General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: United States has lost 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000 [View all]maggiesfarmer
(297 posts)no, I don't think that every factor worker who lost their job became a doctor.
I think that manufacturing skills became a commodity service over the last several decades. Technology and modern training techniques have contributed to this -- most manufacturing jobs require at most a few weeks of training to produce a near-fully efficient entry level worker. When a service becomes a commodity, the cost drops as buyers perceive all services being essentially the same and go with the lower price. Unless Asian, African, etc... wages rise to the point where the shipping and overhead tilts the scales, those low cost countries will continue to sell the most manufacturing services.
I'm in favor of programs which help countries without infrastructure raise standards of living. I think China has the resources to raise the standard but their gov't chooses not to. regardless, I'm getting way off topic here. the point I'm getting at is that I don't see this changing in our generation to the point where US manufacturing labor will be able to compete with those countries. The US will retain a certain percentage of manufacturing work on critical items requiring highly skilled processes, but that's not going to be a major source of employment.
The solution seems to me to require a huge component of education, where we teach skills that are likely to have value for the next generation. Skills that are not easily outsourced.