What brings jobs/work back???

[seedspreader]

Look, I am not posting this in the political section for a reason. If you want to go on a political diatribe, go over there and do it. If you want to participate in a conversation, please do so. Sure, bring up policies that you think are dangerous, but let's keep away from the "It's Lib's faults, It's Cons faults".

In my opinion, what brings jobs/work back to the US is the price of fuel.

As long as you can take scrap steel from the US... send it to China, Japan (or wherever) refine it, send it back and STILL make money from it... I just don't see the job situation changing.

I know the hope is that technology will save us, but technology works on hardware... hardware that's installed and built INTO things... and as long as those things can be sent here cheaper than they can be built here, they won't be built here.

That's a simplified version of my outlook.


What say you?

[plowjockey]

IMO, it's simply labor costs and regulatory/saftey/health costs.

Closing a U.S factory and simply saying "make it in China", is a pretty quick way to fatten the bottom line.

Since it's not very likely, that we will work, in relatively unregulated factories, for $2 and hour (or $2 a day), the only feasible way, is if the costs of manufactureing ELSEWHERE, become so high, that it makes sense to move the factories back here.

The latter is really not even that feasible, since much of the productd made will now be consumed worldwide, not just by U.S. consumers.

FWIW, nearly all steel now made in the U.S., is recycled scrap.

[Sonshine]

I think the American people have got to get away from the mentality that government, whether R's or D's, should not be involved in business. I've stated several times that the reason we see so many of our industries going overseas is because American's EXPECT to be paid top dollar, but want to pay bottom dollar when they purchase things. Commerce can't work that way.

I don't have the answers, but know that government has only made the problem worse with all the entitlement programs. I believe we need to be weaned off the entitlements and get back to producing rather than just be a nation of consumers.

[pancho]

It is just plain business. It is cheaper to produce anything overseas and ship it here. Not much we can do until the costs change. Don't know if it will be transportation costs, increased labor costs overseas, or lower wages in the U.S.

[MJsLady]

First close the border. Let Americans work construction and gardening and roofing and so on again

second higher tariffs on imported goods, high enough to make them equal our labor costs

third, break the big unions who make such huge demands that businesses can either flee the US or lay off workers to meet them or avoid them.

[Terri]

A stable government that does not wig out and panic, say we are prosperous one day and on the very next day say we are on the verge of collapse, or pass bills withpout reading them?

Insecure people leave their wallets in their pockets. No demand for goods and services mean fewer jobs. The spiral goes downwards.

Secure people buy bicycles for their kids and go on Sunday drives in the country. Secure people buy scouting supplies for their kids and the odd bottle of fine wine for themselves. And the spiral goes upwards.

Too many of us are watching Washington for the next bombshell and keeping our wallets in our pockets as much as possible, because we are not secure onough to spend anything not vital.

[SquashNut]

In my opinion its the idea that what I spend my money on is worth the time it takes to earn that money.
I don't want to waste my life to earn money and spend it on some thing that will fall apart or poison my family.
So when they either start making quality items again, I might see myself spending more money.
And it's up to the stores to purchase quality items to self, just as much as it is up to the producers to make it. Right now I really see what is happening as the consumer sending a message, that they are tired of wasting the time spent away from their familys on junk.

[tgmr05]

The freedom and ability to pursue your dream, negotiate costs with suppliers/employees, while making enough money to live better than you remember as a child - or at least more than you can make flipping burgers at McDs. The more infringement on any of the above, and the less likely jobs will be created, or come back.

[The Paw]

Originally Posted by seedspreader

Look, I am not posting this in the political section for a reason. If you want to go on a political diatribe, go over there and do it. If you want to participate in a conversation, please do so. Sure, bring up policies that you think are dangerous, but let's keep away from the "It's Lib's faults, It's Cons faults".

In my opinion, what brings jobs/work back to the US is the price of fuel.

