My wife works for one of the largest industrial distributors in the world and passed me an article from an industry publication, Industrial Distribution. The article, by Mike Collins, is: "We Are In The Post-Industrial Economy".
Before anything about the article, here's a 'corporate bio' from the publication's
website:
"For over 100 years Industrial Distribution has been the leading source for thousands of distribution sales and management professionals as they look for the latest industry news and in-depth analysis of current distribution trends."
Not exactly where one would find socialist, communist, hippy, marxist left-wing rhetoric, I would think. But then, there is the saying: 'the truth has a liberal bias'.
Mr Collins opens the blog post with a questioning preface and chart:
"In doing the research for this article I found that there are as many articles saying that American Manufacturing is not in decline as saying it is. I wondered if this is simply a matter of economic perspectives or if there is a real basis for this dichotomy of views. The following graph reveals the answer:..."
The article is a must read for anyone interested in the manufacturing future of the US, (I'm tempted to substitute the ECONOMIC future...). For a taste of the answer to Mike Collins' preface question, here's the three sections of the post:
"Can the large corporations help reverse this trend?"
"Yes, they can - but they won’t..."
"Investment in the U.S." (by manufacturing corporations)
"... this isn’t happening."
"What is the reality?"
"The reality is that today’s big corporations are really only focused on three things: cost reduction, profitability, and increasing returns to their investors. They are not moral, patriotic, loyal, or immoral, and we cannot and should not depend on them to devote anything more then lip service to the plight of the middle class or the decline of American manufacturing..."
The 'Reality' is the basis for a road map for changing the downturn in America's economy: quit the worthless cooperation with corporations and instead, tell them what to do.
If they don't, boycott them.
If that doesn't work, break them up.