http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/08/24/manufacturing-policy-key-to-economic-recovery/by James Parks, Aug 24, 2010
Unlike our nation’s economic competitors, such as China and Germany, which have national policies geared to increasing their economic development, the United States does not. While we admonish such countrie to consume more and export less, they are figuring out ways to increase exports and consume less—and in turn, are growing their economies far faster than the United States.
In a recent letter to President Obama, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and a group of bipartisan senators wrote that the key to turning our economy around and creating good new jobs is a national industrial policy that would emphasize long-range actions to rebuild our manufacturing base, which has been decimated over the past few decades. In short, they urged the adoption of a national manufacturing policy.
The loss of manufacturing plants and jobs has stifled economic opportunity for middle-class families and compromised our ability to compete in the 21st century economy. Indeed, for the last several decades, administrations have passed up critical opportunities to formulate a rational and comprehensive manufacturing policy. Continued apathy will undermine our country’s ability to achieve energy independence and place our military readiness at risk.
One-third of American manufacturing plants have shut down in the past 10 years and today, only 1,000 U.S. factories employ more than 1,000 workers, according to the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM). And we are losing high-tech workers at a faster rate than traditional manufacturing jobs, AAM says.
FULL story at link.
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