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Originally Posted by ardeegee
Well, lots of factors (and I'm going off My Humble Opinion here, not studies that I can point to.) One is the ability to move massive amounts of goods halfway around the world so that it is actually cheaper for the consumer and more profitable for the manufacturer to have products made ten thousand miles away. Container ships are gigantic-- here's mention of one that can carry "8,100 20-foot-long shipping containers". Also the ability to move massive amounts of data from just about anywhere in the world to just about anywhere else in the world-- jobs that can be done from telephones or computers can be sent out to anywhere else in the world. Either one of those could be stopped in the short term by building a legislative wall around the US-- but would be just burying our heads in the sand.
Another issue is consolidation of businesses-- the "Wal-Marting" factor. Large scale farming, or large chain stores (or large chains of large stores) can produce/sell products more efficiently/cheaply than lots of individual farms and lots of "mom and pop" stores-- but with far fewer employees (and owners.)
And, of course, there is the "digital revolution." Note how Tower Records stores aren't in every big town these days? And how Blockbuster Videos aren't? And how many bookstores are closing down? Thank downloaded digital versions and Amazon and Netflix and similar-- which don't produce nearly the amount of jobs they replace in serving the same volume of customers.
Another factor that comes to mind-- the cheapening of products-- I remember the days of TV repairmen and VCR repairmen (though I missed the days of radio repairmen) but now electronic products are cheap enough to produce (and difficult enough to work with) that people throw them away and buy another one rather than have them repaired.
I could sit and come up with more factors, but its enough to say that there are many classes of jobs that are simply going to go away from the US and never come back again no matter who is in office because of factors that have absolutely nothing to do with who is in the White House.
Luckily, the wheels of the American economy are still oiled by Useless Crap. If we (and the rest of the world) stopped buying Useless Crap, the world economy would collapse utterly. (Think about it-- if everyone bought only the things they needed and not the things they merely wanted-- including too much food, too much clothes, too big houses, too often a new car, replacing electronic items only after they break, not just for something faster or flashier-- how many of the jobs in the world would disappear then? 50 percent of them? 75 percent? Crap is what makes the world go round.)
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While I do not disagree with your Humble Opinions (actually, they are good ones), what you describe has been going on for far longer than what would explain the current unemployment levels.
Based on your last paragraph, I'm a major contributor to the economic crisis in the US. I live in a mobile home and plan on moving into a smaller travel trailer soon. I do not replace my vehicles as long as they continue to meet my needs (transportation, not status) and it is still more economical to repair than replace. I only replace electronics when they break and it isn't economical to fix them or they no longer meet my needs (my last desktop computer lasted 7 years, my flatbed scanner will get replaced later this year because it is acting up and isn't compatible with anything above XP, I will replace my printer when it runs out of toner because chipped consumables that haven't expired are almost impossible to find anymore). I recently replaced an old HP camera only because it didn't have image stabilization and the old hands just aren't that stable anymore. Instead of buying more crap, I'm getting rid of it, giving it to people who need and can use it whenever possible rather than just tossing it. I'm not disagreeing with your statement about the economy being oiled by crap, especially since it's true. I just find it amusing that I'm such a detriment to it.
