Frank Znidarsic wrote:
Down goes the Rail Car Shop today Sept 2010. Hundreds of good jobs
that are now forever lost.
Increased efficiency, foreign competition, restructuring. In other
works no job no more.
A story that repeats acorns this nation. How is Obama going to fix this?
Obama isn't going to fix this, and neither are any Republicans.
People do not take this problem seriously yet, and there is no public
support a solution.
I can understand your concerns about foreign competition and
restructuring. As Terry pointed out, for some reason policy makers
think it is good idea for us to buy all of our rail-cars from
overseas, which is a disgrace. The other day on "60 Minutes" they
mentioned that all of the large electric power generators are now
made overseas. That's astounding! The U.S., of all places, does not
make heavy electric equipment?!? Edison must be spinning in his
grave. (Presumably at 3000 rpm.)
I can relate to these concerns but do you really want to add
"increased efficiency" as a problem? That is a Luddite policy. It can
never work in the long term.
On the web page you wrote:
"The remains of the Berwin White coal processing plant in Windber. At
one time the local mining industry mining employed 25,000. . . ."
We don't want coal. It would be better if we could shut down the
whole industry, replacing it with nuclear power and wind power. That
might increase empoyment somewhat, but it would be better still if we
could replace it with cold fusion, which will eliminate 99% of
energy-related employment.
"The remains of the sprawling Bethlehem Steel Plant. At one time this
plant employed 18,000. I worked for a time in the Open Hearth at
Bethlehem. The pay was good. Picture shows the wheel plant. Where did
the industry go?"
You know where it went. Overseas to some extent, but much more
importantly, steel mills are far less labor intensive than they used
to be. Automation, more than anything, eliminated those jobs. But
even if it were possible, would you bring those jobs "back" and have
people do make-work jobs that machines can do better?
It is a dilemma with no easy solutions. As I remarked here before, in
the early 20th century we started to deal with it by reducing the
work week and instituting Saturdays off, but the reforms faltered. We
need things like long European vacations. Eventually, just about
everyone will have to a permanent vacation, as I said.
I think automation and technology are also contributing factors to
the increased income inequality in the U.S. and Japan. This topic is
featured in Slate magazine today. I have been worried about it for
some time. See:
http://www.slate.com/id/2266025/entry/2266026/
The original Luddite movement was in opposition to water-powered
spinning frames, introduced in the first phase of automating the
fabric industry.
George Gordon (Lord Byron) spoke out against them eloquently in the
House of Lords, in a speech should haunt us all to the present day:
<http://www.luc.edu/faculty/sjones1/byspeech.htm>http://www.luc.edu/faculty/sjones1/byspeech.htm
QUOTE:
". . . The rejected workmen, in the blindness of their ignorance,
instead of rejoicing at these improvements in arts so beneficial to
mankind, conceived themselves to be sacrificed to improvements in
mechanism. In the foolishness of their hearts they imagined that the
maintenance and well-doing of the industrious poor were objects of
greater consequence than the enrichment of a few individuals by any
improvement, in the implements of trade, which threw the workmen out
of employment, and rendered the labourer unworthy of his hire. . . ."
- Jed
