Our Foundation Is Cracking » Real Jobs for Americans.
Many wealthy people have been asked if money can buy happiness. Most answer that they have as many problems as anyone else, but that the money makes their problems easier to handle. I believe that the same statement applies to National, State, and Local Governments. The issues affecting our country are well known- banking and credit crisis, exploding healthcare costs, huge government budget deficits, and large unfunded entitlement liabilities-however, a rapidly growing economy can make them much easier to solve. All of these issues are occurring in the worst economy since the 1930’s. The best solution to these seemingly monumental problems is a growing economy and people becoming wealthier.
How did the largest, most dynamic economy get into this situation? I believe that after 35 years of running current account deficits (goods and services traded with the world) we have finally sent far too many manufacturing jobs overseas. You cannot have a service economy as a foundation. No matter how good your services may be, you can never sell enough services to other countries to make up for huge manufacturing deficits and the resulting loss of good jobs. The loss of manufacturing jobs also relates to the growing number of the employed with no health insurance. A recent study showed 74% of manufacturing jobs come with healthcare, while only 45% of service jobs do. We are known as a consumer nation. As a consumer nation, we have to remember that there are two sides to the economic equation: in order to be a consumer, you have to be a producer.
History has taught us that the great leap forward in wealth was due to the Industrial Revolution. Great Britain led the world because of the Industrial Revolution. As Great Britain lost their industrial leadership, they became less wealthy as respects to the rest of the world. The U.S. is now following Britain down the same path. If we are to reverse this decline, we will need to appreciate and incentivize our manufacturing sector. Our manufacturers can compete with any in the world given a level playing field. Many in government would have you believe that our trading partner’s unfair trading practices are to blame. There is some truth to this, but I believe the most unfair trading practices are coming from our own U.S. Congress and our State Legislatures. Some would have you believe that all these jobs have left because of low wages. Once again, there is some truth to this but many have left because of terrible policies from our own government. From the second highest corporate income tax rate in the developed world, regulatory policies that greatly increase the cost of energy, product liability-these issues and many more help push manufacturing jobs overseas. The last full year before the great recession in 2007, we had an 800 billion dollar current account deficit with the rest of the world. The deficit with China was 371 billion and a lot of this may be attributable to low wages. Number two and three on the list were Germany and Japan which totaled 460 billion. Germany and Japan are certainly not low wage countries. These countries understand how important manufacturing is to their economy while we seemingly do not. Every G-8 country has a senior level official dedicated to the manufacturing sector except the U.S. If we are to turn our economy around, we must have a renewed emphasis on manufacturing. From 1998 through 2007, our country lost 6 million manufacturing jobs. Most of these were replaced by construction jobs. Now, most of these have disappeared with the bursting of the credit and real estate bubble. The U.S. is the largest economy with the largest consumer market. There is no conceivable reason why we cannot regain our manufacturing leadership as respects the rest of the world. A manufacturing economy is the only secure foundation to build and economy on. This is not just an economic security issue, but it is also critical to our national security. We won W.W. II because of the world’s best industrial complex. Many of our defense components now come from overseas. It is imperative that we reverse this before it is too late.
Over the next few months, I will be offering ideas on how to reverse the manufacturing decline. I would welcome your ideas also.
