On Sat, 4 Oct 2014 08:53:59 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

snip

Those unwilling or unqualified to participate in manufacturing go to
great lengths to discredit its contribution to the Middle Class and
adequate family income.
http://hive.slate.com/hive/made-amer...ollar-industry
While the end result is the same, i.e. loss of high-pay high
value added jobs and local tax base, this may well be due to
an incorrect theory/ideology. A clean, safe, post
industrial economy where everyone works in an air
conditioned office designing web sites is sooooooooo
appealing.

"[T]here is such strong bias against manufacturing work among adults
who advise young people about career choices, and skilled workers are
in such short supply."
Even though I spent the first half of my working life in
manufacturing [automotive and HD truck components], as a
educator I advised students against a career in
manufacturing because of the limited future. When you are
giving career advise, ethically you must advise the student
on the basis of what is most likely beneficial to them
individually, and what is, not what ought.

IS(r)I or Import Substitution and (re)Industrialization
appears to be *THE* key for the few nations pulling
themselves out of the debt trap in which they were mired as
a result of the various global "get rich quick schemes," and
international debt consolidation/refi scams. This is
particularly true where the export of raw materials are also
being progressively limited to "encourage" domestic
processing/fabrication, and the jobs/tax base and facilities
this produces.

Two examples are Lithium battery production in Argentina and
Nickel refining in Indonesia http://tinyurl.com/okgc4fv.


This raises the question "why is the U.S. exporting shale
gas/ethelene to make polyethylene which we them re import."


What we really have is achievement inequality, but admitting that
won't get you elected.
Sounds good, but what specific quantifiable and measurable
achievements are we talking about? No matter how hard they
try, the vast majority of people will never be able to play
golf as well as Tiger Woods (and if golf were not currently
a popular sport, and integrated, Tiger would be on food
stamps too).

-jsw


--
Unka' George

"Gold is the money of kings,
silver is the money of gentlemen,
barter is the money of peasants,
but debt is the money of slaves"

-Norm Franz, "Money and Wealth in the New Millenium"