Unless you have been living on a small desert island somewhere in the Pacific for the last few years, then you know that the unemployment rate in our Country is the worse it has been for decades.
People need Jobs... right? Businesses provide jobs... right? Well no, not exactly. Businesses provide products and or services. Businesses fill a need, and consequently a job is created to fill that need.
Seems all I keep hearing from the media, politicians, etc, is that BIG (As in Big Government) needs to fund the business so that "it" (which by the way is what a business is), will expand and grow, thus creating more jobs. That all sounds great; however "it" can only expand and grow if there is adequate Market in the first place. All this hype seems to surround "Small Business". Yes, small business serves a large sector, and small business also produces the largest number of business failures. To throw funds at a Business with "hopes" the business will grow and expand, thus providing jobs, without a Market to serve, and or a business plan to support the Market - if the Market exists - can very well produce nothing more than failed results. Anyone can start a business. All it takes is a TAX ID number, a few pieces of documents, and you're good to go. If a business does indeed partake in serving a Market into which it can expand in the first place, then why is it that the business is not doing it in the first place, right now? Would the business have laid off employees if there were a market to expand into? If there is a market and the business wants to expand and thus provide more job opportunity, then do it the way it has always been done. Go out and find investors, or provide more ownership through shares of the business. What I am getting at is that there needs to be some "pain for gain". The "If it's free it's for me" syndrome will result in failure. And it is the "if it's free it's for me" formula that BIG seems to be proposing. BIG needs to step out of "helping the business" and focus on "helping the Market". If the Market is there a good business person will see it and expand and grow to accommodate it - with more jobs. A poor business person will fail either way.
So let's just ignore the "jobs" aspect for the time being, and get the focus back to what Businesses provide. Businesses provide PRODUCTS and SERVICES. And, it should not take a PHD to figure out that there first must be a MARKET for these products and services.
To illustrate... we may want to know why all these folks are now unemployed. Did they not have jobs a while back, and then lost them? If the answer is "yes" they had jobs, but lost them", which must have been the case otherwise unemployment would not have increased. But that does not answer "Why" their job was terminated. The "Why" in this case should get us closer to the "Root Cause" , which In many cases, once discovered, generally leads to the solution, which might be simple... just un-doo what was done in the first place.
So... now the question becomes... What is the root cause of job loss?
Probably like this... Business slowed down, Business no longer need employee... employee is now jobless.
So if the solution is to un-doo then just speed up the Business and business will hire back the employee. Simple... right?
Well yes, provided that the business can be speeded up. So first we must find out why the business slowed down. So, now we are back to what was addressed earlier... "The MARKET". Remember... this is what businesses are all about... serve the MARKET.
Well if it is the market that is at fault (root cause), then exactly what markets are we talking about here. Granted, there are multitudes of markets and submarkets, but mainly we have "Manufacturing" and "Services". Manufacturing deals with tangible things, and services with intangible things. Primary is manufacturing, as a lot of services (needs) are created out of manufacturing. So why the problem in the first place. Well to dig deeper into the root cause (MARKET), it would appear that it may be that the manufacturing facet is at the root.
Over the last hundred or so years, we have gone from making "things" right here in the good old USA, to not making "things" in the good old USA. And at the same time the population has increased. So... Market went down. Population went up. Solution is simple right? Either get back to "making" things or reduce the population. Well, I would propose that "reducing the population" would be a very touchy thing, so I will stay away from that one.
So, we must then focus on the "get back to making "things".
As a nation, I think the decline of "making things" started shortly after WWII. Then this thing called NAFTA came along, which basically was a plan that BIG had for allowing... umm, choke, choke... "Free trade". Free for whom? Well ask any of the unemployed today for that answer.
Essentially we now make very little compared to "back when". Think I am kidding. Do this... Go through your home, flip all your "things" over and see where they are made. Take anything not made in the good old USA outside, and see what's left. My guess... Not much.
Now go outside and put all the things into different piles where they were made. My guess is you will have a big pile of "Made in China", then a slightly smaller one that says "Made in Japan", then "Korea", "Thailand" and maybe some smaller piles yet. Did you notice that you did not have any (or maybe a very small amount) from European countries? If you want to add the European things you have in the not made in the USA group, you would have to go to your garage, and dump the cars outside as well. Then you will get some European piles.
(You might even want to try this with your food stuffs (Agricultural Market). You may be surprised to see that we are traveling the same road with agriculture as we did with manufacturing)
So then is the solution not simple. Just get back to making "things" right here in the good old USA? Could it be done? yes. Could it be done by simply undoing what has been done for the last half century? Very doubtful. Could it be done in a harmonious way? I believe yes.
As an example, let's look at what happened right here in my home State of Kentucky. Several years ago, through the efforts of the then Governor of KY, Toyota was enticed to build an assembly plant right here in KY. It's still there and I feel quite certain that there are a lot of Jobs there as well. This same thing has happened with Honda (several States), and other Car manufactures, European as well.
Now, do you think the folks that do have jobs at these facilities care who signs their paycheck?
This concept seems to be working with the automotive industry, but what about other industries? I will give you another example on the negative side. Again, right here in my home State of Kentucky.
I am referring to Lexmark. In case you do not know, Lexmark makes printers. Used to make them right here in the good old USA. Heck, they were noble enough to at one time to have the President of the United States tour their KY facilities. Today Lexmark still makes printers... but in China. How many jobs were lost at Lexmark, Kentucky? I do not know the exact count, but suspect it was thousands.
How does this connect to today's problem of unemployment? It connects in that we need to get more manufacturing (Market) back to the good old USA. Then HOW? Answer... Simple... BRING BACK THE MANUFACTURING.
So, when BIG says they are going to create jobs, by throwing funds at the Business's, I say throw your resources at BRINGING BACK THE MANUFACTURING.
If you have read some of my other postings, you might get the idea that I am not necessarily for Big Government, but do believe that there are things that BIG needs be involved in and things not. In this case BRINGING BACK THE MANUFACTURING is the things the BIG need to be involved in, at both the National & State level.
Just like in KY, send the politicians to China, Korea, Thailand, etc. Let them negotiate for a workable solution. Not one where one side wins and the other loses. The world is too small for that kind of thinking. Yes, the Chinese may be in their heyday right now, but if we, in the good old USA, do not have jobs... then pretty soon the whole economy will collapse upon itself, and we all end up back in the stone ages.
(It obvious that I have focused on Manufacturing, however it is equally obvious that this issue follows along many other Markets. The point being is that BIG needs to stay out of Business and Focus on Market strategy. As someone (me) once said... "Create the Market, and the Business will follow". Someone else once said... "Lose the market, and the Business will follow")
My solution...
BRING BACK THE MANUFACTURING!
(and the business and JOBS will follow & take care of "it's" self).
Just Say'n
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