# Million American Jobs Project



## Meanderer (Jan 1, 2015)




----------



## Don M. (Jan 1, 2015)

Good Idea....WHEN and IF you can find something that is Actually made here.  Most of the Made in the USA stuff, anymore, is low volume, specialty items.

Clothing, and other textile manufacturing Used to be a mainstay in many of our Southern states.  Now, the corporations have found that it is more profitable to ship US cotton to Asia, make the clothes there, then ship them back to our stores.  

US brand cars, Used to be all made here, using US parts.  Now, many of the US brands, especially the economy cars, are made in Mexico, while many of the "foreign" brands are assembled here, and the profits sent overseas.  Look at the window sticker on the various brands....looking for "US Content", and many of the foreign brands are using a higher US content than many of our Ford/GM/Chrysler vehicles.  

Electronics...TV's, computers, cell phones, etc., are almost ALL made in Asia.  There are a few, High End, computers that are still assembled here...using Asian parts.  The Absolute Worst is anything made by Apple...all their stuff is made in a huge Chinese "slave labor" complex.  If someone Gave me an Apple product, I would take a hammer to it.  

Buying Made in the USA would work, IF we had such a choice for most of the products we normally buy....but checking the labels quickly shows that to be nearly impossible.  

There is only ONE way to reverse this trend.  Our government needs to reduce the Corporate Taxes to nearly nothing for companies who bring manufacturing BACK to these shores....while, at the same time, Increasing the taxes on corporations who Offshore.  Putting an increasing "Tariff" on foreign made goods would be a good added incentive to the corporations.  Only when it costs them more to make products in China, than here, will we see any real reverse of these trends.  Then, too, the American consumer Must be willing to pay a bit more for US products, and Support any move towards manufacturing here.  

Getting the government to make any such moves would be a major undertaking.  Given the number of politicians who are "owned" by our wealthy and corporations, and the favorable tax laws that have been written for them, it would take a Major, and ongoing "housecleaning" in Washington for us to ever see any progress made towards putting the American manufacturing workers back to work.


----------



## Meanderer (Jan 1, 2015)

Never said it would be easy, but small, American companies, making American products are out there.  I find them on the internet.  Never underestimate the power of the American consumer.


----------



## Don M. (Jan 1, 2015)

"Small" is the keyword for our present Manufacturing posture.  If the American worker, and our Middle Class, is ever going to begin to grow again, Small needs to be replaced with Large.


----------



## Blaze Duskdreamer (Jan 1, 2015)

What Don said.  The only real way to stop this is to stop making it the cost-effective choice for these ingrate companies who make their money off Americans but are damned if they'll give jobs to Americans.

Also, it needs to be noted that having a made in the USA label doesn't guarantee it.  You can legally slap that on anything outsourced to an US territory such as the Mariposa Islands which are a true horror story of virtually forced slave labor.

No, we need to stop these companies from these practices and just buying made in America alone won't do it.  It's a good first step but a misleading one and only a measure to use while there is no real measure in place.



Meanderer said:


> Never said it would be easy, but small, American companies, making American products are out there.  I find them on the internet.  Never underestimate the power of the American consumer.



Links?


----------



## Meanderer (Jan 1, 2015)

Don M. said:


> "Small" is the keyword for our present Manufacturing posture.  If the American worker, and our Middle Class, is ever going to begin to grow again, Small needs to be replaced with Large.


Absent also is the large pool of skilled workers needed to support a large manufacturing posture.


----------



## Don M. (Jan 1, 2015)

That's true....in our rush towards a Service Economy, basic manufacturing skills have been ignored.  Finding a skilled Welder, for example, can be a time consuming process for a manufacturer.  Our schools used to have basic shop courses in things like woodworking and metal working...now, everyone is supposed to sit at a desk and pound on a keyboard.  Then, too, much of the labor that Used to be required in the various assembly processes has been replaced by automation and robotics.  I like to watch a show on the Discovery Channel, called "How it's Made".  All I see is rows of machines cranking out the products.  The few people that appear are usually in Quality Control at the end of the line.  About the Only Skilled Labor that is required is the people needed to maintain/operate the machines.  

