We might like to think more jobs are being created because factories are producing more car parts, cockpit mechanisms and furniture, but Robert Johnson says it’s just not that simple. He’s the director of economic analysis at Morningstar.
“I mean I can’t tell you how many times I sit down and talk with our analysts and they say, ‘I mean I can’t believe it. I just went out this factory and there were like ten guys sitting around computers,’ ” he says.
Manufacturing is on a roll? Compared to two years ago [the comparison the article uses]?
This is akin to saying in amazement “the patient is showing signs of life”, after being pronounced dead in the ambulance ride to the emergency room.
This revisionist type of reporting conveniently “forgets” all the stuff we used to make IN THIS COUNTRY back in the 1950’s which we don’t make here today [TV’s, cameras, phones, cars, ball bearings, myriad plastics goods, etc, etc] and all the stuff that has been developed since the 1905’s which we don’t make here [microchips, medical equipment, cellphones, videocameras, ipods, ipads, etc, etc].
And the solution……wait for it……..MORE GOVERNMENT!
Ah yes, plot the growth in government on a chart along with the decline in manufacturing on the same chart. And you are telling me more government will now magically produce an inflection point in the manufacturing line, causing it to soar upward?
Count me a skeptic.
Job growth is virtually nil here in California’s Central Valley, and for the most part, one of the factors working against it is the lack of a transportation hub that would serve industrial growth here. The closest air freight facility, for instance, is located in San Jose, which is 85 miles across the mountains to the west of us, while the railroad left town years ago and is now concentrated in Merced. The highway system is passable, to say the least…..all of which, of course, deters companies from coming to our area. Yes, we do have major big-box stores and small businesses; all of which pay minimum wage with no benefits, and Target Stores is cutting employee hours to as few as 10 hours per week, which is a real sock in the wallet for people who depend on a paycheck. What’s the answer? Well, to start with, how about [i]small government at the Federal level?[/i]
And this means downsizing the Federal workforce by as much as a third of what it is now, starting at the top, and diverting the money saved into reducing the national debt and……oh, well, it’s too complicated to go into much further, isn’t it? The point is that we need change, and to do that, we need to change the system…..the way we do things.
Actually Cennydd13, I don’t think chopping the Federal Government is hard at all…….having the desire or will to do it is the tough part.
If I had the magic wand…..
-NASA gone! They have no mission other than praising Muslim contributions to science and math
-Dept of Energy gone! They have never created one watt of energy
-IRS gone! Collect tax as a flat tax payable to the Treasury
-EPA gone! Set environmental laws in Congress and let the states prosecute violators
-Dept of Education long gone! States and localities handle education as they see fit
-DHS gone! FBI and Treasury divide up the roles
And then after the dust settles from that we’ll take a look at making congress a part time job where politicians spend the majority of their time [gasp] back home listening to constituents.
Agreed, and how many congressmen and senators really need the extra income and exclusive health and retirement benefits that most of us don’t get? Most are lawyers, so why do they need to keep feeding at the public trough?