"Tom Gardner" wrote in message
. ..

"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...
An article in today's NYT...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/ma...l?ref=magazine

...finally gives some concrete answers to the question of what
manufacturing workers should be retraining for, if they're expecting to
work in a growing sector of the economy:

"Why do presidential candidates touting their concern for the economy
pose with factory workers rather than with ballet troupes? After all, the
U.S. now has more choreographers (16,340) than metal-casters (14,880),
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More people make their
livings shuffling and dealing cards in casinos (82,960) than running
lathes (65,840), and there are almost three times as many security guards
(1,004,130) as machinists (385,690). Whereas 30 percent of Americans
worked in manufacturing in 1950, fewer than 15 percent do now. The
economy as politicians present it is a folkloric thing."

So, the answer is clear: It's time to learn to dance or shuffle. Practice
those pirouettes, and always deal from the top of the deck, ya'll.

http://www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Pirouette

--
Ed Huntress


A manufacturing chicken/egg. Parallel pressure on manufacturing from
competition and unions create an atmosphere for increased automation and
other enhancement from technology.

Anything you can think of creates an atmosphere for increased automation.
When I was involved in selling Wasino lathes to Mexico, they didn't want to
hear about manual machines. CNC, with gantry-type autoloaders only.

I can only draw from my own limited experience but I think it's
indicative. I know I've had to replace over 80% of my workforce in the
past 25 years with automation or outsourcing to suppliers with better
technology. I imagine most companies have had to do the same. The price
of automation keeps getting cheaper and cheaper and the cost of employees
keeps getting higher and higher.

It wouldn't matter if the cost of employees kept getting cheaper, either, as
long as automation is getting cheaper faster. And it is.

And, the quality of employee has continually diminished. Nine of ten new
applicants can't do simple math or read a tape measure. The union has
pushed wages and benefits way beyond reasonable. It's amazing that I can
easily justify a $40,000 budget for some little sub-system that will
eliminate a number of production man-hours because the pay-back is so
quick.

Why are you amazed? That's where we've been heading for 100 years. It's just
happening faster because of computers.

The education system and disintegration of value systems is mostly to
blame in my opinion and corrupt, self-serving unions that force companies
into finding solutions that don't include union people. The unions have
created their own demise like a snake eating itself. As a result, all
those jobs just go away. Did you want fries with that?

Pfffht. The jobs would go away anyway. That's just the advance of
technology. Do you think that, if it wasn't for unions, we wouldn't have
computers, and everything would just be great?

You're just looking for something or someone to blame, Tom. The course of
technological advance wouldn't go backwards because employees got better.

--
Ed Huntress