As long as you can take scrap steel from the US... send it to China, Japan (or wherever) refine it, send it back and STILL make money from it... I just don't see the job situation changing.

I know the hope is that technology will save us, but technology works on hardware... hardware that's installed and built INTO things... and as long as those things can be sent here cheaper than they can be built here, they won't be built here.

That's a simplified version of my outlook.


What say you?

It is a bit of "six of one, half dozen of the other". If the price of fuel goes up globally, then the price of imported good will be affected and it becomes cheaper to produce them domestically. At the same time, the higher fuel costs will reduce disposable income and increase cost for items already made domestically, putting a drag on job growth.

I would support a higher fuel price for carbon based fuels because it makes local production somewhat more feasible, helps the planet, and is the fastest way to modify certain consumer behaviours.

In terms of other policies that will encourage job growth, I would think that

(a) investment in the knowledge economy which is insulated from fuel prices,

(b) investment in green technologies and the conversion to alternative fuels. The switchover will be labour intensive, much of it skilled labour.

(c) long term support for international treaties or agreements setting minimum standards for labour conditions, environmental protection, and safety standards.

would all help job creation.

I read a study a month or so ago. It did some analysis and found that doing energy efficiency retro-fits for low income homes created a 7:1 economic multiplier effect (compared to about 3:1 for a new manufacturing plant).

[haypoint]

Henry Ford did it at the turn of the 1900s. He paid a higher wage, $5. Instead of $2. This gave the workers spending power. They became home owners, bought cars, furniture, refrigerators. This created more manufacturing jobs. We had an economic boom. The middle class grew and grew. We became consumers. Tariffs protected the products made here.
For thousands of years before, the Middle Class was very, very small. Suddenly it all changed. We had jobs and growth. It was this economic growth that created our huge manufacturing capacity. This infrastructure gave us a superior position when we needed to switch over to supply the WWII effort. Also, home owners are more willing to fight a war that protects the middle class. Hard to get surfs to fight to the death for some distant King.
Recently we have seen manufacturing jobs leave the country. A hundred years ago, we were an oil exporter. We have 15 million people in this country that are mailing billions of dollars back to their home country. We export raw products and import finished goods. China won’t accept most things made in this country, protecting their jobs, but we are expected not to notice the thousands of tons of poor quality products that land on our docks each day.
Jobs will return when we all start working for the wages of a third world country. But then who will buy those products? Not us.
Little known fact I saw on TV today, “ Most politicians are not economists.” Well, that ‘splains a lot.

[Old Vet]

Reduce the regulations that are driving jobs over sea. Many here don't think there are enough but they drive jobs oversea. I know because one of my former jobs was sent to Mexico or China because of the regulations that they were going to abide with. You can't find a place in the US that will make a Lamp (Light Bulbs) not because they can't be made cheaply enough but because of the regulations that EPA and OSHA put on them.

[Nevada]

People can't get back to work without consumer confidence. We don't have it, and we're not going to have it until the rest of the world gets it. I don't believe that there is a lot any government can do to change the fact that it will take 5 years or more to recover from this depression.

[seedspreader]

Originally Posted by Nevada

People can't get back to work without consumer confidence. We don't have it, and we're not going to have it until the rest of the world gets it. I don't believe that there is a lot any government can do to change the fact that it will take 5 years or more to recover from this depression.

Once consumer confidence is back where will the jobs come from?

[MoonRiver]

Originally Posted by seedspreader

Once consumer confidence is back where will the jobs come from?

I don't think most of the jobs will come back. In my adult lifetime, our economy has been boom and bust. The most recent booms were housing in 1970's, military buildup in 80's, Internet in 1990's, and housing in mid 2000's. Each boom is followed by a bust and then a new bubble gets created, that bubble pops and the cycle repeats.

The only way the jobs will come back any time soon is if there is a new bubble created. The only possibility I can see is natural gas. This would affect the auto/truck industry, oil & gas pipeline, exploration, drilling, lng, shipping, ports, education, heavy construction, light construction, manufacturing, petrochemicals, and several other industries.

