It's amazing how the total lame ass media trumpets (as they're told to do) the expansion of the 'service sector' as being a positive economic development in the U.S. The reality is the overwhelming majority of 'service sector' jobs are the drudges of societal aspiration. Most 'service sector' jobs involve cleaning bathrooms, waiting tables, staffing the desk at Avis or other such menial, low wage, and almost always 'no benefits' type of work. That's what the U.S. is becoming; a banana republic where even the bananas are imported. The only thing that has kept consumer spending alive and well for the last 5 years, as the true backbone of our economy (high tech and high skilled manufacturing) was being gutted was rising property values and the extension of seemingly infinite consumer credit to anyone with a pulse. Now that the residential property boom has reversed course, look for the amount of defaults on mortgage debt and consumer debt to keep rising at an accelerating pace. Does anyone remember the Bush Administration's attempt to reclassify fast food workers as being employed in the "manufacturing" sector, as they argued that these people were 'assembling' goods? Manufacturing, especially of the technically advanced sort, has always been the backbone of the financial health of this country. America rose to superpower status when its factories employed workers churning out high-value products that were consumed domestically and globally. It's too bad that both right wing and left wing imbeciles that are now the stewards of the future refuse to do anything about the fact that what remains of these jobs will soon be gone for good. If you look at the base we still retain, it is at deathly ill auto companies or part suppliers, or in industries protected by government subsidies or contracts (Boeing, General Dynamics, etc). These jobs are safe for now because foreign countries buy planes from Boeing as a means of relieving the pressure of massive trade surpluses they are running with the U.S. (no single purchase does more to reduce these surpluses than buying expensive aircraft), and because we have a war in Iraq that is fueling a boom among domestic defense contractors. These won't be permanent fixtures of our economy - the war will ultimately wind down, and foreign nations will eventually procure more aircraft from other sources, especially when the U.S. loses leverage over them, and as new companies arise in Asia and elsewhere to take on Boeing The big money being raked in by those in finance and equity related jobs in areas like NYC and Boston will inevitably come under strain, as well, when the next protracted secular bear market arises (it's not a question of if but when). And the boom in commodity prices, especially oil and metals, that is propping up economies such as Houston, Tulsa and South Dakota won't last forever, as neither will the lame ass ethanol fueled corn craze that is propping up the farmbelt. When most Americans come to realize they've been fed horse shit for the last 5 years about the true health of the economy, when they can no longer count on residential real estate appreciation or endless pools of consumer credit, it will finally dawn on them how - even the most sheepish among them - how their political leadership sold them down the river. But it will be too late.
Absolutely right. Any sane person would rather be running a machine in a factory than doing a service oriented job. Common sense stuff.
You're right - especially when a skilled machinist made $38 per hour, got health insurance and a 401(k), and the person making pizzas makes $9 an hour if they're lucky, with no benefits at all.
And especially not when the machinist is unskilled and making squat as opposed to banker or lawyer or doctor raking in fees.
I don't think that the service sector statistics are largely being represented by the bankers, lawyers and doctors you refer to. Further, I have met machinists who were far more skilled than some of the bankers I once worked with.
depends on which machine you're running But the manufacturing sector at least also for many many years guaranteed job security...no one ever had to worry about losing their jobs, factories closing, plant reorginizations/downsizings (layoffs), companies being bought and sold like properties on a Monopoly board and whatever have you. In the dot-com boom, employees had the advantage...since employers were desperate to find people to work, they'd pay whatever it took half the time to hire people. Granted it was a bit of an artifical boom, but the results were there. Now, everyone needs a job...from the ex-manufacturering people, to kids looking for jobs, to baby boomers who only get SS checks, to immigrants coming over and willing to work, to construction people because housing's in a slump...and they're all fighting for scraps in these 'service' jobs...which is also why of course many have to work 2, 3, 4 jobs to make anything half the time. I like my industry I'm in (TV), but it's also a service sector job; it pays relative crap...I keep trying to tell my parents there isn't anything much better around my area (sans the several hospitals mainly that rule the area), but it's funny how they don't get it...everywhere I drive and look I see car dealerships, hotels, fast food places, shopping/retail centers, Walmarts, heck even the small businesses fall into this category...and then lots of abandoned mills & manufacturing plants that closed down within the past 5, 10, 15 years...between the huge majority of jobs in that range and the fact that no employer wants to pay a lot to their employees, it's a no brainer why the region I'm in is in the proverbial shitter right now... Glad to see others are seeing things the same way, even if it's only a few here and a few there...it is a changing of the times, but we're not changing appropriately.
As usual you're a bastion of common sense. For five decades American children have heard, "get an education or face a life of dreary, monotonous work on an assembly line." "Blue collar" jobs have been leaving our shores for over a generation. Any one who thinks this is a new trend has their head up their ass. Yes most people would rather be a claims adjuster for 24k than hauling shit in the sun for the same wage. If one's skill set is no more developed than that of an Asian or African than why in the world would or should you be paid more than a third world denizen. I don't know many traders with a sense of entitlement. Loser's whine about their cards. I'm sure many on this board are HAPPY that jobs are being lost on exchange trading floors. I was displaced by electronic trading. Just like a guy working in a Gary Indiana steel plant. Tough cookies. Learn to adapt or starve.
You have to have loyalty on the part of both government and captains of industry in the U.S., as they have in Japan, and now increasingly, China. Japan and Korea and China have governments and private industry that have a long term strategic vision - this is how Toyota and Samsung, to name just two examples, rose to preeminence. You invest in technical education and resources and R&D to make sure that you can make the products that no one else can, more efficiently and perfectly, than any other nation-state or company. Look at Hyundai - most of their cars are built in South Korea, but even the ones that are 'built' (assembled) in Alabama use a high % of Korean designed and manufactured parts, shipped to the U.S., to be bolted together by $13/hour assembly line workers. Honda and Toyota do source many of their parts from domestic suppliers in the U.S., but even still, most of the profit made from the sale of these vehicles in the U.S flows back to their domestic economy. And what's our policy on technology transfers? We have none. U.S. companies such as Intel, which is building a 2 billion dollar plant in China right now, sell their souls to get a few years of low cost manufacturing in exchange for allowing the money they invest in developing intellectual property to be pirated by the Chinese government, which then provides it to Intel's Chinese competitors and future competitors - not real smart in the long term.