Mike Rowe's Open Letter to Mitt Romney

I found this yesterday and Andy over at Ace's place posted this excellent article this morning.

As all fourteen of you (and most of the Moron Horde) knows, I was a machinist in my past life. The past life when I was employed, that is. I spent two years in high school getting certified, did a four year apprenticeship as a Tool and Diemaker, another few months getting my Quality Control Inspector Certificate and learned a whole lot of other stuff on the job. I added CNC programming and setup to my resume, along with CAD Drafting and Design, and a bunch of management experience. I've run several machine shops at various times during my thirty years spent in the manufacturing theater and loved every minute of it.

In addition, I got real close to an Associate Degree in Computer Science before I ran out of money (I paid my way because I didn't want to be burdened with a bunch of student loan debt).

You could say I enjoy learning stuff.

But I digress.

In the early Nineties, I began to notice a shift in the attitude of society towards the skilled trades. There was a decided bias against any job that involved getting dirty. This came as somewhat of a shock to me, since I valued the time spent in the shower (with a cold beer) after a day at work. In an hour, I was good to go. My job was dirty and dangerous, so what?

It was along about this time that president Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement and announced that we were going to move to a "service" economy. Several weeks before NAFTA was to take effect, the company I worked for that made automotive parts announced that they were closing operations here and moving the company to Mexico. This was just before the Holidays in 1994. Merry Christmas!

Things have gone downhill ever since for the manufacturing sector of our economy. My skills have become passe, an anachronism in the brave new economy where no one gets soiled and everyone has a college degree. We've watch other countries' economies expand to create a new middle class while ours has steadily declined. The things we used to make for ourselves, the goods that people always bought because they needed things like washers and dryers, computers, and cars were being produced by others in faraway lands who didn't share our passion for quality. What's worse was the attitude that began to pervade society that  those in the skilled trades were somehow less intelligent and coarse.

Which wasn't right or accurate. My coworkers were bright and smart. Just as smart as anyone who attended college. You had to be to be good at your job. If you weren't, you didn't last long in a shop.

Economically, I knew this was a big mistake. Purchases of hard goods such as appliances and autos never declined as much during a downturn. Service jobs were and are dependent more upon disposable income, which fluctuated greatly during economic dips. My point is, we were sacrificing an important, vital and robust section of our economy to, what? I still haven't figured that out, except that concurrent with that transition was the political attitude (found primarily on the Left) that America was too prosperous and that in order to be "fair" to other countries, we gave away a significant portion of our wealth instead of encouraging them to develop these industries on their own.

Environmentalism had something to do with this, too. Dirty became bad, the harvesting of Earth's resources became "evil," we were "raping the planet" and causing all types of damage to the climate resulting in "global cooling." Then, we were causing "global warming."

That wasn't right or accurate either.

Thankfully, there are several prominent people in America today who are realizing this same thing and are trying to remedy it. Mike Rowe is one of them, along with John Ratzenberger. Mike has formed mikeroweWORKS.com in an effort to revitalize our manufacturing base by changing the societal attitude and image toward those who work in the skilled trades.

Mike's has penned an open letter to Mitt Romney, making the same offer he made to Obama four years ago with no response (go figure). Here's a snippet or two...

Dear Governor Romney,

My name is Mike Rowe and I own a small company in California called mikeroweWORKS. Currently, mikeroweWORKS is trying to close the country’s skills gap by changing the way Americans feel about Work. (I know, right? Ambitious.) Anyway, this Labor Day is our 4^th anniversary, and I’m commemorating the occasion with an open letter to you. If you read the whole thing, I’ll vote for you in November.

...when our economy officially crapped the bed in 2008, I was perfectly positioned to weigh in on a variety of serious topics.

In each case, I shared my theory that most of these “problems” were in fact symptoms of something more fundamental – a change in the way Americans viewed hard work and skilled labor.

Certainly, we need more jobs, and you were clear about that in Tampa. But the Skills Gap proves that we need something else too. We need people who see opportunity where opportunity exists. We need enthusiasm for careers that have been overlooked and underappreciated by society at large. We need to have a really big national conversation about what we value in the workforce, and if I can be of help to you in that regard, I am at your service – assuming of course, you find yourself in a new address early next year.

According to Ben Domenich and Andy, Mitt's campaign has been informed and will respond to Mike. In addition to the obvious benefits for Mitt's presidential run, it's a perfect counter to Obama's "you didn't build that" statement denouncing America's producers.


Here's a video that I found a while back that shows what we're talking about. Gearheads amongst you will get an idea of what it's like to make something, something cool: a high-performance big-block engine.

From scratch. Enjoy.



Pardon me, I need a cigarette after that.

Where was I? Oh yeah. I was going to tell you some of the stuff you need to know in order to do something like that: a lot of math (horrors!), properties of metal and how quickly the cutters need to spin and be fed through the material, trigonometry, physics, computer programming and basic design skills. And that's just the beginning. Also a nice big, expensive machine. (Note the brand on the control face: Haas. That's one of NASCAR Champion Tony Stewart's sponsors.)

