economic: “We can’t do anything about it, this is a free market economy.” Thus Bush and his people answered until the country was on the verge of economic collapse, then they decided it wasn’t THAT MUCH of a free market economy,* and they asked taxpayers for 700 billion bucks to help banks and insurance companies.**
In just six months, the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress are already well ahead of Bush and Co. according to an article by Louis Uchitelle that was published in the NY Times. He says that the “stimulus bill” includes a “Buy America” clause for the purchase of American made goods for infrastructure work. Further, he says, “And trade agreements negotiated by the Bush Administration-agreements that would make the United States more open to imported manufactured goods-have (now) been allowed to languish in Congress.” He also cites government loan guarantees as a way the new administration is trying to jump-start new manufacturing plants, frequently in wind and solar energy equipment. He notes a plant in Toledo where the owner is beginning to make solar panels, and he now has 100 workers. The author further notes that the number of loan guarantees under Bush was zero, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. They didn’t believe in government action, except to cut taxes for very rich folks, and in that, they were great.
That’s not to say that he feels things are perfect now. He also chides the Obama people for following in the steps of the last couple administrations in permitting China to keep their currency at an artificially low rate of exchange, thus hurting American manufacturing. This is a sensitive issue with the Chinese, and I don’t know where it will go. It’s easy to say, “Just put the heat on them,” but for one thing, we need them as some sort of counterbalance to that wacko in North Korea, Kim Jung (mentally) Ill, I mean Il.
Whatever the new administration has already done, we will need much more to revive a sector so devastated by neglect. It is not only a matter of economics, but of national security! (A word history is below)
*Remember many well fed, well supplied Communist leaders in Russia and elsewhere essentially made the point, "We want all people to be equal. We just want to be more equal than the rest of you."
**Something I think was VERY distasteful, but necessary. The point is though, the time to avoid economic collapse was well before the summer of 2008, and they needed to quit hiding behind these “free market” statements.
Word History:
Shimmer-This goes back to an Indo European root "skai," which had the meaning "gleam or shine." The Old Germanic derivative of this was "skim." Old English had "scimerian," which meant "to glitter." (The "sc" was pretty much pronounced like modern "sh.") Close English relative German has "schimmern," and another relative, Swedish, which is North Germanic, has "skimmra." Notice, in North Germanic the "k" sound was retained from the original Germanic, but in West Germanic (English and German), it became the softer sounding "sch/sh."
Labels: Bush Administration, economy, English, etymology, Germanic languages, manufacturing, Obama Administration, trade
posted by Randy at 12:40 PM
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