jobs in america #2

After seeing my commentary yesterday a friend sent the following link for me to see. It is very apropos of the article.

You have to watch this . . . . . .

Today’s world !!

https://player.vimeo.com/ video/239050403?title=0& byline=0&portrait=0

The following e mail was received in response to the Jobs in America article. I am sure that others could write similarly about the industries they are associated with presenting the same type of stories as you will read below.

Wiggy,

I experienced watching the shortage of traditional factory, hands on skills which take years to master. As personal computers in the 90's became a necessity to use in the workplace I remember most MBA programs taught business people they did not need to know their products to make sound decisions. Only the University of Chicago MBA program realized the importance of decision making based on product knowledge. All the others like Harvard, etc. thought product knowledge was unimportant. Oddly enough, Harvard did a study in the 90's on what happened to their MBA graduates twenty years after they graduated and started running companies. They found the bright folks with these degrees worked for a while for companies, cut costs, and then moved on after the companies were not productive anymore. Every time the changed companies they got paid more money to teach the victim how to cut costs. Also, during the 90's, traditional hands on skill professions were being looked down upon would not be needed in the future, and vocational schools had fewer students learning electrical, plumbing, machine maintenance, etc... The Boeing Company believed this also starting in the 80's. All the highly trained traditional factory people started to retire and people with less or no traditional skills were not available to hire. The new 787 line of airplanes was not supposed to need people with traditional skills because the new computer aided parts for airplanes were supposed to fit without the need for skilled people. The new parts came in, they did not fit, and there were not enough skilled people to make them fit. Hence, a five year delay waiting for unskilled works to become skilled. Building airplanes that did not meet specs, and tearing the planes apart was how the new unskilled workforce learned to make planes. The 20 year gap in learning traditional skills caught up with Boeing. It has taken about 10 years to make up for it which cost a lot of money and prestige. Now they have a trained workforce again and build a wonderful product. Humble pie for boys and girls in upper management. There's a lot more to the story, but there's not enough time to explain in an email.

So, when I can, I buy from companies which have highly skilled workers who make quality products. I wish there were more here in the US.

Have a great day.

Greg B.

I have discussed the abysmal work situation with a number of people over the past few years and very few actually agree with me about the work ethic that does not exist with the youth of America.

I completely disagree with the political class who unfortunately control the destiny of the country. These political elites have as far as I know have never run a company so they haven’t a clue as to what it takes to not only run a company but to run a successful company.

I recall reading an article years ago written by Ayn Rand about the history of Spain. I believe it was in the 1700’s that Spain was a very strong producer of products which meant they were a successful country. They then started to import what they needed and all production diminished and the end result is what they are today, a dressed up third world country.

Using Spain as an example of what happens when a country choses to import every item they need, I believe shows the way the U.S.A. is going as are all of the western European countries at this time.

Interesting that they all complain about China, Vietnam or Bangladesh taking jobs away from us. They further complain that these countries are growing rich selling products to us. Isn’t that the nature of capitalism, to make a profit for the work you do? Of course you never hear from any of these companies that get the products they sell in the U.S.A. wanting to bring production back to the U.S.A. They just want to get product made as cheaply as possible so they can have the absolute highest return on investment they can get.

I do not believe there is going to be a resurgence of manufacturing in the U.S.A. anytime soon!