Forum Post: OccupyTheConstitution Jobs

The whole issue of JOBS is now center stage in the economy. But there is so much confusion about it, especially when it's whipped up into an emotional maelstrom by the devastation of human lives it causes. Why hasn't society figured this out yet? Because the true underlying issues have not been brought forward and listed in simple clear terms. Let's get that done.

The reason all the bickering is going on about Chinese currency devaluation and sending jobs off shore is that people are being misled by the malicious political rhetoric used to drive elections. Neither currency differences nor low cost wages are the fundamental issues. Here are a few elements to start with.

AUTOMATION

Every day we hear the phrase "sending jobs offshore". This phrase is a malicious political smoke screen. In business, a "job" is defined by a "job description". If one country is cutting sugar cane by hand, the "job description" is something like: using a hand scythe, cut sugar cane and carry it to a weighing station. In another country, which uses machinery, the "job description" is something like: drive a cane harvester and process 250 acres of cane a day. These are NOT the same job. In the first case, one laborer might hand cut only a quarter acre a day. In the second case, the laborer drives a machine which harvests 1000 times as much cane. To logically say we are "sending jobs offshore", they have to be the SAME job in both places. The primary factor affecting the U.S. job market over the past 50 years was AUTOMATION!

As communication and transportation technology improved, global commerce increased. This began with Japan in the '70s and '80s. The U.S. was smug with self pride while Japan learned to produce VERY SUPERIOR products at much lower cost. While U.S. hand labor manufacturing still thought production defect rates of 2% was "normal", Japan began producing products using "automated machines" ( not just cheap labor ) with defect rates less than 1 part per MILLION. They did it at 1/10 the cost of American parts due to AUTOMATION. No equivalent automation "JOB" was sent to Japan because the U.S. didn't have them.

The Irony in all of this is that Japan was taught how to do it by an American quality expert: W. Edwards Demming. American industry REFUSED to pay any attention to him until our country was in recession. By the time the U.S. woke up in the late '80s, Asian quality and low prices were the mainstay for U.S. consumers. And while U.S. companies tried to change paradigms, they were still led by "old world" U.S. executives who still had "old world" ideas. PLUS, Asia had no intention of waiting for the U.S. to catch up. Their slogan was "continuous improvement". To this day, the U.S. has not caught up, and in fact continues to lag farther behind, because we have not let go of our "old world" models. Education and medical care are prime examples. Neither of these has a "clue" about what the Deming quality model is. Sure, they spout the buzz words. But they are clueless about what the words really mean.

CURRENCY IMBALANCE

We are hearing a lot about other countries controlling the currency exchange rate. We are being told by the politicians that this is the cause of the labor rate difference. The irony is that the availability of better goods at cheaper prices is actually a large BOON for the country that RECEIVES the goods. This is true whether the low cost comes from better production methods OR currency pricing. Why? Because the lower cost of goods allows the receiver to ACHIEVE PLANNED GOALS at lower cost. A tragedy only occurs when the country receiving this benefit gets lost in its internal corruption and political wars and fails to use the benefits of low cost goods to IMPROVE its society. And that's what the U.S. has done! Instead of using the BOON in goods to improve our infrastructure, to clean up the environment for everyone, to raise the standard of living for everyone, especially the poor, to improve education, etc. , the value was converted into $$$ by Wall Street and hoarded by the 1%. And because so many of us got a piece of the action, in terms of $$$, we went along with it.

{ Because of its length, the remainder of this Introduction to JOBS is shown below at the END of the discussion. Jump down to http://occupywallst.org/forum/occupytheconstitution-jobs/#comment-579860 }

(This post is part of a collection of posts aimed at launching a new process called the National Opinion Collection System (NOCS). For more information on the process, see http://occupywallst.org/forum/occupytheconstitution-introduction/ )