In other words, this isn't a job for the faint of mind or heart. And you can't tell me that video isn't cool.

One last clip and I'll leave you alone. It's a TED Talk by Mike on the virtues of work and sheep testicles.

Another Argument for Onshoring

Over at Insty's place, there's this link to an article that bolsters the notion of American Onshoring.

What's American Onshoring (or Onshoring for short) you ask? It's the concept of returning our country's energy producing and manufacturing from overseas. In addition to the obvious boost to our economy that such a move would have, it's also in our interest from a national security standpoint.

As we saw during the tsunami in Japan, our dependence on foreign suppliers caused production lines here to be idled. This is unnecessary. Why not just make those parts here? Common sense tells us that the physically closer we keep our parts suppliers, the less vulnerable they are to disruptions due to natural disasters.

I've made this argument before. I'll keep on making it because it's the logical thing to do. There's just no good reason for us not to be making as many of our own products as possible. We're still the largest consumer market in the world, but we're not taking advantage of it.

Now add in the effort to recover from a terrorist attack, the idea of Onshoring takes on a new importance, as the link mentions...

An increasing reliance on imports, combined with the fraying of the nation’s power grid, highways and rail lines, leaves the United States more vulnerable to the damage of natural disasters and terrorist attacks, according to a report to be released Wednesday by former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge.

The report, which Ridge shared with homeland security officials Tuesday morning, warns that the offshoring of U.S. factories means that rebounding from a catastrophe will be more difficult because so many critical supplies would have to come from overseas.

Citing the aftermath of disasters such at Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the report adds to the long-running debate over whether the offshoring of U.S. manufacturing has harmed the nation.

“At a time when the frequency of large-scale disasters seems to be increasing, the U.S. seems to be at an all-time low in terms of being able to supply our own critical needs,” said Scott Paul, director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which sponsored the report by Ridge and Robert B. Stephan, who was an assistant secretary of homeland security from 2005 to 2008.

Paul said, for example, that half of the world’s steel comes from China.

It's right about here that I remind y'all that the Iron Bowl, played in Birmingham, AL, got its name for a very good reason. And how about those Pittsburgh Steelers, too? I don't think that the rich natural resource of iron ore in those areas is gone. What's to prevent us from firing up the smelters and making our own steel once more?

Oh, our own government and its environmental regulations. The same ones that stop us from buying 100-watt incandescent light bulbs at the grocery store.

Never mind, then.

Oh, wait. You say that we could relax those standards? Gosh, I didn't know we could do such a thing.

Perhaps we should. Maybe, while we're at it, we could have a thorough review of all environmental standards.

Just a thought...

New Romney Ad - These Hands

Here's another Mitt Romney ad, saying what needs to be said. It also strikes a chord with me, because this is the type of business I was in (manufacturing) before the Clinton administration decided we were going to have a service economy by signing the awful NAFTA bill into law.




As I've mentioned before, manufacturing was once the place where people who were smart enough for college but wanted to work with their hands went. Wages were good, there was a chance to move up, and you could eventually own your own business. I raised my little family by working in machine shops.

We should be doing everything we can to revive American manufacturing by eliminating the regulatory roadblocks Washington has placed in the way. Here's another yardstick to measure a political candidate by: does he or she promote the reinvigoration of the manufacturing sector? If not, then find another candidate, because that one doesn't know how our economy works. It's really that simple.

It's the inverse of my Global Warming Test. If a candidate for office says they believe in it, they've just disqualified themselves from consideration. Man-made climate change has been proven beyond a doubt to be a manufactured hoax. If an elected official doesn't have the common sense to question a fad, then they don't need to be in any office, or have any power.

Your Labor Day Economic Report, 2011

It sucks, go back to bed.

Well, I suppose I could elaborate just a wee bit more on that statement. It is Monday after all, and what’s a Monday without some hemlock in your coffee? I hear it has a lot of fiber…

Our economy came screaming out of the gate on Friday. And when I say, “screaming out of the gate,” I really mean “in terror” and “in the wrong direction.” No jobs were created in the private sector. None, zero, zilch, nada, nyet.

I’m sure y’all know that we’ve been technically out of the last recession for some two years now. I say technically because that means that our GDP was not negative for two consecutive quarters, but the numbers we’ve seen indicate a very weak recovery, the weakest in recent record-keeping.

But no jobs added is a new benchmark, one that I’m sure this administration would be nervous about if it were really interested in getting the economy going again, which by all appearances, it isn’t.

In fact, the Obama War Against Economic Prosperity continues apace, as exemplified by the ongoing assault against Gibson Guitars. Their CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, is getting his message out, and it doesn’t look good for the Obama Regime. This situation gets stranger by the day, what with the Justice Department stonewalling, obfuscating, and telling Gibson that the Indian rosewood it (and every other manufacturer uses for their fretboards due to its superior tonal qualities) used is illegal, despite Gibson being assured by the Indian government that it is, in fact, perfectly legal.

