How Old Glory Can Lead Us to New Treasure
How
Old Glory can Lead Us to New Treasure
We hear America boasted about at
barbeques and family gatherings, with generations commending the values it
stands for. Indeed, there is a lot to be
proud of with our nation. The United
States lead the world in many essential economic, political and social factors. However, in the modern era, much of our
mainstream culture may actually be contributing to their-own decline, and may
not even be conscious about doing so.
Manufacturing can really help to understand some of the dramatic changes that America has undergone. A nation that once boasted of its seemingly endless supply domestic production, the United States has taken the opposite turn. Here’s what an article from The Huffington Post had to say:
"On average, 1,276 manufacturing jobs were lost every day for the past 12 years. A net of 66,486 manufacturing establishments closed, from 404,758 in 2000 down to 338,273 in 2011. In other words, on each day since the year 2000, America had, on average, 17 fewer manufacturing establishments than it had the previous day (1)."
What’s really pathetic about this is that it depicts our change in values. Corporations used to be proud to produce things in the U.S. Now, with few exceptions, CEOs are offshoring jobs without end because they can substantially increase their profit. Here’s what Jeffery Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, said in 2002, December 6:
“When I am talking to GE managers, I talk China, China, China, China, China. You need to be there. You need to people talk about it and how they get there. I am a nut on China. Outsourcing from China is going to grow to $5 billion. We are building a tech center in China. Every discussion today has to center on China. The cost basis is extremely effective. You can take an 18-cubic-foot refrigerator, make it in China, land it in the United States, and for less than we can make an 18-cubic-foot refrigerator today ourselves” (2).
This hurts us, and although many would rather not talk about it or are completely ignorant of the fact altogether, actions speak louder than words and have consequences that follow. Our shredding of domestic manufacturing is just a small piece to solving the puzzle of the shredding of our middle class. The result: a rapidly growing gap between the haves and the have-nots. To show some of the differences between America and other industrialized nations, here is an example of how Germany values their domestic manufacturing:
“Combining economy-wide measures with support for industry-specific institutions and assistance to individual manufacturers, German policy promotes a manufacturing sector in which highly paid, skilled workers make innovative products that provide value for consumers, profits for owners, and contributes to a better environment and a trade surplus for the nation. This report concludes with a survey of German policy, not to advocate a wholesale transfer of that policy to the United States but to show that it is possible to use our policy framework to design successful manufacturing policies” (3).
This is a graph
comparing America to many other industrialized nations (4):
Figure
11. Hourly Compensation in Manufacturing in 2009 U.S. Dollars
Norway (53.89)
Denmark (49.56)
Belgium (49.40)
Austria (48.04)
Germany (46.52)
Switzerland (44.29)
Finland (43.77)
Netherlands (43.50)
France (40.08)
Sweden (39.87)
Ireland (39.02)
Italy (34.97)
Australia (34.62)
United
States (33.53)
United Kingdom (30.78)
Japan (30.36)
Canada (29.60)
To illustrate
how some of our current leaders and potential leaders feel about this issue
let’s turn to Bain Capital. A recent
article by Amy Goodman depicts how Bain, and corporations like them, outsource
good American jobs in pursuit of profit.
She writes of four distraught Americans, seeking for a light at the end
of their jet-black tunnel:
“These
four were about to join a much larger group: the more than 2.4 million people
in the past decade whose U.S. jobs have been shipped to China. In their case,
the company laying them off and sending their jobs overseas is Bain Capital,
co-founded by the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney” (5).
Mr. Romney still reaps huge profits
from Bain. He could shut it down, or at
least radically change its current practices however, we see once again where
the money trail leads us.
Abraham Lincoln
once said this about impatience: “A man watches his pear-tree day after day,
impatient for the ripening of the fruit.
Let him attempt to force the process, and he may spoil both fruit and
tree. But let him patiently wait and the
ripe pear falls into his lap!” In a
sense, major corporations have “spoiled the tree” with America by lusting after
profits without concern for the consequences.
We can change this process by voting with our dollars and sense and
buying American whenever possible. There
is no sound reason why, with a shift of focus and dedication, the United States
cannot reclaim its manufacturing prominence.
Some companies, such as New Balance, have started “Made in USA” and “Assembled in USA”
production lines of sneakers. Here’s a
list of websites which sell American-made products:
Sources:
(2). The Speech: A
Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of our Middle Class,
Bernie Sanders (Nation Books. 2011).
(3).http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/2/22%20manufacturing%20helper%20krueger%20wial/0222_manufacturing_helper_krueger_wial
(4). Source: Bureau of Labor statistics,
“International Comparisons of Hourly Compensation Costs in Manufacturing,
2009”; news release, March 8, 2011, Table 1.
(5). http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/workers_feel_the_pain_of_bain_20120829/
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