SUNDAY MEMES:

A day late.

You'll Never Guess What They Found On McDonald's Touchscreens

see also:

• You'll Never Guess What They Found On McDonald's Touchscreens
• Once again, contributing to our own demise.
• The contribution of automation/mechanization and Artificial Intelligence to a smaller job market.
• Self-checkout - killing jobs

Growing income inequality: The contribution of automation/mechanization and Artificial Intelligence to a smaller job market.

Remember those jobs that were shipped overseas by those so-called job creators? Remember the 2016 campaign rhetoric about bringing those jobs back? Well, the jobs coming back will not be the manual labor jobs that left.

Through the '50s, 60's and 70's there was an acceptance of the inevitable shift to automation, but it was progressing too slow. Many accepted it as inevitable but no one was ready for it. Mindsets and technology were to slow for corporate America, but corporate America couldn’t wait. Seeing the slow-motion increase of automation was drawing too much criticism and fear of job loss by the working man they realized that they needed an intermediate mechanism for developing automation technology and a fall guy to make way for the acceptance of automation. The intermediate mechanism was third world countries and the fall guy would be the unions.

Corporations shipped those jobs overseas to undercut unions. By villainizing union workers as the blame for high prices, they reduced their overhead greatly, but did you ever see a labor cost related price cut? No, because there is no such animal. After all lower prices weren’t the intent, higher profits were the motive.

Knowing that even non-union workers couldn’t compete with third-world wages, corporations lobbied for trade agreements that made it easier to ship American jobs overseas. In doing so they got the added benefits of avoiding regulation and environmental concerns as well as labor costs such as vacations, insurance, seniority, and safety regulations.
Still no related price reductions.

Corporate America villainized union workers by painting their good wages, benefits and job security as greedy detriments to low-cost manufacturing. Behind this villainization, corporate America was able to steadily ship those union jobs out of the country.

Those jobs will never return because they were never meant to. It wasn’t about reducing labor costs to acceptable levels, or lower prices… it was about reducing labor costs to near zero to increase profits! The rationalized shift to reduce manual labor cost was a distraction from the ultimate goal: automation/mechanization. Jobs were exported to reduce labor, environmental, benefits and safety cost until technology could catch up with the ultimate zero dollar manufacturing model:

As predicted workforce reductions have led to factories staffed with more machines and fewer workers, fewer supervisors, and once machines can fix machines, or even themselves, no supervisors or IT guys. Near zero labor cost.

That's what happened and now that most of those exported jobs have been mechanized they will return in the form of robotics and AI.
When was the last time you heard any rhetoric about bringing those jobs back? The 2016 election… and since then zilch!

“Declining unionization, increasingly demanding and empowered shareholders, decreasing real minimum wages, reduced worker protections, and the increases in outsourcing domestically and abroad have disempowered workers with profound consequences for the labor market and the broader economy,” the authors write in Declining Worker Power and American Economic Performance.

• Does the US tax code favor automation? 
• Declining worker power and American economic performance

Self-checkout - killing jobs

read more...

Once again, contributing to our own demise.

Updated and reposted from June 8, 2019

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• To lift the American economy, we need to understand the workers at the bottom of it

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• Pathways to high-quality jobs for young adults

• Meet the low-wage workforce

  
  

I promise to never buy a Carrier or UTEC product again!

by Glenn Littrell

Obviously "Buy American" is a slogan that sounds good but is seldom carried out. Maybe its too positive and should be more negative. Negative politics seems to draw more notice and inflame more people into response so lets go negative in advocating for saving American Jobs.

Instead of encouraging people to voluntarily buy American Products we should established "Do Not Buy" boycott list for the public like labor unions do for their members.

 

MORE IMPORTANTLY we need municipalities and state governments to stop kissing the ass of companies when they close shop and run.

 

Instead of just offering sympathy when this happens, the first words off the lips of community and government leaders should be to encourage citizens to promise to never buy another Carrier product again, and then to provide a list of their so called suppliers for the purpose of a boycott of them too.

Before some internet troll starts whining about overpaid Americans, particularly overpaid Union Workers look at the wages paid in Mexico. No American could survive on those wages. So don’t try and blame overpaid workers or Unionist. Blame Trade Agreements that make it easier, not harder, for foreign countries to undercut American Workers, blame Tax loopholes and shelters that encourages outsourcing. Unionist and some progressive Democrats are the only people in this country fighting outsourcing and unfair trade agreements.

