Sauer-Danfoss Health Insurance

The Truth Hurts: The Real Reason American Manufacturing Is in Trouble

According to Carl Pope , a former chairman of the Sierra Club, manufacturing jobs aren't leaving America because of high wages -- they're leaving because the government has made it ridiculous to stay.

Pope argues that Germany and Japan, both successful and high-end manufacturing economies also deal with high wages, regulations or union laws. The difference between what makes these foreign manufacturing economies successful has to do with government support.

Government support
"A growing number of public officials, such as former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, have come to see manufacturing as the key to economic revival and jobs," reports Pope (via Bloomberg).

Still, the U.S. government is downright hostile to manufacturing -- companies must maneuver unfavorable tax policies, varying state-by-state regulations, infrastructure, and permits, and the high cost burden of health care, to name a few.

Consider pensions and retiree health care, something Pope explains many foreign societies take care of. But in the U.S., manufacturing companies "have carried these costs like a ball and chain."

"We are not victims of an impersonal Leviathan called 'globalization.' We're the suckers who allowed our government to sacrifice the manufacturing sector while protecting the real winners: commodities, intellectual property , finance and agribusiness. The U.S. didn't lose its manufacturing leadership; it threw it away."

Consider this example: "The refusal of Congress to pass long-term funding for rebuilding U.S. roads, bridges and transit systems will only accelerate [the manufacturing] decline. Meanwhile, Korea, Japan and China continue to invest in high-speed rail, advanced automotive batteries and other strategic infrastructure."

To bring back manufacturing, Pope argues we need tax help, increased public spending, and long-term government commitments to improve infrastructure and offer subsides where needed.

Today's NewsStand (January 30, 2012) | Iowa Hospital Association ...

After months of meetings on the redesign of the Mental Health and Developmental Disability plan, we finally have a bill. Thursday morning the bill was distributed to Legislators and the public at the Capitol. The bill pulls together the recommendations from seven work groups and more than 100 people consisting of state legislators, county supervisors, providers, consumers, and family members. We spent months identifying what we believed would be the best system, regardless of cost. The governor and the Department of Human Services are determining the costs of the proposed changes to the mental health services. ( Des Moines Register Patient advocates were heartened by many provisions of a state mental health reform plan unveiled at the Statehouse on Thursday, but they were concerned by the measure’s repeated use of this phrase: “Subject to the availability of funding.” “That’s huge, huge, huge,” said Teresa Bomhoff, a Des Moines activist for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Bomhoff remains optimistic that legislators will make big improvements in Iowa’s patchwork mental health system. But the lack of a firm commitment to spend tens of millions of dollars on the effort worries her and others who work closely with the system. ( Des Moines Register )