Lets Get Back to Work

The only way out of this mess we're in is to bring back our jobs and cut out the importing of manufactured goods. It won't be easy but we need to be self sustaining in a global market. I realize we cannot compete with the global market as far as wages and operating costs that employers would have to absorb in this country and be able to produce goods that are competitively priced in comparison with the imports, but we would be putting people back to work and when people are employed they spend money. Sure the retailers have benefited by selling cheap goods, but now it's catching up with them, no mater how good prices are right now if people don't have the money to spend it's no matter.

The only growth I've seen in my area over the past 20 years was more building in the way of housing and retail stores to sell all of the goods made in China. In the past 10 years where I've seen the local population almost triple.

I won't even get into renewable sources of energy that could put people back to work as well as benefit the environment.

As far as the mortgage crisis real estate prices got too far out of hand too quickly because of supply vs. demand and unrestricted lending practices. There are not enough jobs in this country to support the population, too many jobs have left this country for the past 30 years while the population keeps growing. Things cannot turn around overnight even with the new administration, it could take years if even possible for it to get better. I just hate to think that it will get any worse.

[edit on 27-12-2008 by sleepyhollow]

I agree we need to get back to work. But we need to find creative ways to do it. Contrary to what a lot of economic gurus say, wealth can be created, and can be created without limit, as long as there is a market for the products or services that are created. One must be ready, at a moments notice, to alter one's business plan, or change it entirely based on the market. That is one of the reasons we are in the shape we are in today. (The subprime lending scam, excessive use of credit are other reasons.)
Those of us who are creative will find a way to create wealth. It may be a new product. (Imagine one of those cheesy $19.95 commercials you see all the time. These are new products, or a new twist on an old product, with a lot of hype. Somebody's making money, or we wouldn't be seeing so many of them. Remember K-Tel from the 60"s and 70's?)
America has always been one of the great bastions of creative thought. It has been said that the day of the garage inventor is dead and gone. I, for one don't believe it. There are men and women out there who have great ideas for inventions that will change the world. They just need to believe in themselves, and get to work.
Remember folks, Microsoft got started in a garage.

reply to post by sleepyhollow


I think this stands as good advice for every nation currently experiencing financial problems.

This is exactly why globalization is such a bad idea, this is why thousands protest it at every opportunity, this is what is causing all of our problems financially.

Each nation needs to place its own needs first when it comes to food production, engineering, energy production, medical care, housing and employment.
In what kind of insane world does a county's stability rely solely on imports from China or Energy from Russia?
How is that nation then able to secure itself if it has to?

Mugabe destroyed the farming industry in what was the most fertile farming land on the African continent; Zimbabwe. His people have then had to rely on imports and aid because none of them had the knowledge to farm. We are all heading in the same direction in various ways as we continue to allocate vital roles and skills overseas.
You ask the nearest teenager the basics of keeping a garden plot going, and chances are they won't be able to tell you.

It's the same with the financial systems we have now. One nation is so intimately connected to another that just one shock sends the entire world into meltdown. Instead of one nation being effected and having to seek help from the IMF, every country faces the same collapse.

Imagine if Russia suddenly decided to start reclaiming the old union, within months the energy and food supplies to most of Europe could be wiped out. And what kind of allies could they have? What if said allies then ceased all trade with certain nations?

The world is simply not stable enough to have nations devoted to one or two tasks while everything else is managed through international trade.

I know what our governments would say "people would take up roles in everything the nation needed". But where do the skills come from if you've spent the last decade importing?

The only reason we managed through WW2 was because of the skills we had, the ingenuity. And even then, when farming in Britain was at a more reasonable level, we still struggled with rationing.

If this financial crisis has taught us anything, it is that we all need to step away from the globalized ideals of big business, and focus on the needs of each nations civilian population. We need to scale back on international trade and business, and we need to make sure that we all have a contingency plan in order to maintain public security in the event of having to isolate our industries, finance, energy, food, from the problems facing other nations.

Originally posted by kettlebellysmith
I agree we need to get back to work. But we need to find creative ways to do it. Contrary to what a lot of economic gurus say, wealth can be created, and can be created without limit, as long as there is a market for the products or services that are created. One must be ready, at a moments notice, to alter one's business plan, or change it entirely based on the market. That is one of the reasons we are in the shape we are in today. (The subprime lending scam, excessive use of credit are other reasons.)
Those of us who are creative will find a way to create wealth. It may be a new product. (Imagine one of those cheesy $19.95 commercials you see all the time. These are new products, or a new twist on an old product, with a lot of hype. Somebody's making money, or we wouldn't be seeing so many of them. Remember K-Tel from the 60"s and 70's?)
America has always been one of the great bastions of creative thought. It has been said that the day of the garage inventor is dead and gone. I, for one don't believe it. There are men and women out there who have great ideas for inventions that will change the world. They just need to believe in themselves, and get to work.
Remember folks, Microsoft got started in a garage.

That's only good when the products are being made here in America and not just benefiting the creator and or marketing co. I'll bet most of those items that you see on those infomercials are made in China. Bottom line we must bring manufacturing back in this country. Steel, textiles & electronics to name a few. As far as any bailouts go they are not going to work if people don't have jobs and good paying jobs not at the retail level either where most of these jobs were being created, again to market products made overseas.

[edit on 28-12-2008 by sleepyhollow]

What we really need is fair trade practices that don't favor one side while scewing the other side up the gazoo. That is what is happening to us (the U.S.) and it's killing us. China would not be growing at 10 - 11% if things were fair.

True, but coming up with the ideas, developing the product is the 1st step. Famous Amos made up a batch of choclate chip cookies from a mix you can by at any grocery store, and made a forture.
I have an aunt who bakes cakes. She gets $25-$30 per cake, but spends about $2 in the entire process of making it. She's not getting rich, but she's bringing in some pretty good pocket change. (Can you say "cash?")
And from what I hear she's really getting busier every week.
We have to get manufacturing back in this country, but until we tax corporations that take jobs out, and cut taxes on corporations that stay in the US, it ain't gonna happen. I would love to see America the she was back in the 50's, but those days are gone.
A lot of the jobs in this country are going to be tech oriented, which means a lot of folks are going to have to go back to school.
I know it sucks, but as Uncle Walter used to say, that's the way it is.