01.22.11
The Bullshit Manufacturer, part 3
Jeffrey Immelt, Obama’s new advisor, in the Washington Post:
In the past two years, GE has created about 6,000 manufacturing jobs in the States, many resulting from investments in innovations such as advanced batteries, which we will make at our 100-year-old plant in Schenectady, N.Y.
Wow. Six thousand whole jobs. About ten times the extras used the in the latest GE commercials.
Paul Krugman, dismissing Immelt’s op-ed as “vacuous.”
So for when we get to all the talk about Sputnik moments and renewed competitiveness on the 25th, more edifying charts:
Top line = China. Checkmark = US. Source: Dept. of Commerce.
Cratering of US strategic materials/rare earth mining, ceding market to China because US production and labor ‘too expensive.’
Growth of US budget for unmanned killer drones. Expense and labor costs no object.
Growth in homeland security workers versus all other government regulatory jobs.
Steel, strategic materials — stuff for making things, destroyed almost beyond repair.
Alleged ‘innovation: General Atomics and killer drones.
Job creation: Anything having to do with national security.
bjkeefe said,
January 22, 2011 at 9:47 pm
That last chart, the regulatory workers one, is really something. I’m going to have to keep that one in mind.
Major Variola (ret) said,
January 23, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Actually the rise of Fatherland Security is well known. Not so well known but well depicted in these graphs, is the decline of both manufacturing and raw materials in the US. As Ed Tufte notes, graphs are great for showing many relationships.
Perhaps we can sell the Chinese refinancing contracts after they buy the Washington Memorial in the forthcoming fire sale.
At least the highly trained tech grad student population is Amerikan… oh, right. Biff wants his benz without having to do math, which his wife Barbie notes is “hard”.
I always wondered what the ‘decline of Rome’ was, and thanks to the modern speed of events, I get to see it in one lifetime!
George Smith said,
January 23, 2011 at 10:06 pm
The subtext shown by these graphs, with respect to US materials and manufacturing, is that corporate America has no interest in paying American labor to make things. Unless the labor is paid for by the taxpayer — which explains the big divergence between domestic military manufacturing and civilian.
Corporate America’s interests aren’t congruent with a strong nation. Just the opposite.