This isn’t the first time this has happened in Indiana, yet those companies that moved their manufacturing out of country still sell products in Indiana. If our governors and mayors can offer tax incentives (our money) to companies that locate here they can at least publicly advocate against companies who leave.

It doesn’t have to be done thru legislation (probably couldn’t anyway), it could be done the same way as ‘no new tax pledges’ are done. Public statements and campaign promises. Wouldn’t be perfect, but going negative might work better than the passive “Buy American” slogan.

---

UPDATES:

Carrier in Indianapolis and UTEC in Huntington, are owned by United Technologies and received incentives from the state of Indiana in the past. Last year the company posted a $7.2 billion profit.

Carrier recieved up to $200,000 in job training grants from the state of Indiana (Indiana Economic Developement Council.

The Department of Energy awarded Carrier $5.1 million in clean energy tax credits in December 2013.

Carrier, received more than $5 million in stimulas money.

The Mayor, the Governor, a U.S. Senator and even presidential candidates are talking about punishing Carrier for putting 2,100 Hoosiers - including 1,400 in Indianapolis - out of work. The phase-out will occur over the course of three years with layoffs beginning in May 2017, according to Carrier.

The plan by Carrier to move to Mexico is drawing outrage well beyond the Indianapolis workers losing their jobs. Companies in Madison County who manufacture heating and air conditioning equipment are now boycotting Carrier.

Do you live in an apartment? Look at your Air Conditioner and Furnace. Can you tell if they are Carrier or UTEC made? If they are go to your apartment manager and see if they are willing to take a stance on the outsourcing of Indiana jobs. If not start a petition in your apartments for them to make a statement (press release, letter to your petition drive or directly to the workers union).

Tuesday, Carrier told the union that the closure is basically a done deal, explaining that the average worker in Indianapolis makes more than $20 an hour, and that Mexican workers can be paid $6 an hour.

Exposing The UPC Barcode Myth:

by Glenn Littrell

updated 2-1-2015: see also Decoding your produce: 

re-posted from 7-24-2010:

Recently an article has surfaced in several locations stating that you can tell where an item was manufactured by examining the consumer UPC barcode on the package. This article is almost verbatim from a ‘spam’ email that has been circulated for some time now.

The ‘gist’ of the article/email is that by examining the barcode you can use the information to avoid purchasing items ‘Made In China’.

The problem with the article is the misplacing of the emphasis on China and the

Union Values: Made In America

From the AFL-CIO NOW Blog

reposted from July-2010

Dave Johnson writes for the Campaign for America’s Future and adapted this post for us.

Our country was born out of a fight to cast off colonial rule by a wealthy elite and govern ourselves as We, the People. This fight continues, and nothing more clearly  represents this American effort to lift each other up than organized labor. On July 4, as we celebrate our independence I encourage people to recognize our ongoing battle by buying Made in USA goods, and by working for democracy and the rights of workers everywhere.

I recently bought a hat with “AFL-CIO” written on it. Inside the hat there is a label that reads, “Union Made in the USA.” I was thinking about how unions wouldn’t buy cheap hats made in China or by some nonunion sweatshop, even if it was in the United States. They stick with their values.

Resources For You

Made in America:

Host John Ratzenberger brings you the stories of the best people, places and products in the United States . Watch the show Tuesdays at 9 and 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on the Travel Channel. For a list of American made products click on the “Get The Goods” link at:

http://travel.discovery.com/tv/ratzenberger-america/goods/goods.html

Made In America Website:

http://stillmadeinusa.com/ articles and links concerning job outsourcing, globalization etc., as well as links to many shopping catagories and toys made in the USA .

For Union-Made Clothing
[The Sweatshop-Free Alternative]:

For Union Made Products go to:

  and use the “Find Union-Made Products & Services” search box.

Wal-Mart: Think Before You Shop!

Deadly Toys, Poisoned Pets: More Reasons To Buy American

by Glenn Littrell

Toothpaste, toys, and pet food. Major recalls of over 3 million items, all imported, all from China. All cheap, all non-regulated, all use to be manufactured in America. Companies were quick to offer apologies and assurances that they are on top of things and it will not happen again, or at least they will take steps to better prevent it. Weeks later another recall of over 300,000 Barbie dolls followed by another. The culprit... lead paint, again. The dangers of lead paint are not new. In this country bans have been in effect for decades.