This has cost the company some $3M dollars, not to mention the amount the government pays their armed agents, lawyers and administrators. That’s money that Gibson could be using to expand and hire, but won’t be, as a direct result of the action of the Obama administration.

And, yes, I’ll keep up with this, because you guys need to be aware of Obama’s efforts to curtail economic activity in the name of radical environmentalism, cronyism, union demands and a general confusion about how the economy functions. You expected better from a former community organizer whose main resume qualification is, um, organizing a few communites, to do, uh, something?

For something that was so important it couldn’t wait (until after his Martha’s Vineyard vacation), we’ll finally get to hear his campaign kickoff speech next Thursday, just in time for the start of the NFL regular season.

At least there is some recognition, however gauzy, that Obama realizes that he’s regulating capitalism away. Last week, he ordered the EPA to hold off on its new, highly restrictive ozone regulations. But don’t let that fool you; there are plenty of other regulations waiting for implementation to destroy American jobs and productivity.

As I’ve mentioned previously, our economy has reached the tipping point: Washington regulations have become so prevalent and costly that American businesses can’t keep up with them all. They can’t comply with the tsunami of regulations coming from this administration and they absolutely cannot contain the costs of compliance, which often make themselves known in unexpected ways. Workers must be fired and the resultant drag on productivity hurts everyone who’s left, particularly in raises that won’t come.

Here’s a quote from the previous link that attempts to justify the increased ozone emission standards. Read it carefully…

The EPA’s own analysis found that imposing a standard of 0.70 parts per million would have a net positive impact on the economy, as health benefits outweighed the costs to industry.

And what would these health benefits be, one is tempted to ask? How does the alleged decrease in health care costs find its way back to the company that has spent hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars to comply with the new EPA rule? Will they get that money back next quarter, next year, or sometime in the next few decades?

When was the last time any companies’ health care costs declined?

These are good questions that absolutely no one inside the EPA is asking. The link points out that the far-left, radical Progressive organization Center for American Progress cited evidence of businesses that weren’t negatively affected by EPA regulations.

It was only one page long.

Here’s another quote for you to dissect…

The resulting pollution can contribute to breathing difficulties, lung damage and reduced cardiovascular function, according to the EPA’s website.

It “can?” If I remember correctly, out here in the real world, either something occurs or it doesn’t. Words like “can,” or “might,” or “may” are considered vagaries, indefinites, things that could possibly happen, but don’t normally. These are not the words from which to craft government policy, and the uncertainty they naturally imply speaks volumes about the quality of the research that went into them.

Please come back with something a bit more definite and provable before you require businesses to spend vast amounts of money, energy and time chasing some environmental wet dream of a pristine planet.

While I’m not for industries spilling out their toxic byproducts into the ecosystem, our air and water is the cleanest it’s been in generations. We could just stop now with all the new regulations and we’d still be just fine. In fact, a moratorium on any new regs wouldn’t hurt a thing.

But that’s not the goal of the Big Green Watermelon Movement (green on the outside, red on the inside, as in Socialist). It’s goal is to regulate capitalism out of existence, and this administration seems more than willing to help it along.

So, are you ready for some football?

Update! Before you take that first drink of hemlock coffee, listen to this most excellent video from Bill Whittle. (Shamelessly stolen from contributed by Ace)



As you were.

The Reply from Steven Denning

I almost forgot to tell you guys, but the author of the Forbes article I posted last Tuesday for your reading assignment, Steven Denning, graciously responded to my email. I had asked him if he knew whether or not foreign governments were actively subsidising industries in order to give an unfair advantage to our competitors.

The short answer is, while not ruling out the possibility, he couldn't be sure whether that had happened or not. Perfectly understandable, since many of those countries are pretty hush-hush about their policies and practices anyway. I had hoped that as a writer for Forbes, he would have access to a larger database of information than I do here.

Anyway, I wanted to thank Steve for his reply and also his great series about a subject that is near and dear to my heart, the manufacturing sector of our economy, the resurgence of which I firmly and passionately believe is in our best interest to nurture and promote.

A Reading Assignment

Um, no post today. I was too busy reading this piece from Forbes.com, Why Amazon Can't Make a Kindle in the USA.

I strongly suggest this as your reading assignment today. Click every link in every part and read those too.

I sent a question to the author, Steve Denning, it went like this: How many of those companies were subsidized by their respective government? That seems to be an issue I remember hearing when this whole outsourcing mess began. That might be a rather unfair advantage, but then again, they're not strict capitalists.

Come to think of it, since the Federal Government has its greasy little fingers in nearly every market here, neither are we.

I'm very interested in hearing what he has to say. I'll let you know what he says.

Get cracking, y'all. There will be a test later

The Obama Economy and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

While over at my favorite online hangout, Ace of Spades HQ this weekend, I discovered something new called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. It’s new to me at least, although this concept has been around for over ten years.

Did I mention I’m from Alabama, and that I can be a little slow on the uptake as a result?

Oh, well.

Anywho, I was pleasantly surprised to see something I’ve known all of my adult life recognized as the psychological malady it is. For those of you haven’t yet heard of this phenomenon, here it is in a nutshell: a person’s incompetence inhibits his or her ability to recognize his or her incompetence.

