2mo ago

U.S. Secretary of Commerce says the ‘new model’ is factory jobs for life—for you, your kids, and your grandkids

fortune.com

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29566496

https://archive.is/wGp2F
So slavery as indentured servitude is the American future. Way to "new model" the old model.

31 comments

They're living in the past, trying to stimulate an economy that no longer exists, and not realizing they are the reason that economy doesn't exist anymore.
- Late Soviet union Perestroika vibes 🫠
There are just so many layers of delusional here. If you are going to paint a delusional fantasy, why paint a dystopic one like that, why not tell people everyone is going to get their own pet unicorn that poops gold nuggets?
- That's honestly a more realistic prospect than bringing back American manufacturing.
Producing what? For who? No one wants expensive Nazi crap internationally and you can't have a domestic economy worth half a shit without international trade. See N. Korea for reference.
- Producing what?
  Feyntanal make it in the good ol UsA, in biggly factories
Your labor will be so cheap the robots you build for the wealthy will have a higher standard of living.
Minus unions, pensions, and freedom.
“Arbeit macht frei”
Makes perfect sense when we've spent the last couple of decades pivoting to a service economy.
/s if it wasn't obvious.
No thanks. I'd rather die in this homeless shelter.
- Sorry, the homeless shelter got defunded. Don't worry, they'll turn it to luxury condos.
The children are yearning for the mines
Alright folks, I agree that this dude is tone deaf. Buuut...
Coming from a factory worker - life in the factory doesn't have to be as shitty as it currently is in my opinion. I see it as a failure of management that factory work is so soul sucking.
And as a society we rely on the efficiency that factory production brings - my understanding is that without factories, an economy is generally less able to support artists etc.
I feel like the core idea that many people will be working in factories isn't necessarily bad...
- Not necessarily wrong buuut that can only come true with strong labor protections, fair employment practices, guaranteed benefits and solid wages. The reasons we have labor unions, OSHA, EPA, etc. All things conservatives want to destroy.
  Trump's SOC may promise this utopia, but he will not deliver. They want Great Smog of London-producing factories. They want 1 week of PTO per year, no sick time, no parental leave, no retirement, bare minimum healthcare to keep your ass working until you drop.
  Why, asked Legasov? Because it's cheaper.
  Edit: Heck, they're already throwing child labor laws out the window, and it's not about "letting kids learn the value of a dollar." It's about explicitly exploiting people who don't yet know their own value, in the short term. And in the longer term, it's about making sure they never know what it was like to have a desk job, or a service job, or a job in education or the arts. Never let them yearn for a better life, by never letting them figure out that one could exist.
  
  So then it would seem more productive to bash the Trump administration's labor policies than to bash the idea that there should be factory workers. The take away from this article for me is not that it is crazy for people and their children (once grown) to work in factories, but that we need to advance the policies you point out to make that into a reality that is sustainable.
- It’s a failure of ownership not management. If the people doing the work had ownership over the building, tools, process and products, it would only be as shitty as desired.
  cf. Mondragon
Shaddup an’ eat yer gruel!
And the Company Store is Walmart.
My first thought
So, wait. whose face is getting eaten here? The actual face itself is presumably "back in the factory with you, wage slave", but who actually voted for this?
https//youtube.com/watch?v=jg047oJf1B4\&t=45s

31 comments