Quote:
Originally Posted by skinsguy
Let's not judge people for wanting to work in textile mills. I realize some of you guys probably look down on the American factory worker, but there are/were those who truly enjoyed those jobs. Dad loved his job at Fieldcrest as a loom tech. And, he made just as much...if not more doing that than what some of us college educated people did/do on their jobs. In fact, he made enough to allow my mom to stay home and raise me and my brothers. We were not rich by any stretch, but we were not poor either.
Someone mentioned inflation being sky high if these people had kept their jobs. Well guess what? Inflation is going sky high as it is. The price of gasoline has double and tripled in the last couple of years, which also has affected the prices on everything else. Yet, we still just get 3% raise which is eaten up (and then some) by the rising cost of company insurance and having to contribute more to retirement because the company is matching less.
Yeah, things sure look rosey right now!  |
I don't think anyone is looking down on factory workers. In fact, I think you'll find that most, if not all, of us have a great deal of admiration and sympathy for factory workers. That some of us believe that certain jobs aren't sustainable in the U.S. is not a statement of belief about any workers, it is a statement of belief about the realities of the new global economy.
I think a fundamental problem with our country is that we expect the government to be able to "fix" just about everything. Anytime something goes wrong, we blame the government. We consume energy at an astronomical rate by driving SUVs, living in the suburbs and commuting 2 hours per day, keeping our thermostats at 78 degrees in the dead of winter, etc. and yet we complain to the government about the cost of oil. We fill our bodies with all sorts of toxins, live sedentary lifetsyles, smoke cigarettes, fail to take preventative steps to ward of illness, etc. and complain about the cost of health care. We want buy the cheapest goods regardless of where or how they are manufactured and yet we don't understand why U.S. companies are shipping jobs abroad. We complain about all sorts of things when the blame for many of our woes lies squarely on our own backs.
That's not to say our government should do nothing and has no place in regulating the market, corporations, etc., but we need to stop eating our cake and then complaining about cake shortages.