Can America step up to a manufacturing renaissance?
Reasons beyond the US shale gas boom are undermining the country's rationale for sending manufacturing offshore. But as the domestic sector grows, will the country have the skills to capitalise?
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Comments PolicyA lesson for us, especially considering how manufacturing has been abandoned by the politicians and the ideologues (Can America step up to a manufacturing renaissance?, January 9).
In our labour relations, as in Justice Higgins' time, we are constantly pressured by the filthy rich to adopt a de-skilled, more exploitative, and far less socially inclusive employment system. Once again we need to force them to choose the better option - a "high road" of longer term dynamic efficiency gains in a knowledge-based high wage, high productivity economy. Market forces are not going to resolve skills shortages.
Reluctance to train appears general - over one-third of workers sought but were blocked from some form of training in the past five years. Big Mining's strong preference for imported labour is very obvious. Unions - especially the CFMEU - have regularly both complained about the exploitation of migrant workers, and fought on their behalf..
Like her fellow Thatcherites Gillard regularly promises training for the 2 million Australians of working age outside the labour market, the official unemployed, the underemployed, those too discouraged even to look for work, and the many older workers on the disability support pension.
In fact, as the coolie labour import arrangements demonstrate, the constant demands expected of the victims contrasts with the permission given to the exploiters to simply ignore the domestic labour market. s457s may now be obtained for six years. What trade, pray tell, could not be taught here in six years? As manufacturing workers put out of work by the high dollar are typically reluctant to move, visa workers are competing directly with local workers.
The so called shale gas boom is going to prove to be one of the biggest con's ever (Can America step up to a manufacturing renaissance? January 9).
The shale gas advantage to the US remains to be seen, given that energy is internationally traded goods. If shale gas could make the US advantageous internationally, many countries could subsidise their energy sector too to the degree that the only advantage to the US is its intrinsic values of the shale gas (Can America step up to a manufacturing renaissance? January 9).
How much is that relative to the size of the US economy?
Would that suggest a US manufacturing renaissance?
The answer is likely to be negative as long as a bit of simple reasoning is applied.
In a recent documentary on the lady who transformed the NY school system and was then sacked, it was revealed that some US schools had 40,000 students pass through of whom more than 60% never completed.
The US is a dumbed down, self obsessed mess where talking violent lyrics on a repetitive sound track is idolised and education decried. Thankfully its diversity means it still throws up the best of the best as well as the worst of the worst (Can America step up to a manufacturing renaissance? January 9).
But the evidence is that more computers and billions spent on infrastructure don't necessarily educate- as results in other nations shows. We've received very little return on the money spent to date yet the mantra is to do more of the same. And tax us for it. Time to switch plans.