US Manufacturing: You Broke It You Fix It !

Large US Manufacturing (and rest of Corporate America) has been put on a pedestal in the USA.

US Manufacturing alone is not responsible for breaking the US Economy. It is widely due to the majority of Corporate America. In a past blog post about the manufacturing skill shortage solutions, it was also pointed out how manufacturings never ending thirst to not only make a profit, but constantly increase that profit; largely resulted in the manufacturing skill shortage we face today.

But when it comes to what’s wrong with today’s US economy as a whole, manufacturing is not solely to blame, the cause is most of Corporate America, as Michele Nash-Hoff points out in her great article for the Huffington Post. (“What Do American Manufacturers Owe Their Country?”)

Corporate America has been place on a pedestal by America’s State and Federal Government in behalf of ‘we the people’. Corporations have been placed on a pedestal in the respect that ‘we the people’ considered them more important than others, like small businesses and individuals. Michele Nash-Hoff points out in her article; it was not a free ride we gave them.  In return for the special privileges of limited liability, eternal life, etc. that the State and Federal Government granted them, the Government representing the citizens expect the corporations to give back to the society that granted them these special privileges that made their success and profits possible in the first place.

Simplified, the USA granted them corporate status, and in return it is the Corporation's responsibility to make sure they benefit the USA more than they do any other country. Like provide more USA jobs than they do in other countries they are operating in. And as Michele Nash-Hoff describes in her article, throughout history the Government has had to take actions to restore balance when corporations started to benefit other countries and individuals more than the USA society as a whole. This course correction is taking place again as more, and more corporations are reshoring jobs back to America.

As Clyde Prestowitz put it referring to corporations, "They may well provide benefits to other societies, but their main purpose is to provide benefits to the societies (not to the shareholders, not to management, but to the societies) that create them." By using the words “create them", Mr Prestowitz is referring to the country that granted them corporate status and privileges that allowed them to excel.

Another excerpt for Michele’s article …
"We do not question multinational companies' right to invest offshore." However, it is another thing to transfer all or most of the manufacturing of your products to be sold mainly in the U. S. market to another country, at the cost of hundreds, if not thousands, of American jobs.”
She goes on to make a good point that the owners of American companies pledged allegiance to our country, which is defined as "the loyalty of a citizen to his or her government."

As our pledge goes: "We, the American people, promise to defend and advance a simple ideal: liberty and justice . . . for all." It is time for US manufacturers and US corporations to renew the "Contract for the American Dream."


Don (Follow me on Industrial Skills Training Blog and on Twitter @IndTraining .) Be sure to add me to your Google+ circles to stay on top!