China has said that it will no longer allow the use of lead paint in toys, but the very next day it was revealed in Congressional hearings that millions of pieces of children’s jewelry from China are already in this country. In a country like China (that is ruled by an elite, arrogant, and corrupt communist party) how can we expect enforcement when they lack safety codes and manufacturing standards for their citizenship? A communist party that sees capitalism as a scourge that they must protect their citizens from, but that they will tolerate for their own personal gain.   With no human or civil rights granted to the peasant citizenship how can we expect them to do more than give token considerations to product standards to protect our citizens? Capitalism in the hands of a corrupt government ensures that corruption will rule in favor of the pockets of that government.

We are constantly made aware that few goods are made in America by cries about the outsourcing of American jobs to other countries. Unfortunately we tend to absorb these complaints as an unavoidable fact of live as long as it’s not our job. In other words as long as it’s affect me is to lower the cost of an item I consume THEN that’s a good thing. But these recent recalls should serve as a warning that outsourcing affects more than lower prices and someone else’s job. It also affects the safety of the consumer of every outsourced product and that is all of us.

When Mattel, RCA or any other company closes their American plant and moves it to a third world or communist country (and it is always a third world or communist country) they don’t just shut the plant and move their operations to that country. They totally eliminate their manufacturing operations and set up a purchasing operation there. This is true in most cases and especially China. This is why major retailers like Wal-Mart force their suppliers to relocate to China specifically. They are no longer manufacturers they are just importers. They sub-contract the manufacturing to an unheard of entity and then market products based on their own well known name. This is what drastically lowers their cost of production; they eliminate their production cost and replace them with purchasing cost. They have little, if anything other than token, oversight over the manufacturing of their products.

Many American companies are no longer manufacturers of their product but are just importers and as importers they are limited to their own voluntary inspection of a very small portion of their imports.

In third world countries with weak governments, weakened infrastructures, weak manufacturing, virtually non-existent labor laws, undeveloped civil and human rights, low standards of living, and non-existent environmental regulations how can we expect them to have an effective oversight system that treats our products better than they treat their citizens?

In a communist country where civil and human rights are outlawed and the plants that manufacture goods are government owned, absent of regulation or free market pressures, and are manufacturing goods that their own plant workers will never be able to afford, why would we expect them to have a concern for our product safety?

Why would we expect our importers to exert pressures on plants that are owned and operated by a monopolistic, elite, corrupt and arrogant communist party? Remember these are free marketer capitalist who have crawled into bed with a Communist regime in order to make a cheaper buck! 

And don’t expect the free market right-wing politicians to raise more than token objections to China’s lack of regulation and controls when they themselves constantly preach the sins of government regulations for product safety, human and civil rights and environmental concerns in this country.

It is time we realized we have to break our addiction to cheaper prices. There are two ways to make your voice heard in this country, with your vote and your dollar. We have become complacent with our right to vote and ignorant of our right to choose how we spend our money. Too many of us think we have no option except to buy made in China products. For some of us maybe we can’t afford to turn away from Wal-Mart and other importers because of economic reasons, but for many of us it is our addiction to cheaper goods that dictates that not true poverty. Those of us who can afford it need to be more selective, at least occasionally.

Yes we are just a grain of sand on a large beach when it comes to the grand scheme of things, both in terms of our lonely dollar and our singular vote, but as a little old lady speaking out on the right to vote at a APRI Conference said:

“…me and my vote might just be a grain of sand on a beach, but let me get in your eye or the crack of your butt and then you see if I can’t get your attention…”

Many changes have resulted from large or popular economic boycotts, but they all started small with concerned individuals making small individual sacrifices before they snowballed into movements. You may not be able to get involved in a time and effort consuming movement, but you can always make a choice with your dollar and your vote.

Buy American and vote like an American!

Are you familiar with the term “blowback”? It’s a term reminiscent of the fifty and sixties phrase “ugly American” We hear it more and more on the news in reference to terrorism, the war in Iraq, and in political rhetoric. Does our exporting of our jobs and manufacturing to China and third world countries have the potential for future “blowback?”   Yes......more on that.

Glenn Littrell