Death of American Innovation

The United States of America has long been known for its abilities to produce the next great machine. Expanding our nation’s abilities by building products in factories and relying on its workforce to innovate original designs, streamline production, increase product quality, and in return supply a living wage to our citizens. Innovations come from people making a product in a factory and being proud of the next great widget that they were a part of from the start. They don’t come from an office worker sending a production order to be built overseas or just over the border where wages are disgustingly low but corporate profits are high.

More and more, American companies are outsourcing their manufacturing out of the country and that is a potential blow to our future economy no matter how you look at it. The cost savings today to the American companies are paid for in lost American jobs for future generations. This then begets a “Do you want fries with that” economy. An economic engine where two cars in every driveway, parents being able to send the next generation to college, and the demise of the American dream of home ownership will not be realistic to sustain.

Over at the New York Times they have a great piece on this subject by Louis Uchitelle…

“The big debate today is whether we can continue to be competitive in R&D when we are not making the stuff that we innovate,” she says. “I think not; the two can’t be separated.”

THE loss of manufacturing capacity, measured in lost workers, is startling. From the high point in the summer of 1979, through last month, employment in manufacturing has fallen by 8.1 million, to 11.6 million, with most of the drop in just the last decade. While consumers have benefited from lower prices, made possible by unrestricted imports, on the other side of the ledger are tens of billion of dollars in lost manufacturing wages.

Something else is gone, too. “We had a storehouse of knowledge and skill built up in these workers and we can’t use it now,” says James Jordan, president of the Interstate Maglev Project, promoting a high-speed rail technology that uses special magnets to levitate and propel trains. Maglev was invented in the United States, but equipment based on that technology is manufactured and used today in Japan.

Mr. Jordan argues that as manufacturing’s presence — and status — shrinks in America, the odds of a Henry Ford or a Thomas Edison or a Steve Jobs appearing in the next generation are reduced. -New York Times

How do we fix this? My thoughts are the same as they always have been. Make it costly to corporations that want to export existing manufacturing jobs out of the United States. When you come right down to it, we should have a “Keep the Jobs in America” campaign and it doesn’t matter which political party wants to get behind it. Either party that does back such a movement will deserve thumbs up from the next generation of innovators. People that will be thankful that they will not have to look forward to a thirty plus year career at Walmart stocking shelves full of products that used to be manufactured for good wages right here at home.

Feel free to comment and shout out on products no longer made in this country. It would be interesting to see a list of industries that have died but were born in the USA.

***Yet another related Posts from Gun Toting Liberal concerning Walmart and their selling out of America...

Papamoka

Wal-Mart Anti American Invasion of America

Picture courtesy of BattleMart

Across America small town leaders drool whenever Wal-Mart comes knocking on their doors in regards to placing a store in their community. In the real world if it were any other retailer it would be like hitting the lottery for the small towns. Potential future tax dollar revenue from the store could ultimately fund the towns schools, police and fire departments. That is the dream situation for many small town leaders. The reality of what actually happens is very different.

Corporate Wal-Mart sends in the specialty teams to negotiate local tax breaks for the new store that can run into the millions of dollars for the small communities. Common sense, you would hope would have your elected leaders thinking pro and con during the negotiation process but the con part of the equation gets stuffed under the table while the wheel of pro’s is loaded up and spun.

All the while the corporate negotiators have already won no matter what the small town leaders think because the double edge sword of the process is that the same offer is on the table for surrounding cities and towns. Pitting one community against the other is the Wal-Mart way and time after time they ultimately walk into the community with the small towns paying millions for the privilege.

That it seems is just the beginning of the Wal-Mart small town of America invasion process. Once the mega retailer has opened their doors, many of the family owned business will close within months. Family run businesses that have been a part of the small town’s success for decades can not compete and are forced to close. Mind you, not one of the closing businesses had ever received tax incentives to open, expand or simply stay.

As the communities that Wal-Mart sets foot in find themselves embraced by the corporation, the jobs that they offer come with yet an even higher price. Low wages and little help with health care costs traps the workers and many of those employees of Wal-Mart have to apply for public assistance like WIC, Medicaid, State health care and more. It reminds me of the old song from the old days of coal mining where you owe your soul to the company store.

There is a great movie out that has been around since 2005 that is a must see for anyone that thinks that Wal-Mart is just another store to shop at. You can check the link to it by clicking here. It’s called “Wal-Mart, The high cost of low prices”. While the billions of dollars go into Wal-Mart’s profit statement, billions are coming out of the local, state and federal governments to pay for Wal-Mart’s practices as the nation’s largest retailer.



My condolences to the family of Harvey Ball of Worcester, MA who was the original creator of the Smiley Face that has now become synonymous with Wal-Mart.

Papamoka

The best resource for becoming active and informed about a Wal-Mart invasion near you is to join BattleMart.

Let me know what you think about Wal-Mart!

Feel free to link to or steal this post!

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Energy Savings 101

If you are like me then you hate your friendly electric utility and those nasty pieces of mail that they insist on sending you once a month called your bill. No matter how much you try to save on your electricity usage it never seems like it makes a dent in the ever rising bill. Downsizing your life to the point of living like a caveman (Sorry Geico) is not the answer to your electric bill woes. Burning candles for your lighting needs is not even remotely practical. Putting the kids on an electricity generating treadmill will only last as long as the sugar shockers they had for breakfast take to burn off. So what do we do for relief?

