Largest factor in decline of manufacturing jobs?

[JerryBaumchen 1,466]

Hi Mark,

Quote

Learning to operate and maintain robotic welders

A real world, true story. Back in the early '80's we had a contract to fab up some large steel structures. It would require many long ( 20 ft + in length ), up to 1 1/4" inch thick, multi-pass welds.

The contractor was a small shop with about 10 guys working there. It was my project. I was talking to the owner about the weld procedures and he commented on how many man-hours it would take to make all of those welds with hand-held, wire-feed welders.

In the steel fab world, a lot of shops had/have a small 'crawler' that runs on portable tracks & is used for cutting steel plate. Back in those days, they were a very common tool in a steel fab shop.

So I mentioned to the owner to consider using the crawler to do the welds with a submerged arc procedure. He gave me a funny look and we talked about it some more; as it would require his modifying his crawler.

Two weeks later, I was again visiting his shop to see how things were going and he had the crawler up and welding. He had this method doing the welding of what would normally would require three welders to complete. He had one guy monitoring the crawler as it welded along.

This is just one example of why the jobs went away; and they are not coming back.

Jerry Baumchen

[normiss 893]

Hey Jerry,

I really miss the old main frame days of field service, but the industry changed.
So I did too.


Thanks Jerry.

[JerryBaumchen 1,466]

Hi Mark,

Quote

the industry changed. So I did too.

Darwin called is survival of the fittest.

The old, white men who voted for Trump so that he would bring back the jobs cannot see the future. And the vast majority do not want to change.

Change or perish.

Jerry Baumchen

[rushmc 23]

JerryBaumchen

Hi Mark,

Quote

the industry changed. So I did too.

Darwin called is survival of the fittest.

The old, white men who voted for Trump so that he would bring back the jobs cannot see the future. And the vast majority do not want to change.

Change or perish.

Jerry Baumchen

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[rushmc 23]

In a nutshell?

The government and its taxation and regulation are what is killing American manufacturing jobs.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[quade 4]

rushmc

In a nutshell?

The government and its taxation and regulation are what is killing American manufacturing jobs.

Nonsense. When you can ship the job overseas for 1/8th the cost or you can replace a human with a robot which can perform a job at 1/3rd the cost of the human and do it without 24 hours a day, no amount of cuts in pay/benefits, tax reduction, nor cuts in regulation will ever be able to compete with that.

I mean, unless you're willing to turn the US into a 3rd world country.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[rushmc 23]

quade

***In a nutshell?

The government and its taxation and regulation are what is killing American manufacturing jobs.

Nonsense. When you can ship the job overseas for 1/8th the cost or you can replace a human with a robot which can perform a job at 1/3rd the cost of the human and do it without 24 hours a day, no amount of cuts in pay/benefits, tax reduction, nor cuts in regulation will ever be able to compete with that.

I mean, unless you're willing to turn the US into a 3rd world country.

Us workers can compete with anybody in the world if they're givena playing field that is near even. Our government has not given us that Level Playing Field through taxation and regulation. The nonsense is yours

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[quade 4]

rushmc

Us workers can compete with anybody in the world if they're givena playing field that is near even. Our government has not given us that Level Playing Field through taxation and regulation. The nonsense is yours

Not even close, Rush. Not even close.

http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2008/around_the_world/

http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/2013/05/17/who-made-your-t-shirt-the-hidden-cost-of-cheap-fashion/

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/manufacturing-around-the-world/?_r=0

http://www.bain.com/Images/BB_Making_move_low-cost_countries.pdf

And if you want to see what it's like to work where a lot of US jobs went . . .

https://youtu.be/lKseBx1YPgo

Is that really how you envision the US?

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[PhreeZone 20]

Which regulation or taxation policy specifically is causing the exiting of manufacturing from the US?

Details are needed to understand which policies you want to have changed.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[ryoder 1,590]

PhreeZone

Which regulation or taxation policy specifically is causing the exiting of manufacturing from the US?

Details are needed to understand which policies you want to have changed.

Probably those pesky rules forbidding polluting the environment, and hiring children.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[wmw999 2,587]

And don't forget paying whatever an unregulated market will bear.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[coerce 0]

PhreeZone

In light of the recent election results I am curious what the general opinion is on the single largest cause of the decline of manufacturing jobs in the rust belt states and the best way to address the issue. A lot of promises to bring the jobs back were made during the election but the root causes never seemed to be discussed and that is now leading to a lack of a clear policy to address those issues.

I unfortunately feel that the largest cause of the decline is tied to the automation of jobs. This means that the jobs just can not come back at all if they are able to be replaced directly by technology.

True, but Trump has talked about infrastructure.

Back in the 90s to early 2000s, Dennis Archer had big development plans for Detroit. Often those plans involved suburban developers (white people). Because of that, he was eventually outed as an Uncle Tom and many of those plans fell through. Kwamee Kilpatrick was then elected - a corrupt thug now serving 28 years in federal prison.

The people of Detroit have finally raised their voice against the history of corruption that has plagued our city and voted in Mike Duggan to fulfill the legacy of Dennis "Uncle Tom" Archer.

The downtown area has been rebuilding to attract high-end businesses and upscale residents for the much needed tax revenue to sustain the city.

If I remember correctly, the only thing Trumped seemed adamant about in his victory speech was infrastructure and development -it's probably the only thing he knows.

If he can bring mass development to the US and rebuild our infrastructure, then that may be all we need. I'm not holding my breathe, but at some point you gotta be positive.

If you're not going to revolt, then why not take this opportunity to make the best of it. Let's hope that we continue to be wrong about this guy, eh?