And nowhere is this more readily apparent than in the Obama administrations' flailing about on the economy. We who understand a free market economy see one disastrous decision followed by another equally disastrous decision. TARP, Cash for Clunkers, the bailouts of GM and Chrysler, the Dodd-Frank bill, the refusal of the administration to proceed on previous trade agreements, the NLRB’s interference in Boeing’s new South Carolina Dreamliner plant are all part and parcel of this administrations’ War on American Prosperity.

And they are winning.

It’s clear that Obama hasn’t a clue when it comes to economic matters. And none of the academics he tapped to help him with them know either, which explains why none of them are around anymore. Having done so much damage, they’ve fled Washington for the safety of their tenured teaching jobs, much like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

They literally don’t know what they don’t know, and what’s worse, they refuse to recognize they don’t know.

We’re seeing more attempts by this administration to reach out to private sector business leaders. Here’s the latest proposal according to Newsmax.com…

Buffeted by glum economic news and frustrated by chronic joblessness despite $1 trillion in stimulus spending, the Obama administration has begun exploring a plethora of new proposals aimed at jump-starting the economy.

Cuts in payroll taxes, reductions in the corporate tax rate, opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce gas prices, and persuading Republicans to buy into more stimulus programs are just a few of the concepts reportedly being discussed.

The operative word above is “discussed.” Whether or not any of these ideas will result in concrete action to remove government restrictions on the economy remains to be seen. One would think that after two years of increasingly dismal stats, someone in the White House would start to think that maybe they’re doing it wrong.

That’s where the Dunning-Kruger effect comes in. This administration is so inept that their ineptness prevents them from seeing their ineptness.

The Obama administration just can’t seem to realize that they’re the primary cause of our current economic doldrums. Of course, that’s giving them the benefit of the doubt and hoping that their hearts are in the right place.

There’s also another thing that must be recognized, namely that they know full well what they’re doing and are doing it on purpose. If they were trying to destroy our economy and move us toward socialism, what would they be doing any differently? After two years of stifling government intervention resulting in a New Great Depression, could they finally be able to figure out that what they’re doing isn’t working?

This is becoming increasing doubtful, especially when we see this administration giving $2B to Brazil to increase their oil drilling capacity while at the same time restricting new American drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico.

It kinda makes you wonder whose side they’re on, doesn’t it?

It also doesn’t help when our Manufacturing Czar, Ron Bloom, is a union lawyer and not someone with actual manufacturing experience. It also doesn’t help when says that the free market is a joke and that he agrees with Mao that political power comes from the barrel of a gun.

I’m not encouraged.

Even White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley said at last week’s meeting with the manufacturing community that didn’t have any good answers to the regulatory nightmare that businesses are experiencing thanks to the Obama administration and the 111th Pelosi-Reid Congress.

Daley said he did not have many good answers, appearing to throw up his hands in frustration at what he called “bureaucratic stuff that’s hard to defend.”

“Sometimes you can’t defend the indefensible,” he said.

That sounds like the beginning of a clue. Almost.

The proof of this administrations’ clue-getting will be real steps to reduce the crushing burden of government red tape that’s currently estimated to cost us $1.7Trillion each year.

Talk is nice, but it won’t get us out of this economic ditch that Obama slid into.

Action will.

Olbermann Confirms It – Progressives Live in an Economic Disney World

Warning, the following post contains examples of progressive viewpoints concerning economics. It displays distortions, half-truths, misconceptions, and lies that may be dangerous to free markets if implemented. They are not trained professionals.

You don’t need to travel very far these days to know that the country is in dire straits. My little sojourn downtown was very revealing (see yesterday’s post below). I mean, I knew things were bad, just not this bad.

And the worst part is, we don’t need to suffer this way when there are proven solutions that have yet to even be attempted. Allow me to elaborate.

In the process of manufacturing, when bringing a new product to market, there is a predictable chain of events. First is the idea itself, which, when finalized, moves on to the pre-production stage where blueprints are drawn and methods are devised to make the product. When production begins, more details are needed to insure an orderly flow from raw material to finished article.

If, at any point in the process, there is an error, there’s a scramble to correct it. The successful business will keep these errors to a minimum by having the right people in place to be on guard for the inevitable mistakes. They happen and can’t be completely avoided. However, experience keeps their negative impact minimal, and the wise business will always know and allow for a certain amount of unpredictability during this process.

Occasionally, a problem will arise that catches everyone by surprise. Now, the sooner this problem is recognized, the sooner it can be corrected.

The point is that the sooner a mistake is caught and corrected, the less expensive it is.

Now, I’m speaking of the normal course of events. However, sometimes the concept itself is flawed and the product is a failure. Case in point; the Ford Edsel.

All of the steps that had worked previously to create autos were followed and were successful. Except the product itself did not sell well, and became an example of what not to do.

We’re at that point in our economy; it has been regulated and designed, blueprints drawn up, reviewed and approved, and we’re witnessing the very predictable result: failure.

