In Manufacturing, There Is A Choice Between Capital And Labor...

Much of the US has and is still fretting about the loss of jobs in manufacturing, but the inevitable loss of jobs becomes a headline of changing times not something that one can do something about. As healthcare cost rise, employers can either move jobs overseas or redeploy capital to reduce labor expenses. In other words, at a cost, it makes sense to consider using a robot to do what was once done by a person.

So as American companies redeploy their resources, relatively high jobs in manufacturing are lost.... to robots. Of course the bogeyman of cheap Chinese labor is foisted up for all of us to take shots at, but in the long-term, this is something that will be adjusted away. The transformation of capital vs. labor is even greater in the Chinese economy as it is in the US as evidenced by decreasing manufacturing employment in China due to huge strides in productivity. Inefficient enterprises are losing workers at a faster rate than new ones are adding and the only reason that employment is growing is the shift of manufacturing assets to China that will inevitably slow down one day.

Even the Christian Science Monitor has to deal with these social issues and does so in an adult, non-New York Times [NYT always makes it into a class warfare issue] manner. However, it doesn't change the pressures that face American's today. We are competing on the global stage... so we can either be in the game or we can be out of it, like France is. Its our choice.