Where Have All The Jobs Gone?

As a man in my mid forties I look back to when I was in my early teens and almost everything my family purchased was made in the USA.  Over the years our politicians have fooled us into telling us trade agreements would increase our exports and keep us number in the world as the true Economic Super Power.

The truth be told all I have seen is familiar labels like Zenith, Pioneer, May Tag, CAT, General Electric, General Motors be replaced by such names as Mitsubishi, Sony, Toyota, Lexus and a million non named labels to simply say, "Made in China". 

The truth be told we once were a nation that was able to fight a Global War on Two Fronts simultaneously while literally being the arsenal of democracy.  We literally were able to manufacture hundreds of tanks, jeeps and planes every day to not only supply our forces in Europe and the Pacific but also to supply our allies as well. We literally were able to build ships at a rate of one per ship yard every week. Imagine building a ship in one week! Now imagine that ship being built with pride and with little or no defects. Necessity also made us a nation dependent on being innovative resulting in the creation of plastics, synthetic fuel, synthetic oil and fibers.  When resources were not available we came up with solutions and we succeeded!  Unions built our labor and industries to be the best in the world with no competitors for price or quality. No I have seen hundreds of industries move overseas due to  unions failing to be price competitive while at the same time producing over priced, poor quality  goods. Once where there was competitiveness prices were low and quality was high. Now there is no competitiveness simply because there are no items manufactured here in the U.S. any more.

The sad thing I have noticed is that not only are there very few if any products manufactured her in the United States but the items I do find are made poorly, with little pride or craftsmanship, this is why businesses like GM are failing! We as a nation have allowed our jobs be shipped over seas because we as Americans are fed up buying over priced, poorly made American goods, so instead ,we end up buying cheaper, still poorly manufactured items which were produced in China!

Almost all of our industries are gone, the jobs shipped to countries like China, India, Viet Nam and Latin America.  I can not help but wonder what would happen if we ever had to fight another world war like WWII?  We would be SCREWED!

As a nation, our elected leaders need to focus on addressing fixing our economy by putting heavy tariffs on imports, providing money to bring back industries focused on manufacturing here in the U.S.A. such items as steel, tires, electronics, clothing, ship building and dare I say energy!  Yes we should be pioneering the research and manufacturing of such items as fuel cells, wind turbines, and solar panels. Imagine GM, Chrysler or Ford manufacturing cars that were better made that their Japanese or German competitors and imagine what would happen if they not only were cheaper, built here in the USA but got on average 135 MPG. Imagine what would happen.. You would buy American made cars and we as a nation would start exporting those cars also due to global demand!

What I learned from my late grandparents was that their generation rose to a challenge, FDR put millions back to work building our nation's infrastructure, while WWII made us a Global Super Power. Sadly no one has maintained the roads, tunnels, levees, and infrastructure built sixty or seventy years ago and even sadder is that no one has taken notice that these items desperately need our immediate attention and while doing so 11 Million new jobs can be created.

Millions more jobs can also be created by becoming a nation of exporters again! Let's bring back manufacturing and industries here to the USA. Let's create the label for the world to recognize for quality, value and craftsmanship and let it say.. Made in the USA and not Made in China.

I issue you all a challenge whenever possible look for and buy goods made in the USA and boycott places like Wal-Mart and their cheap Made in China Products.  Write your elected Officials and demand that they fund projects to make money available to bring back industry to the U.S.A. Please share this blog with your friends!