Those in power in Washington for the last four years, namely the progressives in Congress led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, have designed a product that the American public doesn’t want. Through their incessant imposition of new burdens and massive amounts of regulation, they’ve managed to design this grand failure of free market economics that we’re currently witnessing.

The failure of their efforts is on display everywhere you look. Empty storefronts, shuttered factories, and desolate cities stand as a mute testament to their efforts. What they have done needn’t have happened. American has been deceived, told one thing by campaigning politicians who did something else entirely once safely in office.

Their economic concept is flawed, yet they refuse to see their rather obvious mistakes. In one simple example, Keith Olbermann, spouts one of the lefts most recent economic misconceptions that the unemployed are the real job creators in America. Pajamas Media’s Alan Barton refutes this here. Do watch the whole thing.

Another of the progressive mantras (totally untrue in reality, again) is that conservatives don’t have a plan to get our economy back up and running again. We do have a plan, namely to reduce or eliminate governmental interference in the economy, but that would require those currently in office to give up their power to stifle the free market. This is why the Obama administration refuses to consider them. Witness the fight going on over keeping the Bush era tax rates.

For whatever reason, President Obama has done his best to avoid the proven methods for stimulating our economy. His entire premise is flawed, resulting in a cascade of incorrect outcomes, finally resulting in the worst economic downturn that any of us can remember. There are ways to get things going again, things like drilling for our own oil, but Obama has recently extended his unnecessary moratorium on drilling in our waters, thereby directly making our economy worse. If he were intent upon devastating our economy, would he be doing things any differently?

Finally, you’ll hear this latest lie: capitalism doesn’t work. Sorry, but that’s just plain bullshit. It’s taken years, but we’ve reached the point where governmental interference has distorted the markets so much that they’re almost incapable of operating. This is the ultimate irony, that politicians would declare capitalism a failure when it’s their actions that have caused the failure.

Our only hope at this time lies in the incoming Congress. If they heed the message that America sent this past November, they will start to reduce this size and scope of the federal government’s intrusion upon a formerly free market. They can begin by defunding the Environmental Protection Agency, the single heaviest weight currently holding our economy down. If they do as they promised, an agency-wide reevaluation of Washington’s regulatory impact would go a long way towards cutting government down to a manageable size and to start working for the people of the country.

It’s time for us to quit apologizing for capitalism, as David Limbaugh points out. At the same time, we have a lot of work to do to get Washington out of the way and let us get back on the road to prosperity once again.

It took time to get us here, it will take time to solve our problems. We can start by purging politicians who boasts of their progressivism. Their ilk is the source of our problems, their concepts are seriously flawed. Get them back to the fringes of society and keep them there.

Our Economy’s Only Hope - Reviving Manufacturing in America

Today is a mournful day. Something precious died on this date. Not John Lennon, although his untimely death robbed the world of a great artist. No, something far more valuable was killed unnecessarily: the future of America’s prosperity. Today marks the day that the North American Free Trade Act was signed by President Bill Clinton.
This bill, more than any other single piece of legislation, is to blame for our current economic woes, for its signing was the beginning of our national decline. Almost all of the high unemployment and record levels of poverty that we’re currently enduring can point to this day as its genesis. Even worse is the political attitude that brought this horrible bill into being: that America can give away it’s prosperity to other nations (wealth redistribution, as it’s otherwise known) without negatively affecting her.

We now know that is impossible.

So, what can we do about this mistake? Well, first we must acknowledge that we made one. While this will prove a daunting task for the political elite, the average American already knows it. The millions of Americans currently out of work certainly know that something is wrong. An entire sector of the economy is gone, some say never to return.

A generation of Americans can recall when their fathers and mothers had “factory jobs” that put them through college. However, all they can do is remember. Now, those same parents have nothing to do because we’ve needlessly eliminated a formerly vibrant sector of the economy.

I have some very unpleasant memories of this day in 1993. Within a week, I was laid off as the owners of the manufacturing plant where I worked announced that they were relocating to Mexico. What a lovely present to receive right before the Holidays! Some 45 people lost their jobs, and for what? To enrich another country? Really?

The questions we all had back then were, “If Mexico wants industry, why don’t they do it themselves? Why have we been sold out by our own government? If they can make products so much cheaper, why aren’t they already doing so?”

Why, indeed?

Have we not shown the world how to do things for their own benefit by now? As the world’s oldest republic, have we not demonstrated through our actions and our national will that any country can succeed if their people are free? Why give our wealth away when there is no need to do so? Cannot other nations duplicate our success, therefore elevating their people and subsequently, mankind, on their own?

This sort of “soft bigotry of low expectations” is extremely condescending and has no place among adults, specifically those in charge of entire countries. To live in the mature world, we must demand that same maturity from others. Who wants to be treated like a child, especially on the world stage? No one that I would care to deal with, how about you?