Take a survey of your home and look at all the light bulbs you have. Count the bulbs and write down the wattage for each bulb. Even if you don’t use that light in the closet you need to count it. It adds up quickly when you really do the math. Just in most bathrooms in the average house there are anywhere from two bulbs to an outrageous ten lights going on and off every time nature calls. Look around your own kitchen and amaze yourself with the amount of lights you actually have. Don’t forget the lighting over the stove in the vent hood! Out door lights that burn power all night long too!

Now that you have your list you can add up the wattage of each one of those bulbs. Write down the numbers seven and ten and next to that put down your last months electric bill. Put that piece of paper in a safe place that you can access it six months from now or even a year. Go to your storage bin or cabinet where you store that mega pack of replacement bulbs that you are constantly restocking. Let’s talk about saving cash on your electric utility bill.

Think fluorescent. Not like you are on a bad acid trip! Think lighting, think of soft serve ice cream cones on a hot summer day. Those funky looking bulbs you see all the time at Home Depot or Lowes. I’ll let you in on a secret, Walmart has the same bulbs that I’m talking about for almost half the cost but that will be our little secret. They had a deal the last few weeks where a three pack of 17 watt bulbs that will cost you about five dollars. Other brands are available at higher prices. Pick up a couple of different wattages in the fluorescent ice cream cone light bulb section. Sixty watts will run you about 15 to 17 watts electricity to run, 75 watts of the old bulb will run you about 23 to 26 watts to operate. Replace the old light bulbs with the equal fluorescent. Focus on replacing all of the old bulbs in the rooms you spend the most time in first and venture out from there. The cost up front is hard to swallow but if you buy them over the course of a couple of months it will not kill your budget.

The progress and long term savings of using these kinds of light bulbs will save you more money than you think. In six months to a year you can pull out that piece of paper again that you recorded the number seven and ten on, and what your electric bill was. Compare what the actual electrical kilowatt hours or KWH usage was in the same time period from six months or a year ago. If you converted half of the lights in your home you should see a huge savings. If you converted your entire home to compact fluorescent bulbs you should see an enormous savings.

Let’s get back to the seven and ten that you wrote down on your initial energy survey of lights. That is the average number of years one fluorescent bulb will last given normal usage. If you think about it, in one year’s time you have not had to replace even one fluorescent bulb. In seven years you may have to replace one or two, in ten to twenty years you may have to replace five. Looks like that storage area for replacement bulbs can be used for something more important like hiding the Oreo cookies from the kids!

There is a dizzying array of light bulbs on the market today -- bulbs that last longer, burn brighter, cost less to operate, are more environmentally friendly or cast a more natural light. Here's a basic guide to keep you out of the dark: - Washington Post

Papamoka

Send me your home energy saving tips and I'll post them here at Papamoka Straight Talk.

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Pet Food that Kills, Recall issued

In pretty much every home in America there is the unspoken family member that we all love and cherrish. Our cat or our dog are family members just as much as Mom or Pop are. Some people such as myself refer to the dog as my baby boy. He’s the first one to greet me and the last one to say good night before he beds down with one of the girls. Kids and pets are sometimes like brothers and sisters, the love is always there.

Could it be possible that I could poison my baby girl with her cat food or my baby boy with his regular dog food? Apparently, that fact is a reality. The Boston Herald has this alert to its readers and I hope they don’t mind to much that I borrowed it to alert my readers as well…

Tainted food eyed in feline’s death

By Peter Reuell/ Metrowest Daily News

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

“Fluffy,” a beloved blue-eyed family cat from Milford, could be the Bay State’s first casualty in a tainted pet-food crisis sweeping the nation.

Some 60 million cans and pouches of a variety of brand name cat and dog foods - possibly containing contaminated wheat gluten - have been recalled after reports of mostly cats perishing from kidney failure.

“What makes me angry is if we had this information a week ago, it would have saved her,” said Denise Tracy of her pet cat she plucked from a free litter more than a decade ago.

“We had to put her down Thursday night,” Tracy said, adding her 16-year-old son held his pet as the fatal shot was humanely administered. “It was very heartbreaking,” said the mother of five. “I’ll never forget the veterinarian’s words: ‘Her heart has stopped.’ ”

Snip

Now Tracy is left to console her son and four other children while trying to warn every pet owner she knows. Even her dog “Rosie,” a Cairn terrier, feels the loss of a playmate.

“I never expected it to be so emotional,” she said last night. “Everybody is upset. It’s been a funeral parlor around here.”

The recall now covers dog food sold throughout North America under 51 brands and cat food sold under 40 brands, including Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba. The food was sold under both store and major brand labels at Wal-Mart, Kroger, Safeway and other large retailers. – Boston Herald

Menu Foods Income Fund has a complete list of dog and cat food that has been recalled. Please check your pets food against this list and toss it out if you find it on there. There is nothing worse than losing a pet that you love just as much you would your own children. If it is preventable then I want to get the message out there to save lives.

Pet owners and lovers of dogs and cats please link to this post. The life you save is important in so many ways to you and your family.

Papamoka