The Illusion that Manufacturing Jobs are Coming Back to America
One of the reasons why Donald Trump was pushed to victory was his overwhelming votes in the Rust Belt area. Perhaps, his promise that manufacturing jobs are coming back was bought by those voters. This was the illusion that Trump tried to sell and unfortunately, people believed it would happen. Here’s the blunt truth- it won’t come back.
The thing about manufacturing jobs is that they are no longer existent. Perhaps, Trump is right when he said that some of those jobs were shipped to Mexico and China. However, you simply can’t blame companies for those decisions. They can either ship those jobs and pay for cheap labor or continue manufacturing in the US, but not employing people. They would rather automate the process. Either way, those “millions” of jobs are not going back to the hands of the American workers.
Unrealistic deals
When Carrier has announced that they were able to cut deals with Trump, he did a victory lap. He announced that he prevented 1,000 jobs from going away even if only 700 stayed, mostly for white collar positions. The rest of the jobs still went to Mexico anyway. The reason why it happened was because of tax breaks. Let’s say this would be the deal moving forward, all other companies would do the same thing. Ultimately, it will just hurt the economy.
The truth is that those jobs will most likely remain in foreign hands and more companies will continue operating overseas. Automating the process would only cost them around $8 per hour and jobs abroad are even cheaper. Compare it with the US where workers used to receive $25 per hour plus benefits. The stark difference is what has made companies decide to leave or automate.
A realistic way forward
Instead of promising that he can bring back those millions of jobs that were lost, the best way moving forward is to train these workers to do other jobs. Even if let’s say those jobs are coming back, they won’t be the same jobs that these people used to have. Much of it already requires machines. If they are not trained to use them anyway, even if manufacturing remains in the US, they will still not be qualified to take on the job.
Hold Trump accountable
Trump will probably do everything he can to make good of his promise. After all, he is willing to offend everyone, except for those who have remained loyal to him right from the start. If he can’t make good of this promise, then this is where his political demise would begin. This is why it would be amazing to see how this drama unfolds considering that there is really no way for Trump to bring those jobs back in the same form or give those people the job they want at the wage that they think they deserve. The only way for Trump to move on from this is to be honest about the situation, which is obviously not what he is used to.
Photo Attribution:
Featured and 1st image courtesy of Khunaspix / freedigitalphotos.net
2nd image courtesy of koko-tewan / freedigitalphotos.net