It’s curious to note that those who advocate the notion of diversity somehow don’t think that it’s necessary in the job market. Oh, yeah, they want a diversity of the workforce, but how about addressing the natural diversity in people’s abilities. Why restrict our economy, when, if true diversity is the goal, we shouldn’t have it in the job market. Not everyone is cut out for college. That doesn’t mean that they are less intelligent than anyone else is. This may come as a shock to the political elites, but there are many Americans who are smart enough to go to college, but would rather work with their hands.

If you wish to become a machinist, for example, there’s a lot that you need to know in order to do your job. You need to know physics, metallurgy, geometry, and trigonometry and also have excellent communication skills in order to maintain an orderly flow of information in the workplace. These skills can also be learned in college, but in manufacturing, there is the added reward of tangibility; you can hold your work in your hand. Many times, you can understand that you’ve just helped someone else to make their life a little easier. You’ve made money and helped someone else in the process.

What’s not to like?

While those of us who were in manufacturing and now aren’t know what has been lost, others are just now waking up to the facts. Articles like this and this are sadly heartening, for, if enough people recognize that we’ve done a disservice to the nation by willfully abandoning a productive economic sector, we can reverse course and begin to make products in America once more.

This will doubtless require that we drag the ruling elite along, kicking and screaming. They must overcome their natural tendency to denigrate those of us who wish to work with our hands. Failing that, we need to replace them with others who recognize the value that our manufacturing sector once provided. They must also ignore the cries of nationalism and protectionism that will be hurled at them from others who would rather steal than work.

We must take control of our destiny again and show the world how it’s done.

Let’s get serious about diversifying our economy and set our sights on restoring our manufacturing base. It was once the foundation of our country and can be again.

An Open Letter to the Incoming Congress

Dear Members of the 112th Congress,

Allow me to be among the first Americans to welcome you to your new job. Congratulations to you. You have a unique job in all the world. Your decisions will have a direct effect upon millions of your fellow citizens for years to come. The opportunity for you is literally boundless. You may be able to lift America from the depths of malaise and incompetence that we’ve suffered under for the past four years during the reign of Nancy Pelosi and her progressive minions.

While there are many important issues facing the country, perhaps none is as important as solving our economic problems. We have them primarily because we’ve allowed the federal government to become far too big and unmanageable. The imposition of an increasing number of federal regulations, rules and taxes have created an environment that is hostile towards business and damaging to the country. The results are all around us – there are record numbers of Americans on food stamps and record numbers of Americans living in poverty. This is the legacy of progressivism, a legacy that is unbecoming the free people of this great country.

Our current economic problems will not be solved quickly. However, you can take steps to minimize the negative effects of too much government by following a few simple principles. First, understand that Americans need good, high-quality jobs. Our way of life is dependent upon creating an atmosphere that fosters the creation of a rich diversity of job options. The move towards a global economy has been an abject failure that has resulted in the massive export of good American jobs overseas. It is time to recognize the value in manufacturing American products for Americans. We can and should be constructing our own cars, computers and washing machines here in America. By not doing so, we are limiting our potential for growth and prosperity unnecessarily. By rejuvenating our manufacturing base, we will once again provide good jobs for a larger number of Americans.

Second, also understand that we need abundant and inexpensive sources of energy. The current regulatory environment is artificially restricting our ability to create these sources for no reason. Our way of life depends upon the wise utilization of our God-given natural resources, but our own government, aided by radical, far-left environmental groups, is preventing us from doing so. Much needed, new sources of power using proven, safe technology are under attack from these groups who are stifling our ability to have efficient energy supplies. Despite being unelected to any office, environmental groups are dictating national energy policy with no regard to the negative effects of their rules. Laboring under the false theory of “man-made climate change,” these groups are damaging our national interests. By standing in the way of proven sources of energy, these groups also bear a great responsibility for the current state of our economy. It is the hope of a nation that you will greatly diminish the harmful influence these fringe organizations currently impose on the construction of new oil refineries and nuclear power plants and you will encourage a return to an energy policy that adequately addresses the needs of a growing nation and a vibrant economy.

Finally, let me impress upon you the importance of conducting your affairs in Washington with the highest legal and moral standards. Let your actions always be guided by the knowledge that what you do has a direct effect on every American. Place yourself in the shoes of your fellow citizens when considering any issue. Guide your actions in a way that will bring honor and respect to our government. Never let there be any question that you are doing your very best to improve the lives of everyone in America.

In conclusion, it is with the best wishes of success that I welcome you to your new station. May it be filled with good things for you, your staff, and your country. May God Bless you and the United States.

Sincerely,
BackwardsBoy

The National Manufacturing Strategy Act - A Step in the Right Direction?

My regular readers (all three of you) are aware that I was once a machinist. At least I think I told you. If I didn't, I guess I'll tell you now.

I was once a machinist, and a Certified one at that. During high school.

After I graduated, I found work at a local tool and die shop making tools and dies. They had an apprenticeship program that I attended for four years. Then I was a certified Tool and Die Maker.

A few years later, I got a job as a Quality Control Inspector. Soon, I was a Certified QC Inspector.

Does anyone see a trend emerging?

