Comments on: Creating an upscale service economy

By: Samrch

Samrch — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 22:04:17 +0000

Unskilled work will always pay less. Many of these jobs are only in existence because de-industrialization create a large pool of workers willing to take low pay. The fast food industry is an example. In addition is depends on teens that should be in school.

By: Sanity-Monger

Sanity-Monger — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:40:43 +0000

The Industrial Revolution did not bring general prosperity until factory workers began getting paid better. This was not brought about by free market forces, but was the result of years of struggle by workers, risking their livelihoods and their lives for better pay and working conditions (and Fordism contributed as well). Somehow, the economy not only adjusted, but prospered under these new realities. That is, up until real pressure started being brought to bear from foreign competition. Human services workers generally do not face foreign competition, and there’s no reason to suppose that raising their compensation would wreak any more long-term damage than when factory workers got a break in the mid-20th century. And as Mr. Kuttner points out, we’d all benefit from improved quality of service.

By: Bob9999

Bob9999 — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:59:40 +0000

Look at the space between goods and services, such as “non-traded goods” (i.e., local services). For example, most clothing is manufactured overseas, in places like Bangladesh where they recently had a well-publicized fire. Clothing tends not to be made in the U.S. because of the high labor labor content of clothing. However, retail tailors and seamstresses are necessarily located near their customers. One thing that could increase the local content of clothing would be to develop automation to reduce the cost of providing retail tailor and seamstress services so that more people would purchasing clothing that has to be fitted. This is, of course, how things were done in the past. However, it may also make sense for the future, because the growth manufacturing in the U.S. is very focused on highly automated processes which do not add as many jobs as did the manufacturing technologies of the 1950s. Unions used to oppose job-eliminating automation, but they do not do so anymore because the jobs being eliminating by the use of new manufacturing technologies in the United States are jobs that are currently located in China. What might make sense is to focus on customizing products at the retail level as a way to add value in a way that provides skilled employment that is not exported as soon as someone finds an opportunity to arbitrage the international labor market.

By: tmc

tmc — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:30:25 +0000

What dream world does this guy live in? Everyone can’t have “Professional” jobs. To say they can is propping up people with false hopes. It is almost criminal. I was expecting him to give everyone a million dollars to eliminate poverty too. The only way this guys world works is with DNA manipulation and complete population control.

By: Alex77

Alex77 — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:17:46 +0000

This is not true. The US is not destined abandon manufacturing. Many “services” add no value and should not be part of the US economy, they are simply troll fees set up to enrich gatekeepers for perpetuity. Germany is a prime example of how smart manufacturing and working protections have created a juggernaut of high demand products and higher trade surpluses. The incredible waste and carbon exporting scheme of having unregulated nations do all our manufacturing for us is both dishonest and a sustainability nightmare. Furthermore, creating a “service” economy to cater to the elite has gotten us to where we are now which is stalled and indebted. Please don’t make things even worse with more trickle down trickery.