If the National Park tangent and rant is over, shall we get back to the notion of job creation?

Ever since America's creation we've had protectionist tendencies, which is an off-shoot of our isolationist tendencies. And, as appealing as Perot's "Giant Sucking Sound", aka, NAFTA, is to our fears, history clearly shows all great powers, all great economic powers were built upon trade. It's a fact of life, and while we like to revert to our base tendencies when times are tough, finding scape goats and whipping boys for our frustrations, Free Trade is the key to success and job creation.

The nostalgia for post-War America, where even unskilled workers could find factory jobs paying good wages, is absurd in it's face as we'll never recreate the world that made it possible, ie, the bombing of all competitors factories during the war made us the last industrialized country in the world. Ready and able to supply the world's demand for goods. Like all good things, it couldn't last and Big Labor ensured it couldn't last by making our factories uncompetitive while our foreign competitors rebuilt newer more efficient factories, often learning from our mistakes.

So, the transition from last guy standing to world competitiveness wasn't easy, and still impeded by the echos of a time long gone and never returning.

We have to accept the world as it is, and build on our strengths.

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Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ---P. J. O'Rourke

Well, the problem is deeper than even this.

Even this goes back to my main gripe, corporate influence. Corporations before 1886 were to be a contributing and responsible part of society, if they were not their Corporate Charter could be revoked. Today, corporations seek only to profit, regardless of the positive or negative impact on everything else including human life and the environment. Corporations take a little bit at a time as the years go on, but by the end, we will be back in 1984.

You see, major corporations as they are today, would not use US labor for the simple fact that it is too expensive. Some factories are being packed up from China and sent to Vietnam in the quest of even cheaper human labor. Even still, in China corporations from the US have driven down costs to below chinese minimum standard of living wages. All in the sake of profits.

When the Japanese, Europeans, and even Koreans are building car plants in America, it's hard to see you've even close to the truth. It is labor intensive plants that are leaving the US, not manufacturing as a whole. Why are labor intensive plants leaving the US?

Oddly, in 2007 US manufacturing was the highest in our history.

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Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ---P. J. O'Rourke

Where did you get that from? Just curious.

Yes, foreign automakers have moved plants here, but numerous US plants have closed. There are things that are barely made int he US anymore. Besides, even with the Toyota, Hyundai and other US based foreign owned plants, the workers make a lot less than UAW plants. While the UAW plant workers are (in some cases) overpaid, the others are underpaid.

According to this site,
The Credit Addicts Dilemma: Why the US is hemorrhaging good manufacturing jobs | Ian Welsh

US manufacturing jobs are at the same level (absolute numbers wise, not accounting for population growth) as they were in 1954, and were highest in the 70's.

The BEA.gov, of course.

Apparently, the job market in every area foreigners have built plants disagree with your opinion.

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Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ---P. J. O'Rourke

You find that odd? Were manufacturers not supposed to get more efficient? Those that didn't are long gone.

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Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ---P. J. O'Rourke

This is a precise example of Reagan logic. If you buy it, then he's your guy. If you can see the obvious flaws in it, then not so much.

Here's a hint -- mass transportation is federally subsidized. We built our country by working together.

We didn't build this country on welfare. And who said I supported subway subsidies? I certainly don't. If that's a hang up of yours, how about NYC cab drivers?

And, I fail to see what your anti-Reagan rants and ramblings have to do with job creation. Certainly, returning to 70% income tax rates won't create jobs.

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Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ---P. J. O'Rourke