[Winona Online Democracy] We are, in my opinion, at the beginning of a long cycle of major shifts in the unemployed and underemployed as traditional manufacturing jobs are exported around the world. The cause in part was the governments attempt to protect basic industries such as steel while at the same time failing to protect manufactured products. Foreign governments had the golden opportunity to move directly into our end product markets competing against the steel company's customer base. Once they gained access to consumer market directly, gained market acceptance, provided quality and low prices, wholesale buyers moved purchases offshore. The U.S. basic industries, by their short sighted protection of themselves, killed their owned customers, the U.S. manufacturers and now we begin the move backwards. The service industries will be next and will be harder to salvage as accounting, computer related professions and healthcare services will be soon to follow.
When you can move a container with 40,000 pounds of goods around the world for less money the cost to ship one 40,000 pound truck to the west coast you know we are in for a tough fight. Technology will not help because whatever equipment we put into our plants they can duplicate and they still have cheap labor and lower cost raw materials. What is the solution - short cut the distribution system is one way. Several years ago at a trade show in Atlanta I saw a proposal of the retail clothing store of the future. The store stocked only bolts of fabrics direct from the manufacturers. A computer scanned your body, an assistant modified the pattern to your taste, you picked the fabric, color and in the back of the retail store you had custom machine produced clothes at competitive price done by automated equipment in almost an instant, always a perfect fit. It happened with film processing. Why not shoes or sweaters? Shouldn't containers into the U.S. be subject to a security checks as detailed as your airline flight check in? Shouldn't the shipper pay for it just as we do as passengers? Wouldn't the effect be immediate and what would be the downside if it simply duplicated the security we currently get from our domestic manufacturers? What would a $2000 inspection fee per container do for U.S. manufacturing? Paul Double [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Steve Kranz Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 9:18 AM [Winona Online Democracy] I was curious what people thought of today's article in the Winona Daily News stating that Winona has the highest unemployment rate among the largest 37 cities in Minnesota. Is there something we need to be doing differently or have there just been a few unforeseen events that have caused this? Also, does looking at this one figure tell the "whole story" about employment in Winona or is there more to it than appears on the surface. I'd be interested in hearing people's opinions and insights. I've included a link below to the complete article. -Steve Kranz -------------------- "Winona's July jobless rate highest in state" By Jeff Dankert, Winona Daily News 08/29/03 The July unemployment rate in the city of Winona rose to 5.9 percent in July, the highest among Minnesota's 37 largest cities, according to the Minnesota Workforce Center. It was the city's highest monthly jobless rate for at least the last three years and seven months . . . http://www.winonadailynews.com/articles/2003/08/29/news/02lead.txt _______________________________________________ This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy All messages must be signed by the senders actual name. No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list. To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona Any problems or suggestions can be directed to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you want help on how to contact elected officials, go to the Contact page at http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org
