America’s economic engine is compromised. Forces at work over the last 30 years have sapped our nation’s vitality. What are we doing about it?

With the country’s businesses, government and media fixated this last decade and more on profits and the financial sector, efforts on the part of government were of little help in slowing manufacturing’s decline. Whether state-based or Federal, most government action came in the form of growth incentives, or relief for effected companies. Tax credits for research, capital improvements, hiring and training, and tax relief for manufacturers facing foreign competition did little.

Tax credits, well intentioned though they may be, can do nothing for the legions of manufacturers struggling just to stay in business. Without profits tax credits are almost worthless. One could argue, in fact, that government intervention actually enabled the very management behavior that gave force to the flood of global sourcing and work displacement.

[Post 15 of 21]

America’s economic engine is compromised. Forces at work over the last 30 years have sapped our nation’s vitality. What did we do about it?

Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, economists spoke mostly about our international trade balance and the strength of the Dollar. The conventional wisdom was that if government would let the value of the Dollar fall, our U.S.-produced goods would be more attractive to foreign buyers and thereby improve our trade balance.

What had worked for much of the twentieth century was, however, no longer working.

By the 1990s, we had entered a period of rampant work displacement. The fact that the holders of foreign currencies had more U.S. purchasing power was of diminishing importance. The goods that they wanted to buy were being produced in a foreign factory.

America’s economic base, its manufacturing sector, continues in steady decline.

[Post 14 of 21]