The Obama administration tried to create a green energy bubble, but no matter how much money they pumped into it, there just wasn't enough real demand.

The other possibility is to develop something we can make and sell to China - like clean coal technology. We know China and India are going to be huge air polluters, so we should be the ones to sell them the equipment to minimize pollution. And we sell them the coal too. O don't believe this would be big enough to create all the jobs we need. Natural gas is the only possibility I can see.

If there was a major breakthrough in green energy, that might do it if we actually manufactured in the US. But more likely, the manufacturing would be elsewhere. That's why I like natural gas. Most of the jobs HAVE to be US jobs.

[MO_cows]

Basically there are 2 sources of job creation. New business or technology creating new jobs, or expansion of existing business/technology. Personally I would like to see more small businesses that create a few jobs each and keep the money flowing around a local area than big business. Corporate America is too likely to change course and have mass layoffs.

[MoonRiver]

Originally Posted by MO_cows

Basically there are 2 sources of job creation. New business or technology creating new jobs, or expansion of existing business/technology. Personally I would like to see more small businesses that create a few jobs each and keep the money flowing around a local area than big business. Corporate America is too likely to change course and have mass layoffs.

There are almost 15 million unemployed. Thats an awful lot of small businesses that would have to open and hire real quick to get us out of this mess.

[poppy]

Demand must pick up before hiring will rise, but demand is not going up for several reasons. First, the high number of unemployed has removed many consumers from the market. Second, the record low interest rates means even those with decent savings have taken a cut and that hurts demand. Consider someone with 200K in a 401K or other savings who is using the interest as retirement income. If they invested it in a CD 5 years ago at 5%, it was paying them $10K in interest. Most of those CD's have expired or will shortly. That same $200K invested in the current 1% range would only provide $2K in interest income. That is an $8K income loss and that money would have been spent on goods and services. Third, there is not much new technology out there wanted by the masses. Over the years, we had a steady stream of things from radio, tv, computers, etc. that appealed to the masses. Everyone who wants one of those items already has at least one. What new technology is in demand now?

[clovis]

One of the biggest problems we have against job creation is the artificially pegged Chinese yuan to the US dollar.

Anyone that has studied this will agree that this is a big, big problem.

On a different note, the trade policies and agreements that our beloved politicians have gotten us into over the years present another massive problem...and I'm not talking about NAFTA. (NAFTA is a big problem within itself.) I'm referring to world trade agreements. For example, we can't export egg products to a certain country, and they cannot import three cylinder diesel trucks to us. This is a made up example, but you get my drift.

[Beeman]

Without gov't protection of our economy nothing will bring jobs back, that is until we lower to the living and working conditions of the global competition. Not where I want to see it go but that's about it. We're a nation with a majority of workers being sold out. Just look at what's going on as far as wages and benefits in the last decade or so. We were the world's consumers but without money and security we're not going to consume. The middle class has run out of money options. It started with wives working part time adding spending money, then it went to both people working full time and then overtime. Along with that came consumer credit and the overinflated housing market which they could borrow against. All of the while the jobs were disappearing as we bought more and more imported goods. Our companies felt no social obligation only a profit obligation so they sold us out.

[clovis]

Okay, I thought of another one, even though you all will think I'm crazy:

Corporate America and big business are hurting our economy worse that we all think. They control more of the economy than we realize. Our economy, you could argue, is controlled by big business.

Corporate America has:

1. Created unbelievable downward pressure on wages. Many years ago, a short order cook could make a decent wage and support a family. Today, you'll be lucky to earn minimum wage to flip hamburgers, without any benefits.

2. Stifled competition.

3. Sent our jobs overseas.

4. Have run small business out of business, as Walmart and Lowe's has done.

5. Created a business atmosphere where the small business cannot compete, especially with buying power.