I went from that job to another in manufacturing where I learned how to program and set up computer controlled machine tools. Another skill for the old resume: CNC Programmer and Setup.

I then moved into a job as a computer draftsman drawing computerized machine shop blueprints. That's another skill set: Computer Draftsman.

The logical extension of that was the next position as a Mechanical Designer. One more resume bullet point.

Then it was on to Shop Foreman and eventually to Manufacturing Manager.

So I've done quite a lot in manufacturing. More than most people. Along the way, I found an old saying that fit me perfectly. "Find a job you love and you'll never work another day in your life." Being the gearhead I was, I'd finally found a job that was engaging and allowed me to work with my hands and my mind. For, you see, there's a lot to know to be a really good machinist. Things like geometry and trigonometry. Laws of Physics. Metallurgy. How to make metal parts harder or softer.

In short, being a machinist isn't just something you can turn off. The industry is made for those with inquiring minds. I'd like to challenge our current manufacturing czar, Ron Bloom, to a Jeopardy game where all of the categories are subsets of manufacturing. He'd be crying like a little girl when I was through winning.

But I digress.

Watching the jobs I loved disappear to some faraway land hurt. Not only should I now be making some serious money, I would also have the chance to pass along some of my knowledge to a new generation, just as I was able to learn from my industrial mentors.

How could this happen? How could a nation that once valued "Rosie the Riveter" ever turn its back on an entire sector of the economy that contributed so much to our nation and the world? How could we ignore the obvious benefits to our standard of living by not promoting manufacturing? Too many things just didn't make sense. And we've suffered greatly as a result of, wait for it, uninformed politicians.

Today, that has the potential to change. We're not so far removed from the time when we were the worlds' Maker of Things, and some in Congress are starting to finally realize that we should be doing that again.

In a rare display of bipartisanship, the House recently passed the National Manufacturing Strategy Act of 2010. This bill, while not directly addressing what needs to be done to encourage American manufacturing, sets up the framework for the President and Congress to start examining policies and how they effect the industry.

HR 4692 has the potential to actually benefit the country. You don't know how much it surprises me to type that sentence during this administration.

Naturally, it also has the potential to be filled with nonsense and to be skewed in favor of the unions, or some type of fantastical "green initiative". If that is the case, then just consider the $30M price tag of this bill as another waste of your tax dollars.

This will be what I'll be looking for from any committee:

1. Reducing the regulatory burden on business. This is rather sweeping, but should be the foundation of any recommendations. The last twenty years have seen more and more costly regulations imposed on businesses, so much so that we're reaching the saturation point: we can't keep on regulating the private sector to death. More recently, we have the Health Care Bill and the new Financial Regulations Bill and others coming from this Congress. Since no one in Congress actually read these bills before they voted on them, even the members of Congress don't know the provisions nor how they will negatively impact businesses. These bills set up countless new regulatory agencies and edicts that will cost jobs.

2. Environmental regulations need to be scaled back dramatically. Of course, we all know what would follow: the wailing and gnashing of teeth and the rending of (union made) garments by the radical environmentalist groups who now control our agenda despite not being elected to any office. These people have somehow convinced themselves and many gullible others that we should be living in some pre-industrial paradise with none of the modern day conveniences like air conditioning.

Naturally, if the Cap-and-Trade goes through, that one piece of legislation will make this whole exercise irrelevant. We won't be able to afford the energy we need to manufacture anything. Which brings me to a third point.

3. We need inexpensive energy.  Manufacturing is energy intensive. Large machine tools require a great deal of electricity. This should give us the incentive to develop local sources of energy that include oil, natural gas, and nuclear power and reduce or eliminate our dependence of foreign sources of energy. Needless to say, it's already in our national interest to do this, but weak-willed politicians have actively prevented us from achieving this goal.

4. We need a national right-to-work law. There is no rational reason to be forced to join a union in order to work.

We have now a national, unified interest in reviving our manufacturing sector. We can diversify our job market through the many other indirect jobs that are also required like painters, welders, truck drivers and others.

I hope that common sense will prevail in this effort.

We could use the jobs.

Manufacturing Sector News - the Good and the Bad

Once upon a time in a far away land, there was a sector of the economy that thrived. Stable and less prone to dramatic economic fluctuations, this sector was driven by the needs of a modern society. People at that time clamored for products that made their lives easier, increased family time and reduced backbreaking labor. This clamoring was met by craftsmen who knew how to make the things that people wanted.

These craftsmen and their mighty machines also provided employment for others who weren't schooled in the industrial arts, but whose contributions and skills were necessary for production of the modern products: truck drivers, welders, painters, inspectors, accountants, salesmen and others. College degrees weren't required. Skills were passed along from generation to generation through apprenticeships formal and informal.

Through innovation, this sector brought the human race to unprecedented wealth and health. Mortality rates went down as life expectancies rose. New materials and new ways of making things were developed and refined to the point that ideas previously confined to literature were made real within the lifetimes of many: self-powered vehicles, air flight and eventually even space flight became common. Farm production grew to previously unheard of rates, providing more food for more people at less cost. Advances also came to the fields of medicine, relieving or minimizing suffering and eliminating previous scourges.

