U.S. has lost 5 million manufacturing jobs since 2000

We haven't lost any manufacturing jobs free trade is great! Just ask Kasich! He knows!

That's ok we don't need high paying jobs anyway. Just think all those people were then subsidized by your tax dollars to be retrained to enter the job market with a different skillset through the WIA and other workforce investment or opportunity acts. Now 12 million people have been added to the labor force further devaluing your worth for the job YOU do by adding supply.

Then add to that 61 million immigrants legal and illegal and now I understand why people are pissed and Bernie Sanders and Trump are popular.

CNN

"History shows that trade made easy, affordable and fast...always begets more trade, more jobs, more prosperity," the founder and CEO of FedEx wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Unless we're trading with countries who purposefully devalue their currency and have no minimum wage standards or living standards equal to that of the country their trading with.

I know I know without a minimum wage market forces(competition) will automatically raise the wage right? Wrong because there will always be more supply than demand in the modern workforce due to the fact that automation and global integration has changed the entire landscape.



As you can see free trade hasn't and doesn't work under our current system and probably needs a total overhaul. Honestly it can't and won't work unless the countries we trade with are on a level playing field. It's like steroids vs not steroids.

Sorry people but under the current conditions of economy a minimum wage is absolutely necessary until we change this. Otherwise expect all of your wages to go down. Wages don't start from the top down the start from the foundation up.

So Ross Perot was right. Giant sucking sound.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Yeah he was right.

Imagine that a billionaire watching out for the everyday American.

I guess in order for him to be a billionaire other people have to have money for him to make.

Some people laughed at Ross Perot when he talked about the trade deals being pushed back then. His, "You will hear a great sucking sound as American jobs go overseas" has been proven right. Now Trump says he will rework the trade deals to make them fair... and is criticized that he will ruin the economy.. "Whose economy," might be a good question for a thinking person, no ?

a reply to: 727Sky

I think Trump can and will do what he says he's the only person in my opinion that knows how the economy works everyone else is just a politician.

You know, politics aside and also not bringing in to the equation the problems that we have with free trade...

A great deal of the decline is directly tied to automation. This has a direct effect on the number of manufacturing jobs and this scenario has been talked about and simulated for years. No matter what your profession, there is a direct effect on the number of available jobs in your sector of the economy where a machine or process has removed what was a human function.

Yes, it is lopsided in many regards, but those reasons are mostly the results of our inability and/or refusal to adjust to what is happening in technology today.

a reply to: charlyv

Do we keep trudging against change and continue to think that we can solve the economy or do we change the problems with the system and distribution in the first place?

If we don't need people anymore for jobs what do we do?

Trump is the first candidate to acknowledge the very serious problem our country has due to the decimation of the manufacturing industry.

The solution offered by our current POTUS and most other candidates is just more college - everyone should go to college. They don't seem to realize that college is not for everyone. And they don't acknowledge that college no longer guarantees a job either, as the market is flooded with college graduates.

People used to be able to earn a living wage working in manufacturing. They could support a family.
Now, those jobs are almost gone.

It is not only the lack of manufacturing jobs that is in crisis. The industry was a foundation of a structure that strengthened our economy in many ways. Manufacturing fed many other industries as a source of demand.

We used to manufacture clothes, appliances, cars, furniture. We could be somewhat self sufficient as a country. Now we are almost totally dependent on other countries to supply us with the goods we need to survive. Of course a global economy has its benefits. But not when the strength and stability of one country is totally destroyed at the benefit of other countries.

Trump understands that the future of our country is looking very bleak, and I believe he wants to fix it, and knows how to do this.

a reply to: charlyv

Actually good point; automation is taking over many jobs that were one done by hand. However I used to know a young man who worked with computer numerical control machine tools. He was in high demand and changed jobs (for more pay) it seemed just about every 6 months.. That was 4 years ago so I don't know what he has going on now..?

a reply to: charlyv

Automation has very little to do with the loss of manufacturing in the US.

Company after company has closed down factories and moved to other countries. Those other countries are manufacturing the things that used to be made in the US.

You used to find "Made in USA" tags on many things. When was the last time you saw this on clothing, shoes, appliances, or almost anything?

If automation was the cause for decline, you would still see things made in the USA, even if they were made with automation.

a reply to: onequestion

And tell me, just how much are you willing to pay for that consumer lifestyle you love so much?

As usual, it's all so simple to the simple minded.
Manufacturing jobs go where the manufacturing is cheap. That's not the US sunshine.
But wait, what if the companies just paid their manufacturers less?
Oh, but then people won't want those jobs!
So why not get immigrants who are willing to do those jobs to earn less in their first job in America (which is still 50% more than they would have been earning at home)
Oh! No, can't do that, Trump fans don't like those immigrants!

So, you see how you're in a catch-22?

You want to buy stuff cheap, the American workforce demands a higher wage, the corporation moves manufacturing overseas.

I wonder what will happen when you start closing the borders down and stop letting in hard working people willing to do those bare minimum wage jobs no Americans want to do? Do you delusionally think MORE manufacturing is somehow going to come BACK to the US?

originally posted by: charlyv

A great deal of the decline is directly tied to automation. This has a direct effect on the number of manufacturing jobs and this scenario has been talked about and simulated for years.

That is not true here at least in the UK. When I was in a shop in the 80's the products would largely state Made in Great Britain, or somewhere in Europe or Japan or the USA. Now pretty much everything says MADE IN CHINA. Forget automation.............. The plants have gone and they've gone to China.

a reply to: Rocker2013

it seemed to be working fine when people had the money to spend.

When the giant mega corps decided to go public and buy out all the competition we began seeing wages decline and jobs move overseas.

These aren't the only sectors of the economy this effects these people retrain for different jobs and further devalue the rest of the market.

a reply to: ufoorbhunter

They went to China because they devalue their currency which gives us more purchasing power there and them the ability to pay lower wages.

We got rid everything that made a mess...

*See China

originally posted by: BlueAjah
a reply to: charlyv

Automation has very little to do with the loss of manufacturing in the US.

Company after company has closed down factories and moved to other countries. Those other countries are manufacturing the things that used to be made in the US.

You used to find "Made in USA" tags on many things. When was the last time you saw this on clothing, shoes, appliances, or almost anything?

If automation was the cause for decline, you would still see things made in the USA, even if they were made with automation.

I don't claim that the conduct of our industry in moving jobs outside the US is helping matters, but much of this is cause and effect as well, where automation .... and cheaper automation is the prime mover behind much of it.

No, automation is a big deal, and has the declines in jobs "lines" correlating with increased technology. There is no doubt about it and is much more important and relevant as a root cause.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: ufoorbhunter

They went to China because they devalue their currency which gives us more purchasing power there and them the ability to pay lower wages.

Yes they did it but they did it with big consequences here in the UK. At least in the UK these consequences weren't felt in the south East (London) zone. Whole areas of our country outside of London relied in industrial production and with the move to China whole regions/cities have become redundant and local communities have been murdered. How can this be a good thing just so a select group of wealthy shareholders can marginally increase profits?