Some of the highest paying jobs in America are created by companies that make things. Manufacturing has been a mainstay in the U.S. economy since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Some say that manufacturing is passé, that technology is the future, and that it doesn’t matter if manufacturing dries up and blows away.
The flaw in those arguments (actually there are numerous flaws) is that one of the biggest users of technology today is manufacturers.
Modern manufacturing operations are the showcase for innovative technology. Gone are the days, for instance, when hundreds of laborers engaged in the back-breaking activity of wrestling with logs in a forest products plant. A typical worker in those facilities today is more of a technician than a log wrestler.
State-of-the-art machinery moves the logs, determines the best possible value that can be extracted from them, and turns them into profitable products. The same is true of many industries, such as steel, durable goods, petroleum refining, and chemical manufacturing. Technology is the driving force that has increased productivity in American manufacturing, which has kept us a global leader in manufacturing output.
As noted above, advancements in technology have led directly to a diminution of manufacturing employment in the U.S. Many Americans believe that most of the manufacturing job losses—and there have been millions in the last few decades—are due to plants closing in the U.S. and moving to less-developed countries.
Certainly there has been some of that phenomenon occurring, particularly with low-technology industries. But, until this point, the majority of manufacturing job losses has been due more to productivity advances through technology than out-sourcing manufacturing jobs to foreign countries.
That may change soon. Government policies can have a major impact on any industry, and manufacturing is no exception.
Several issues pending in Congress could accelerate the departure of manufacturing industries and jobs from the U.S. Enactment of “cap and trade” legislation tops the list.
If energy costs rise exponentially for manufacturers in the U.S., companies will undoubtedly look more favorably at countries that do not artificially raise their cost of doing business by raising their energy costs.
Another federal issue that will impact the future of American manufacturing is the “card check” legislation pending in Congress. Some manufacturers work with a union agreement. Others do not. Manufacturers are not generally concerned about the wages involved with a collective bargaining agreement. They already have some of the highest wage scales in the private sector.
What troubles them are the voluminous work rules that come with a union contract. These contract requirements inhibit the productivity advancements necessary for manufacturing to survive in the modern world.
The current health care debate also has the full attention of U.S. manufacturers. The vast majority of our domestic manufacturers provide quality health insurance coverage for their workers. Proposals in Congress would mandate that coverage and possibly tax manufacturers for providing it.
The manufacturing community is very wary of government-imposed mandates from past experience involving many issues. Limiting their ability to design quality, affordable insurance plans for their workers—and possibly making them pay taxes to provide it—will not make them more likely to keep or expand their operations in the U.S.
If America is to remain a world leader in making things, government officials should step lightly when considering policies that could make more of our best jobs leave our shores.
Improving the quality of education, encouraging more research and development, and maintaining job-friendly tax policies will help keep manufacturing jobs in America. Passing some of the proposals pending in Congress will definitely have the opposite effect.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Independents Are Taking a Second Look
By Dan Juneau
Presidential campaigns are in some respects like a gruesome war. Large, well-financed armies of partisans slug it out in battles designed to rally their voters into action and to drive down the favorable impressions of the opposing candidate.
But the growing trend in modern elections centers on securing the votes of independent voters not affiliated with either party. This block of voters has increased significantly in the last few decades. They tend to be more conservative than most Democrats on fiscal issues and more liberal than most Republicans on social issues. Recent Democratic successes in both congressional and presidential elections have revolved around securing a majority of these independent voters to back Democrats.
A recent public opinion survey by the Gallup organization contains a clear message that independent voters may be becoming concerned about their decision to place one-party rule in the hands of the Democrats.
The poll, conducted July 17-19, had some interesting findings. Some 59 percent of the respondents said that the Obama administration’s proposals called for too much federal spending. Not surprisingly, 90 percent of Republicans felt that way, compared to only 28 percent of Democrats. But a solid 66 percent of independents expressed strong concern about the high level of federal spending.
In a similar vein, 52 percent of the respondents felt that the Obama agenda was moving toward too great an expansion of the federal government. Again, 83 percent of Republicans held that view while only 17 percent of Democrats concurred. But 60 percent of independent voters expressed a concern that the federal government is growing too large, too fast.
