What's made "in the USA" today...
Good evening everyone!
Today I stumbled across an article posted the other day on MSN news which talked about the current state of the manufacturing sector of the US economy, especially where it stands not only with the world, but also where it stands compared to where it was 20+ years ago. I have to admit that I both like and dislike these kinds of articles at the same time. I like these articles because I find them very informative, but I hate them because they literally "go for the throat" by driving home the point of how destructive this world economic crisis has been-what I mean by this second point is that these articles ( especially this one I'm about to share in particular) do not hold back any figures when it comes to talking about how many people have lost/ are going to lose their jobs. And the justification for why the companies will cut/are cutting jobs is usually the same: the companies must downsize in order to maximize their profits and cut labor costs, and if you're going to talk about this, then sooner or later the subject of "outsourcing" (or what one of my favorite businessmen calls "globalization") comes to the table. For those of you who have grown to know me a bit by somewhat keeping up with comments that I post on both my own as well as friends' blogs, you already know where I stand on the issue of "globalization". But for those of you "newbies" just reading my comments/posts, I will sum up my stand in a simple statement: A country must strive for a balance between its individualistic (patriotism) strategies and its globalization (outsourcing) strategies in order to keep a strong middle class within it as well as a limit on illegal immigration. If a country is very individualistic, having an attitude such as "let's take care of our own before taking care of others" then it better be a high exporter and/or produce well over half of its goods within its own borders if it is to survive. It national "in-house" production goes down and the country imports more than it exports, then the businesses that produce end up outsourcing their jobs to other less-developed countries in order to cut costs (taxes and other costs) and maximize profits ( use the cheapest labor possible to make and sell the most goods). I have mentioned this quite a few times on friends' posts, but for those just reading my comments, America about 20+ years ago was more individualistic. She produced and exported about 80% of her goods "in-house" (according to this article about the US manufacturing sector today) which at that time made her one of if not THE strongest players in the world. Well when the 90's rolled around, big corporations came to power in America and these bought up the smaller businesses/factories and took their jobs overseas (or "outsourced" them) to underdeveloped countries like Mexico, China, India and this trend continued well into the start of our current 21st century and on into the present day. From the 90's until today America became more of a "globalized" society. And what compounded America's "globalization" was also an surge in immigration, mostly illegal (with well over half of the immigrants that entered America since the 90's undocumented ) to work on farms or small, fledgling businesses for half the pay (or less) of an American worker if chosen to do the same jobs. Right now, America's in-house production (and export) percentage in the manufacturing sector sits at 65% with items produced being mostly large items like farm machinery, airplane parts, pipes. Here's the article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29226344/ Please send your thoughts/comments my way. Take care and have a great day everyone!
Best wishes,
Heather
Today I stumbled across an article posted the other day on MSN news which talked about the current state of the manufacturing sector of the US economy, especially where it stands not only with the world, but also where it stands compared to where it was 20+ years ago. I have to admit that I both like and dislike these kinds of articles at the same time. I like these articles because I find them very informative, but I hate them because they literally "go for the throat" by driving home the point of how destructive this world economic crisis has been-what I mean by this second point is that these articles ( especially this one I'm about to share in particular) do not hold back any figures when it comes to talking about how many people have lost/ are going to lose their jobs. And the justification for why the companies will cut/are cutting jobs is usually the same: the companies must downsize in order to maximize their profits and cut labor costs, and if you're going to talk about this, then sooner or later the subject of "outsourcing" (or what one of my favorite businessmen calls "globalization") comes to the table. For those of you who have grown to know me a bit by somewhat keeping up with comments that I post on both my own as well as friends' blogs, you already know where I stand on the issue of "globalization". But for those of you "newbies" just reading my comments/posts, I will sum up my stand in a simple statement: A country must strive for a balance between its individualistic (patriotism) strategies and its globalization (outsourcing) strategies in order to keep a strong middle class within it as well as a limit on illegal immigration. If a country is very individualistic, having an attitude such as "let's take care of our own before taking care of others" then it better be a high exporter and/or produce well over half of its goods within its own borders if it is to survive. It national "in-house" production goes down and the country imports more than it exports, then the businesses that produce end up outsourcing their jobs to other less-developed countries in order to cut costs (taxes and other costs) and maximize profits ( use the cheapest labor possible to make and sell the most goods). I have mentioned this quite a few times on friends' posts, but for those just reading my comments, America about 20+ years ago was more individualistic. She produced and exported about 80% of her goods "in-house" (according to this article about the US manufacturing sector today) which at that time made her one of if not THE strongest players in the world. Well when the 90's rolled around, big corporations came to power in America and these bought up the smaller businesses/factories and took their jobs overseas (or "outsourced" them) to underdeveloped countries like Mexico, China, India and this trend continued well into the start of our current 21st century and on into the present day. From the 90's until today America became more of a "globalized" society. And what compounded America's "globalization" was also an surge in immigration, mostly illegal (with well over half of the immigrants that entered America since the 90's undocumented ) to work on farms or small, fledgling businesses for half the pay (or less) of an American worker if chosen to do the same jobs. Right now, America's in-house production (and export) percentage in the manufacturing sector sits at 65% with items produced being mostly large items like farm machinery, airplane parts, pipes. Here's the article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29226344/ Please send your thoughts/comments my way. Take care and have a great day everyone!
Best wishes,
Heather