The BEST opportunity for putting large numbers of our people back to work in good paying jobs, would probably be a major effort to rebuild our rapidly aging infrastructure....roads, bridges, electric grid, etc.  That would take years, create 10's of thousands of good construction jobs, and cost hundreds of billions of dollars....which would, in turn be felt throughout our entire economy.  Perhaps if we concentrated more tax dollars towards our own internal needs, rather than policing the world with our military, we might do our own people some good.  We certainly need to maintain a good Defense posture, with all the whacko terrorist activity, but I don't see where we need to spend trillions on trying to save the Muslims from themselves.


----------



## Josiah (Jan 1, 2015)

Meanderer said:


> Never said it would be easy, but small, American companies, making American products are out there.  I find them on the internet.  Never underestimate the power of the American consumer.


I support the practice of buying American products, but as Don has pointed out it's a little harder than just being willing to pay a little more. And in terms of "Never underestimate the power of the American consumer" to do what? Find the cheapest product on the market. 

Be that as it may I will sincerely try to increase my consumption of goods manufactured in the US. Thanks for the reminder.


----------



## Blaze Duskdreamer (Jan 3, 2015)

Don M. said:


> That's true....in our rush towards a Service Economy, basic manufacturing skills have been ignored.  Finding a skilled Welder, for example, can be a time consuming process for a manufacturer.  Our schools used to have basic shop courses in things like woodworking and metal working...now, everyone is supposed to sit at a desk and pound on a keyboard.  Then, too, much of the labor that Used to be required in the various assembly processes has been replaced by automation and robotics.  I like to watch a show on the Discovery Channel, called "How it's Made".  All I see is rows of machines cranking out the products.  The few people that appear are usually in Quality Control at the end of the line.  About the Only Skilled Labor that is required is the people needed to maintain/operate the machines.
> 
> The BEST opportunity for putting large numbers of our people back to work in good paying jobs, would probably be a major effort to rebuild our rapidly aging infrastructure....roads, bridges, electric grid, etc.  That would take years, create 10's of thousands of good construction jobs, and cost hundreds of billions of dollars....which would, in turn be felt throughout our entire economy.  Perhaps if we concentrated more tax dollars towards our own internal needs, rather than policing the world with our military, we might do our own people some good.  We certainly need to maintain a good Defense posture, with all the whacko terrorist activity, but I don't see where we need to spend trillions on trying to save the Muslims from themselves.



You know this.  Just this.  Why do we push all our young towards desk and service jobs?  Some are being left behind who would excel at manufacturing jobs more suited to their nature.

Also raises the question of automation.  We shouldn't be left behind in the dark ages of technology but we do need to address what happens to the humans whose jobs are replaced by technology, how do we address that.  We should address that instead of ignoring it.


----------



## Don M. (Jan 3, 2015)

The days when many of our young aspired to jobs in the manufacturing sector seem to be going away.  Now, everyone wants to be an "Executive".  When reality hits home for most of these people, they find that sitting behind a desk all day barely pays enough for them to get by....and the odds of their making it to the Corporate Office are very slim.   

Automation, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence are making more and more people "obsolete" with every passing year.  Artificial Intelligence, especially, has the potential to render humans pretty much Useless.  If the advances in AI ever got to the point where computers/robots can out think humans, they will probably look at humans the same way we look at Cockroaches.  Some of our more Futuristic Thinkers, such as Stephen Hawkings, and Elon Musk are already warning about the consequences of Artificial Intelligence.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/...rtificial-intelligence-dangers_n_6255338.html

Things that were "Science Fiction" just a few decades ago, are now the norm....and who knows what all these advances will bring forth in another century...or less.  It does make a person think and wonder.


----------



## Blaze Duskdreamer (Jan 4, 2015)

Don M. said:


> The days when many of our young aspired to jobs in the manufacturing sector seem to be going away.  Now, everyone wants to be an "Executive".  When reality hits home for most of these people, they find that sitting behind a desk all day barely pays enough for them to get by....and the odds of their making it to the Corporate Office are very slim.
> 
> Automation, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence are making more and more people "obsolete" with every passing year.  Artificial Intelligence, especially, has the potential to render humans pretty much Useless.  If the advances in AI ever got to the point where computers/robots can out think humans, they will probably look at humans the same way we look at Cockroaches.  Some of our more Futuristic Thinkers, such as Stephen Hawkings, and Elon Musk are already warning about the consequences of Artificial Intelligence.
> 
> ...