Other recent polling data show that the president’s popularity is falling, support for his handling of key issues is diminished, and the generic ballot question of whether the voters would prefer a Democrat or Republican in Congress is moving more in the direction of the Republicans. Next year is an election year in which every House member and roughly a third of the Senate face elections. That being the case, this recent Gallup poll should be a wake-up call for the president and the congressional members of his party.
Americans have recently seen the enactment of a “stimulus” package totaling almost $800 billion. But they have seen few positive results from that huge amount of government spending.
Voters have also seen the House pass a thousand-page energy/climate change bill that will expand the government’s role in the economy and pit winners against losers in various states and industries. And now Congress is debating perhaps the largest and most expensive expansion of government ever in the form of health care legislation, including a public insurance option backed by the federal treasury.
Many Democrats in Congress are getting uncomfortable with the rush to enact huge new spending programs that will lead to an increase of direct government intervention in the economy. The Gallup poll indicates those Democrats have good reasons to feel that way. The president and the Democratic leaders in Congress are getting concerned that public opinion is shifting away from them on these crucial issues.
They are trying to ram the health care legislation through before members of Congress go home for their August recess. But moderate Democrats are not moving lockstep behind President Obama and the Democratic leadership at this juncture.
One of the major reasons why they are getting cold feet is the fact that they know they must have the votes of those fiscally conservative independent voters if they are going to retain the seats that many of them won from Republicans in the last few elections.
Presidential campaigns are in some respects like a gruesome war. Large, well-financed armies of partisans slug it out in battles designed to rally their voters into action and to drive down the favorable impressions of the opposing candidate.
But the growing trend in modern elections centers on securing the votes of independent voters not affiliated with either party. This block of voters has increased significantly in the last few decades. They tend to be more conservative than most Democrats on fiscal issues and more liberal than most Republicans on social issues. Recent Democratic successes in both congressional and presidential elections have revolved around securing a majority of these independent voters to back Democrats.
A recent public opinion survey by the Gallup organization contains a clear message that independent voters may be becoming concerned about their decision to place one-party rule in the hands of the Democrats.
The poll, conducted July 17-19, had some interesting findings. Some 59 percent of the respondents said that the Obama administration’s proposals called for too much federal spending. Not surprisingly, 90 percent of Republicans felt that way, compared to only 28 percent of Democrats. But a solid 66 percent of independents expressed strong concern about the high level of federal spending.
In a similar vein, 52 percent of the respondents felt that the Obama agenda was moving toward too great an expansion of the federal government. Again, 83 percent of Republicans held that view while only 17 percent of Democrats concurred. But 60 percent of independent voters expressed a concern that the federal government is growing too large, too fast.
Other recent polling data show that the president’s popularity is falling, support for his handling of key issues is diminished, and the generic ballot question of whether the voters would prefer a Democrat or Republican in Congress is moving more in the direction of the Republicans. Next year is an election year in which every House member and roughly a third of the Senate face elections. That being the case, this recent Gallup poll should be a wake-up call for the president and the congressional members of his party.
Americans have recently seen the enactment of a “stimulus” package totaling almost $800 billion. But they have seen few positive results from that huge amount of government spending.
Voters have also seen the House pass a thousand-page energy/climate change bill that will expand the government’s role in the economy and pit winners against losers in various states and industries. And now Congress is debating perhaps the largest and most expensive expansion of government ever in the form of health care legislation, including a public insurance option backed by the federal treasury.
Many Democrats in Congress are getting uncomfortable with the rush to enact huge new spending programs that will lead to an increase of direct government intervention in the economy. The Gallup poll indicates those Democrats have good reasons to feel that way. The president and the Democratic leaders in Congress are getting concerned that public opinion is shifting away from them on these crucial issues.
They are trying to ram the health care legislation through before members of Congress go home for their August recess. But moderate Democrats are not moving lockstep behind President Obama and the Democratic leadership at this juncture.
One of the major reasons why they are getting cold feet is the fact that they know they must have the votes of those fiscally conservative independent voters if they are going to retain the seats that many of them won from Republicans in the last few elections.
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