American Manufacturing - Where Did All The Jobs Go

Where did all the jobs go ?

A simple question if looked at from an overall perspective. The price we have to pay we all in order to get what we want we have to give up something. So the answer in short would be technology but lets take a closer look at it. As we wanted everything at our fingertips, even closer than a touch away, we demanded it be available in a few seconds or less. What was unknown to most of us at the time was that we would get everything we asked for unfortunately it would lead directly to the downfall of the entire manufacturing industry.At least here in America. 

Remember not too long ago all of the huge factories that used to exist? The one's we all used to pass by.

Massive plants spread out over hundreds of acres all over the United States. To a point they made us self-sufficient due to the fact they mass produced pretty much any and everything. From cars, washing machines, Refrigerators and anything else you can imagine. This is precisely when the most powerful advertising slogan in the world was created “Made In America”. The 1950's here in the United States due to a post-war boom manufacturing was like never before. Nestled between the War torn 1940's and the controversial 1960's, 1950's defined the United States as a powerhouse in both manufacturing and production.

Much like today college was available for higher education and fields of interest. Yet if you managed obtain employment at say the GM plant, this was a lifelong job with excellent benefits, Job Security, unions, and you more than likely (back then) made the same if not more than those that went to college. The fact that you worked for General Motors was also more than enough to get you qualified for loans, lines of credit and more as most creditors knew very well the type pf job security was available at GM.

Well what happened? You may be asking yourself, I mean most of us today wasn't there but it sounds like a much better than than now! You may be thinking. Well like I said before the 60's were controversial not work oriented. Seems everyone wanted equal rights but no one wanted to work for them. Then the 80's man let's not go there. Seems everyone was somewhere dancing in leg warmers or in a sweat suit so let's just move on.

The 1990's came up and we were all bit by the Technology bug everyone wanted everything right now. We didn't have time to wait! We couldn't wait for production times, shipping or showroom presentations. The Internet had instantly the made world a much smaller place while also placing any everything at our fingertips. And we all loved it! At least at first. We thought it would work well on a leash...something we could use to our advantage at our leisure, control and put away when done. Instead we literally unknowingly let “The Genie Out The Bottle”. What happened? You may ask again. Simply put thanks to technology and all of its technological advances it was now possible now for robots to perform the same jobs as humans. Only robots didn't get sick, require or life health insurance nor did they take sick days or vacations. They don't have a union demanding time and a half. They simply worked, broke and were repaired or replaced.

Corporations realizing this immediately poured millions into researching and developing them as the next workforce. And given the means Scientist in turn produced some amazing results in advanced fields such as Robotics, Programming Automation. The new workforce was now being manufactured and would soon help fill up the un-employment office. Since now most corporations only required a “Skeleton Crew” to manage, maintain and program robots! That pretty much did use in. looking at it from a Corporate perspective, You have thousands of employees that require Health and Life insurance, demand time and a half (overtime), complain to his union (about everything) and insist on being paid for days he didn't work (vacation). We could also get the same exact ask done with Robots. They work until they malfunction and they worked very efficiently. All they ever required was programming. No sick days, overtime it was a no brainer.

Just as we all tried to adjust to the impact being replaced we were yet again blindsided by the one thing none of us could have expected nor been prepared for, outsourcing. The combination was simple but deadly. It meant the end of traditional employment as we knew it here in the U.S. Everything that we had once stood on as ground and workers, laborers had been soundly snatched from under of feet. For the first time ever anything that couldn't manufactured by the robots was outsourced, shipped overseas. Our work was shipped out overseas for the same exact reasons the robots were built, cheap cost-effective non-stop labor with no overhead.

So for all of the new age technology, cell phones, flat screen TV's, powerful yet extremely fuel efficient cars? We did have a price to pay and big one at that. For all of our finger tip technology and digital communication we had to give up something. Job Security an almost forgone conclusion in today's economy but how many of us would like to live the long gone “Middle Class” life. The one that was much more simple. Where you bought a house, a car and opened a savings/retirement fund. Security remembered back when your biggest concern was getting your own son a job at the plant when he turned 18 (cheaper than college).

I wonder how many of us would give up our hectic technic lives of today for a simpler slower true American middle class way of living. Where job security wasn't an issue when we dealt with the same bank, the same branch for life. In hindsight would you rather live a slower simpler yet more secure life like we did in the 1950's or lightning fast superficial, surrealistic video version of life we all live everyday? To become a faster more Technology-Based society we gave up something that in hindsight probably has us all wondering... was it really worth it ?