Interesting.  Much as I enjoy chatting with Cleverbot when bored and much as I enjoy my housecleaning robots and entertain visions of Osima, I am troubled by this.  I have had some people say it will pretty much eventually force a new form of socialism wherein machines work and people don't, that people are given a check to live on based on their country's GNP.  I'm not sure what to think of that and, frankly, don't see it happening in capitalist countries.  The Bill Gates and Waltons of this world are going to try and keep all the wealth for themselves. without a mind to the humans their technology -- wonderful as it is -- puts out of work.  I don't know what the answer is because I don't think humans should starve for the sake of technology but I also don't think we should forego technology either.  We do have to figure out how humans are to make a living and I sure don't trust the very wealthy who now run this country.  They're all too content to let the rest of us starve and leave the remaining resources for them.


----------



## Don M. (Jan 4, 2015)

It would be interesting to be able to "time travel", and come back here in another couple hundred years.  I don't think we would recognize this planet.  But, then, if someone from the 1700's were thrown into today's world, they would also be totally lost.  

Balancing human activities and needs with this increasing automation is going to become increasingly important....as is this growing Disparity of Wealth.  Finding something for people to do, while affording them a living wage and lifestyle may be one of the greatest problems we face, in the future.


----------



## Blaze Duskdreamer (Jan 6, 2015)

Don M. said:


> It would be interesting to be able to "time travel", and come back here in another couple hundred years.  I don't think we would recognize this planet.  But, then, if someone from the 1700's were thrown into today's world, they would also be totally lost.
> 
> Balancing human activities and needs with this increasing automation is going to become increasingly important....as is this growing Disparity of Wealth.  Finding something for people to do, while affording them a living wage and lifestyle may be one of the greatest problems we face, in the future.



My greatest fear is that we'll go on ignoring it.  The gap will keep widening and those who used to work will start dying off form lack of food, shelter and medical care.  Indeed, it is already happening.  I'm damned glad to be retired and not having to look for work but I worry for my daughter and grandson's futures.  Daughter has a college degree but is working retail.  Already, we have an option of going through the computerized self-serve line and old school cashier in the supermarket chain she works in and have had it for several years.  (She's moved up from this fortunately.)  There will be the day the choice is taken away.  I always go to the human cashier not just because the self-serve computer frustrates me but because I want the human to have the job.  Grandson wants to be a cop when he grows up and has for years but can't help but wonder too when they'll find some way -- as unlikely as it seems now -- to leave that to technology.  As scary a thought as that would be.  I was a secretary for 36 years but at the end there, even I was saying secretaries will be obsolete once the old school execs who are afraid of technology retire.  When I retired three years ago, there were already computer programs for doing everything we did -- from scheduling meetings to answering the phone.  Dictation?  What's that?  There were a few people who admired my obsolete shorthand skills but just a few and they were no longer used.  Now you talk to a computer and it types everything said into a document.  

I fear that the wealthy think they no longer need those who aren't.  It used to balance in that the wealthy needed the less than wealthy to do the work for them.  Now they're fine with machinery doing it.  No troubling humans to deal with and no troubling yourself about how less fortunate humans are going to live.


----------



## Don M. (Jan 6, 2015)

With the Earths soaring human populations, and ever increasing technology and automation, the divisions between the Have's and Have Not's will continue to widen.  We already have several people chasing nearly every decent job, and there is No incentive to offer people a living wage in many occupations.  No matter how sophisticated we think we are, we cannot overcome the basic laws of Supply and Demand.  Where this all leads is anyone's guess, but it probably will result in some major upheaval in the Not Too Distant future.


----------



## Blaze Duskdreamer (Jan 8, 2015)

Don M. said:


> With the Earths soaring human populations, and ever increasing technology and automation, the divisions between the Have's and Have Not's will continue to widen.  We already have several people chasing nearly every decent job, and there is No incentive to offer people a living wage in many occupations.  No matter how sophisticated we think we are, we cannot overcome the basic laws of Supply and Demand.  Where this all leads is anyone's guess, but it probably will result in some major upheaval in the Not Too Distant future.



There are already food riots happening in some countries.  Matter of time before they reach us.  I hope I'm dead before that happens, frankly.  I'm fearing it's more imminent than that.


----------



## Meanderer (Jan 8, 2015)

Things have a way of not happening as we project them to.  Something unforeseen, good or bad will happen in spite of our best predictions.  So cheer up Blaze!


----------



## Don M. (Jan 8, 2015)

It's a tossup, between Overpopulation, and Climate Change...as to which is going to Thin out the Human Herd to a sustainable level.  We are quickly approaching a point where Something is going to give.


----------

