We could see this coming years ago. It was obvious in the “80s that Americans were overpaid by global standards. Europe and Asia had recovered from the bombings of WW II and their factories had been rebuilt more modern than ours. Unfortunately no one dared to say so. The auto industry was turning out crap and asking Americans to not buy Japanese because that wasn’t patriotic – not a sustainable argument. Personally, I actually looked forward to a recession to correct this thinking before it would be too late. America was not competitive and relied only on advanced technology to stay ahead, yet Europe was quickly catching up. Retraining wasn’t happening. Instead autoworkers and coal miners seemed to think that they had some right to the same job as daddy had. (Which by the way reminds me of the example of the Truman years when there were strikes in support of having firemen on the new diesel engines.) It was necessary for labor to downsize – which it did with many “give backs” and loss of health benefits, and unaffordable pension plans. So far that has not been enough and the wealthy aren’t doing anything out of patriotism. The economy continues to leak jobs overseas and to robotics Nor will blue sky talk of bringing jobs home and making the country great again help (short of winning another world war.) Of course I’m not saying that the country must conform to the standard of living of the third world (I might prefer a war to that), but we should remember that the promise of America is opportunity not entitlement: a house in Levittown or next door to Archy Bunker and Ralph Kramden, not a mac-mansion and a restaurant dinner any time one just feels like one. That has to be earned and if we are to get anywhere it will not be done by simply pushing paper (or paper currencies.) I think that I may be the only one who regrets seeing the Hudson River denuded of freighters and one of the world’s greatest ports converted into a riverside park. I have no better idea than anyone else how we can make stuff again but making stuff is basic to a good economy. Germany makes stuff. It is much higher quality than anything coming out of Asia yet Europeans happily pay the price and Germany thrives. Why can’t we, except that US business makes higher profits by dealing with manufacturers of cheap junk in Asia? No, I have no magic solution. But it doesn’t help to ignore the facts.
Like · Reply · 1 · October 19, 2016