I heard on C-span concerning the depletion of manufacturing jobs as analogous to the loss of agricultural jobs during the first half of the last century. The productivity level of agricultural products was so enhanced that small farms became almost obsolete. The analogy, however, is flawed because the massive shift to the industrial cities was absorbed by manufacturing jobs. Even the increased productivity of manufacturing by virtue of robotic assembly lines in the latter half of the last century, had little effect on jobs in light of the continuing increase in post war demand, including exports. 

From the analogy one is to infer that inevitable efficiency of productivity means holding the line on consumer costs and makes for a viable economy. If this were true, is it not fair to assume that, say the automobile, would be much less costly? And would not the Ford plant in Mexico turn out cars cheaper than does Detroit? Granted there is nothing glamorous about manufacturing employment, so the analogy comforts the average Joe or Jane as free spirits with many options such as a careers with McDonald or WalMart.

Of course, the mythology of the productivity level is that this nation’s workers are now free to engage in the miracle of technology wherein glamorous opportunities do exist for those blest with higher education. With the prevalent criticism of today’s sorry public education the myth is hardly an inspiration for the average trying to eke out subsistence. Moreover, this government is against opening up new frontiers of industry related to alternative energy, protecting the environment, and modernizing infrastructure.  

Productivity stems from invention of machinery that can do the work of many or ease the labor time of one. The few small farmers that still exist, no longer use the horse and plow, but rely on John Deere. The hand-wiring of the early radio and tv sets was painstaking, and with the advent of the transistor, has been supplanted by the more efficient press of circuit boards. Linotypists have been sent to pasture by the publishing world –and good riddance to the typewriter. 

In a progressive society this is as it should be, and in no way should one suggest that for the sake of full employment should the clock be turned back; however, honesty should be demanded when the myth of productivity goes too far and portrays it as inventiveness when in truth most of the productivity level owes its laurels to cheap labor abroad. For that is precisely what the myth spinners are really talking about; for in the last analysis productivity means a bottom line by reducing the cost of labor that is metamorphosed into profits, not necessarily lower prices – whatever happened to the cheaper foreign car? And what is the explanation for labor costs at McDonald in New York being higher than in South Carolina, yet are not the prices universal? 

To return to agriculture for a moment, productivity is not all that it seems, what with the flow of illegal immigrants and migrant workers who still have to harvest the old fashioned way and at ridiculously low wages – echoes of “Grapes of Wrath.” Furthermore, in face of the nation becoming overwhelmingly service oriented, there's not much gain in productivity -- still require hard mail, despite e-mail, sanitation and cycling, check-out counters, landscapers, ad nauseum. As for manufacturing, in a time of a Great War will the US count on foreign countries to mobilize their peacetime factories to wartime, inasmuch as the once great home-grown industries are debilitated? 

Everyone bitches about the plumber who pulls up in his Cadillac to replace washers at $50 a pop; but seldom is there outrage over the cast of “Friends” ripping off the entertainment industry with its one million a show salary, or the indecent, mammoth wealth of Bill Gates, let alone the scandalous acts of CEOs. This nation is infamous for its passion for glamour, and its indifference to the working stiff. 

Copyright © 2003 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: December 11, 2003 .