 27 Nov 2005 @ 01:36, by John Ashbaugh
Looks like maybe the number of folks in the good ole US of A
who are going to be having some spare time on their hands is going to be picking up. Oh, by the way, need to buy a gallon to go across town to make an ap. Got any spare change?
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The American Economy Has Left the Building
(© Copyright 2005. All Rights Reserved.)
by Richard Sauder, PhD
dr_samizdat@yahoo.com
24 November 2005
The news of the 30,000 jobs that General Motors recently announced it plans to cut caught my attention like a searing brand plunged deep into my mind. It's still sizzling there like a splinter festering in the middle of my brain. There have been a lot of indications in recent years of the depth of the systemic turmoil brewing in the American economy, but this news item caught my eye in a way that a lot of other news has not. Perhaps it was the admonitions from decades past of my American history teacher in high school who repeatedly warned the class that the foundationof the American economy was based on the health and well being of the housing and automobile industries, and that as went the fortunes of those two industries, so too went the economic prospects of the nation.
Well, when I heard the news of this massive job cut by General Motors I could not help but ponder what this seismic shift in such an important sector of the American economy might portend. After all, if 30,000 manufacturing jobs disappear, myriad more thousands of jobs also disappear at the same time. What happens to the truckers and trucking lines who ship the cars to market that those 30,000 people manufacture? What happens to the sales volume of the stores and supermarkets where those 30,000 soon-to-be-unemployed people shop? What happens to the parts manufacturers who supply parts for the factories that will soon be idled? What happens to the jobs of the people who work in the parts manufacturing companies who soon will have no customers for their parts? And on and on the negative ripple effect goes, as it washes out through the economy. One more round of massive job cuts, this time at General Motors. You know, if you think about it, 30,000 workers here, and 30,000 workers there, and before you know it, you're talking real serious hard times, as the nation rapidly deindustrializes and people are thrown out of work.
(continued) [link]
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