Economic "rescue": Opinion from a past plant manager
- February 24, 2009 11:56 AM |
- By Your Voice
Submitted by John Dunn
Bio/About: I am a 76-year-old retiree but I still do some work for a chemical industry association in the Niagara area. I graduated from McGill University in 1956 with a chemical engineering degree. Worked all of my career with one company, B.F. Goodrich Chemical, the last fifteen years as plant manager of a mid-sized chemical plant. I am keenly aware of the trials that Canadian manufacturers are going through trying to compete with countries that have wage rates that are about one tenth of what we have in Canada.
My take: The current "rescue" of the economy with a great infusion of cash will have a short term beneficial effect on the economy. All of the much needed work on the country's infrastructure will put a lot of people to work on a temporary basis.
What happens when all of this work is finished in five years?
To have a sustained economy, 95 per cent of the work force has to be working. Manufacturing / industrial jobs are "head of household" type jobs and typically support at least three to four jobs in other sectors. Most of the people who have these jobs buy homes and cars.
The Canadian and U.S. manufacturing jobs that have been exported to China and other eastern countries have not been replaced, period. Nor do we see any movement in this direction. The factories that closed have been dismantled.
What we are seeing in this recession are the long-term effects of these job losses. The recession will resume once the infrastructure work is finished. Our government has to develop a plan to get our manufacturing jobs, or their equivalent, back; to get our people back to working on meaningful, constructive, well paying jobs. Without doing this we will be back into a recession within a few years after the infrastructure work is complete.
We have to develop policies that will encourage our manufacturing corporations to invest in their own country. It is up to this government to see that this is done.
What do you think? Add your comment below.
Categories
All News blogs
Most Commented
Most Recommended
Citizen Bytes
Most Commented
Most Recommended
Recent Entries
- G20: Protesters, police, and civil rights
- Riot police surround G20 protesters in Toronto. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)Submitted by Paul ManlyBio: Paul Manly is a filmmaker and community organizer based in Nanaimo, B.C. My story: I started my trip to Toronto at the Peoples Summit, which brought together... Continue reading this post
- G20: A voice from Malawi
- Dorothy Ngoma at Oxfam's Gender Justice Summit. (Allan Lissner/Oxfam Canada)Submitted by Dorothy NgomaDorothy Ngoma is the Executive Director of the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi and a member of the W8, a parallel organization to the... Continue reading this post
- Bangkok protests: A Canadian shares her story
- Thai police walk the streets to clear any remaining anti-government protesters on in Bangkok, Thailand. (Wally Santana/Associated Press) Submitted by Elaine SaulnierBio: Orignally from Montreal, Elaine Saulnier now lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand.My story: I've been here in... Continue reading this post
Comments (6)
Perhaps what the government needs to start with is to discontinue all tax breaks and concessions to companies that ship our jobs out of the country.
Before any company moves jobs or entire businesses out of the country maybe a full and complete companywide audit should be done. The audit results and recommendations to be presented to the employees in Canada for their consideration in terms of buying the company or portion to be moved.
My comment is that you are right in what you are saying but at present our government don't have a plan and I don't know if they will get one. The 2 comments are also right on. We need to use the tax system and to study or audit companies to ensure that they stay in this country and to ensure fair competition; but most of all, regardless of the state of the economy, government needs to design the economy in good times and bad, something that they have never done. We need a vision and a plan and go with it. Future economies must recognize that all jobs are important, even low paying jobs that may have to be subsidized. At present we are doing that even with high paying jobs.
Why have government not created laws that provide true justice to the CEOS and so called financial wizards that created the financial nightmare the world is now suffering? Their incompetence and greed caused the collapse of banks, pension funds, manufacturing plants, etc. Yet, they still received compensation amounting to millions of dollars bankrolled by bailouts paid from our taxes! Outrages! Why cannot a law be created that would "claw back" all of these compensation amounts and put a cap on obscene executuve wages, while so many others cannot even pay rent or put food on their table.
This race to the bottom by our corporations shipping manufacturing offshore will eventually come back to the bite them as it has already their employees...take away the jobs and it won`t matter how cheap goods are at Wal-Mart if no one is buying.
Short term gain...long term pain.
Thank you Mr. Corporation
All of this may be true to some extent, but the real problem is the discrepency between our stardard of living and those of others around the world. Simply I think our standard of living, especially the excesses, and the world's average standard of living must become closer together. We do have an advantage for the short term in that everyone needs our resources so that we can demand more. In the short term. If the gap closes then transportation costs will force us to make our own manufactured goods at home.