This was the success of manufacturing. The free market obeyed easily observable and simple rules. Products that were initially expensive came down in price as production rates increased. America enjoyed a standard of living that was the envy of the world.

It was doomed to be short-lived, however. In the late twentieth century, short-sighted politicians with little experience in the business world decided that America would move away from making things and toward an economy that had formerly been on the fringes, depending on disposable income to survive. Thus was born the misguided notion that an entire nation could support itself by relying on service instead of hardware. Legislation was introduced that began to dismantle the manufacturing sector and distribute it among other countries with far lower standards of living and thus lower wages. Lofty ideas of a worldwide economy were the starry-eyed dream of out of touch bureaucrats who envisioned themselves in control of the system.

Fast-forward to today and our current deep recession. The world economy is on the brink of collapse brought on by its' own weight. Different cultures don't all share the same enthusiasm for work that Americans do, despite the insistence of academics who still advance the false notion that all cultures are equal and equally good. Such segmentation of labor has now enabled China to surpass the US in manufacturing output.

This may have an unintended side effect as people who have been unemployed in the service sector are rediscovering the joy and satisfaction of working with their hands. If the hugely unpopular Cap-and-Tax bill passes during the lame-duck session of Congress after this Novembers' elections, artificially high energy costs could accelerate this move as shipping becomes prohibitively expensive. Until that bill is repealed, that is.

A return to the type of economy that raised the US to the status of the worlds' leader can only mean good things for us. The level and amount of new items is accelerating along with the demand. People the world over still want the products that make modern life easier and simpler, providing more time to spend with family and friends. We could begin to make those items again. There is nothing stopping us, once we regain control of Washington and install politicians who understand and respect the average American and his or her hopes and dreams of a family, a house, and a secure and free future for their children.

When this happens, be prepared for another period of truly unprecedented improvement in the human condition, led once again by America.

A Reminder of What Once Was, and Could Be Again

While over at Big Hollywood, I ran across this video from John Ratzenberger (or Cliff Claven from "Cheers", depending on your memory). It was originally part of a birthday wish for him, but the video says so much more about the way things once were, and could be again.

The manufacturing sector of our economy was once the engine of our national strength. It allowed many to work with their hands and make a good living for themselves and their familiy. I know, I was one of them.

The movement in Washington to convert our economy from a manufacturing base to a service base has been a monumental failure. We're seeing an exodus of American jobs offshore to countries with less burdensome regulations, taking with them the hopes and dreams of Americans whose only sin is wanting to own their own home and send their kids to college.

Note that the demand for products has not changed. We still need things like automobiles, computers and video games. There is no reason that these items should not be produced in country. No reason, that is, other than unecessary regulations that are reaching the point of counterproductivity: our government has become an impediment to the creation of jobs and wealth.

This situation can be reversed. We can start electing people who understand how our free market operates and will return manufacturing to America.

If we don't, we'll have no future.

Please Pardon Our Confusion, Mr. President,

...but weren't you supposed to stimulate our economy, not China's?

Somehow, I don't recall telling you to spend one trillion dollars to help anyone else other than America. But, we see you don't really care about us. Again you've demonstrated your inexperience and ignorance of economic matters by enriching other countries instead of your fellow countrymen.

What we don't need, Mr. President, is an expansion of government jobs. What we need is diversity in the job market. What we need is a rejuvenation of the manufacturing sector.

As a former member of the manufacturing sector of our economy, I have witnessed the downfall of this once mighty part of America firsthand. In it, I found a happy medium between excercising my mind and working with my hands. Learning about geometry, trigonometry, and the physical characteristics of metals, combined with the activity of actually shaping the metal into a useful part with various machines and cutters was fullfilling in many ways. I was able to support myself, a wife and a child, and purchase a home, all without a college degree.

Don't think for a moment that I didn't study. I spent two years in high school learning the basics of the trade, then another four years refining that knowledge in a toolmaking apprenticeship. I took other classes as opportunities arose in CAD drafting and quality control inspection. I looked upon my craft as a lifelong love, adding to my knowledge in a never-ending quest to add value to my skills, and subsequently, to my employer.

I've made parts that enabled transport trucks to ship goods, printed circuit boards to be made, doctors to minimize suffering and the Space Shuttle to fly. All I ever asked for in return was a chance to continue to ply my trade and make a decent living. But somewhere along the line, our government decided that we should become a "service economy". When NAFTA was passed in 1993, I was laid off within days of its' signing when the company I worked for relocated to Mexico. I and many of my friends and coworkers began to face a life where our livlihood was no longer in demand. Not all of us were skilled in the machining arts, some were painters, welders, electricians and receiving clerks, all able to support ourselves in a part of our economy that was made obsolete with the stroke of a misguided pen.

Mr. President, we had hoped you would stop the flow of jobs out of America and into other countries. We had hoped you'd lead a new era of economic prosperity for all Americans. We had hoped that you wanted the best for your nation and its people.

We were wrong.