[TheForge] jobs

[Grant Marcoux]

I gotta go with Ries on this one....I have seen the same thing on So. Cal
over flights.  Manufacturing is very much alive in this country; and it
really churns for export when the dollar is weak relative to other
currencies.

In both macro and microeconomic terms, when a product for which there is
demand is made by very few people, using specialized tools, prices are often
sky high.  Have you ever priced an orthopedic saw?

I do a lot of "historical" repair and duplication....it is some of my best
paid work.

There is also respectable demand for blacksmithing instruction.....I had 26
enrollments in 2007

It would be wonderful if our high schools could track the mechanically
dexterous kids and, after they were taught to read and write, get about
training our next generations of visually and spatially gifted designers and
artisans.

There are people out there who REALLY want to learn this stuff.

Grant




inal Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of ries
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 9:14 AM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] jobs



I am guessing you guys havent flown into LAX lately- on your approach,
you fly over rougly 100 miles (no exaggeration- it starts out past
Riverside) of roofs of warehouses, tiltups, and factories. The number
of 20,000 sq foot roofs staggers the mind.
Having lived there for ten years, I can tell you that they are
probably the largest cluster of manufacturing and industrial services
in the country.
There is no single steel mill that employs 15,000,  or a factory 3
blocks long- those are 19th century models that were outdated, even in
places like Pittsburgh, by 1960 or so.
We still have this image in our minds that "manufacturing" must mean a
huge factory swimming with worker bees.
It just aint so.
I have been in so many shops in LA and surrounds where 5 or 6
20something kids, wearing $150 sneakers and t shirts, are tending $3
Million dollars worth of CNC machines, and cranking out the quantity
of machined parts that it would have taken 200 guys to do in 1955. And
in dollar volume, those kids, in a 5000sq foot shop, are probably
about equal or better as well.
The USA rules in things like titanium medical implants, chip fab
machinery, military electronics, weapons of all sorts more complicated
than an AK47, aerospace, satellites, deep sea stuff, high end oil
drilling equipment, and many more very high dollar items.
We manufacture, and export, Billions and Billions of dollars worth of
stuff- but we no longer need thousands of mindless factory workers to
do it.
My dad worked summers in Gary Indiana steel mills, Studebaker car
plants, and similar 50's factories- and he was the single worst tool
user, uncoordinated guy I have ever met. He once took a government
skills test for hand eye coordination, and they told him they had
never seen a lower score- yet he had no trouble getting hired in mass
production environments.
Nowadays, he would be SOL- the manufacturing jobs are much fewer, but
the standards are higher, and the productivity is orders of magnitude
more.

Nope, we will never support 30% of the population again in
manufacturing- just like we wont see 85% of the population in
agriculture again- but we make an enormous amount of stuff, and we are
far from being just a service economy.

Things could be a whole lot better- we could use a national
manufacturing policy, along with a national energy policy, two things
Bush and his cronies steadfastedly refused to consider as they
borrowed us dry for the forseeable future- but we are not dead yet,
not by a far cry.

I have seen manufacturing concerns around me spring up from nothing
more than smart people and good ideas, in a few years, to multi
million dollar industries, because we have such a good system to do
business in- we have better transparency of government, a better
infrastructure, better educated workers, and a more flexible
environment to do business in than almost any country in the world-
lots of first world countries take 6 months to get a business license.

I have a lot of faith in america.


Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/





_______________________________________________
Manage membership or unsubscribe at:
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
theforge mail list group photo site is
http://www.photoaccess.com
Login:  blacksmithblacksmith at hotmail.com
password:  anvil
___________

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.2.0/1495 - Release Date: 6/10/2008
5:11 PM

No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.2.0/1495 - Release Date: 6/10/2008
5:11 PM