Wanting to get the old factory jobs back

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Do we really need factories to make custom clothes? Why couldn't people do this in their own homes.? Clothes designers could advertise on the Internet, discuss the exact needs with their customers, make the clothes, and ship them directly to their customers.

With automation there will be higher production and thus wealth in total. It would seem we should tax that wealth to make up for reduced total labor waged.

I can't speak for "the left" but I've never heard of any left leaning person have a vendetta against bringing jobs back to the U.S. What people on the left tend to oppose, which people on the right tend to see as an inhibitor of job growth, is rolling back environmental regulations.

It might seem to people on the right that people on the left care more about trees than people putting food on the table, and it might seem to people on the left that people on the right don't care about destroying the ecosystem in which they live, and poisoning their families, but in reality, I think this is not the case, and the left and right have more in common than they think on these issues, but suffer a fundamental misunderstanding do to circumstance.

What's really going on is that both sides are trying to avoid pain, and react to that which immediately pains them.

For example, California, a fairly left leaning state, often prioritizes the environment above job creation. This does not often make sense to those in states with little pollution, and few jobs. However, due in part to a combination of climate and geography, California has a booming economy, and a significant amount of naturally occurring pollution, which makes certain regions unlivable without stringent environmental regulations.

Below is Los Angeles in 1955, before the implementation of clean air laws. City politicians took the unusual step of implementing clean air laws without a push from their constituents, and despite backlash from campaign contributors in the auto and oil industries, because the air quality had become so horrible that it was not only difficult to breath, but reduced visibility to the point of posing a danger to air traffic and was hindering further economic development of the city.



The original clean air laws saw the banning of backyard trash incinerators, among other things. However, with the growth of the city and number of cars (and backyard BBQs), and combined with the geography and climate, the continued to have significant air quality problems on a regular basis until the state strengthened air quality regulations and began requiring cars pass smog emission tests. The region still occasionally has severely smoggy days, typically when meteorological conditions produces an inversion layer...



It doesn't just look bad, but it has a bleachy scent, and burns the eyes and lungs. I've yet to meet a long time resident of Los Angeles who opposes clean air laws, no matter how right leaning the person is, because they understand that it would be impossible to breath without them, and actually hinder local economic growth.

Meanwhile in some dying coal mining town USA, perhaps they don't care for environmental regulations, because, at the moment, they don't need them, and they desperately need jobs. But if some mining company came along and completely polluted their air and water, such that a lot of people started getting sick, I doubt they would like that very much, no matter how right leaning they are.

Likewise, if more left leaning areas like California were suddenly hurting severely for jobs, you would probably see some rollback of environmental regulations in some areas. There is a region of north eastern California where there is little pollution and few jobs, and this region would like to secede from the state in order to roll back environmental regulations, to bring logging back to the region. Apparently they plan to open prisons when they run out of trees.

Unless an alternative is given and fast then moves will have to be taken to ensure the protection of our industries and the return of jobs.

The people who want to take vows of poverty for the environment should kill themselves and save resources for people that want to live, I'm sorry if that sounds mean but I could give two s**ts about some delta minnow when there can thousands of jobs at stake. It's a very privileged thing to say when you're livilihood isn't at stake and soon enough they will be automating a lot of more than just labor. Try all retail, all fast food, truck driving, TEACHERS, even doctors, there is no where to hide no matter how smart you think you are. The cruel thing about any computer degree is that they will be useless 10 years from now and likely they won't need your job by then either, IT is also where there is massive abuse of the h1-B program.

Education is a joke in this country that doesn't prepare our children for any jobs, every kid graduating high school should have a marketable skill that can get them a job. I think we need to focus a lot more on teaching trades instead of comprehensive Marxism, I don't think loans should be given for non marketable degrees and I think student loans should be dischargable in bankruptcy. The government at one time subsidized STEM and I think it might be a good idea to bring that back but also even more importantly for the medical field.

If the have nots start out numbering the haves then we're screwed, our country will soon enough look like a 3rd world hellhole. We're entering a very dangerous time I think, we are lucky as the most powerful nation in the world as a country that will be able to cut out a place for our people but it's a zero-sum game. The wealth generated in other places is going to have to be returned to this country, imagine if we had never opened relations with the Chinese slavers. I strongly believe in corrective tariffs, US workers should not have to compete with slave states and slave states have no right to exist so taking their prosperity away is not immoral.

Lets hope the factories come back because the alternative aint gonna be pretty.

I love your idea, BTDT ... and have bought normal clothing items on Etsy that were handmade in the USA ... including socks, gloves, a hat, and ... a totally awesome headband with matching leg warmers for a "Back to the '80s" party.

I would love to buy even more handmade clothes ... Especially Star Trek costumes and historical re-enactor garb. Sadly, I do not have the skill to make my own. And I haven't found anybody local willing to make what I'm looking for. There's a lady who lives in another state, but I prefer someone closer.

I've worked on assembly lines before, no thanks. What we need is to revitalize the skilled trades and end the attitude that everyone has to go to college and do something meaningful or they're a failure, otherwise we're just putting a band-aide on a bullet wound.

Yeah I don't really understand this mentality, moving backwards never improves anything...I mean I understand the frusteration and sentiments kind of, but at the same time I myself would like to see continuing advancements in technology even it means people have to adjust and consider new economic ideas to adress the decrease in things like factory jobs.

Skilled trades? Most definitely yes ... I'm all in favor of that!

This topic could be a whole new thread, actually.

You see, for quite a while, I worked as a technical writer who wrote about, of all things, factory automation.

Factories these days are definitely modernizing ... not moving backwards.

As usual it seems the opposite solution will be pushed, everyone must go to college and become a debt slave even tho the most common degrees are worthless and there are no real jobs. College becoming a 2nd high school is a bigger crime than racial segregation or poll tax or Jim Crow, upward mobility does not exist anymore in this country.

If there is nothing to move forward too then you're not looking towards the past, it's all there is.

This is an interesting idea and I can totally see it happening. There will probably be a GUI as well, but corporations will likely offer huge financial incentives to those willing to "merge."

There has to be extensive training in "new things," many of them having to do with things like computers and Microsoft Word and things like that.

That's one thing that Obama failed in: training the populace in new technology.

Computers are so easy to use these days, training is not really necessary.

I should have specified (I didn't think of it at the time I wrote it).

I meant more along the lines of computer repair--both software and hardware--and computer programming. Help Desk stuff.

Sure, but you have to have a certain amount of acumen to do those jobs. The problem is that some percentage of the population simply isn't that bright. There has to be something something in place for those who are not able to offer anything.

There's always a need for stuff to be cleaned up.

I wish there was some sort of provision to give people vans/cars so they can pursue trades in them. And tools, too. They can transfer materials in these vans/cars.

And, for extra money, they can pick up some trash whenever they see a large accumulation of it.