Thread: 'Made in America' Must Make a Comeback

'Made in America' must make a comeback

There is value in working with your hands.

By Paul Sedan

from the November 28, 2008 edition

Charlotte, N.C. - One thing the financial crisis shows is that the United States is in trouble because Americans have stopped making stuff.

It used to be that we made a lot of stuff: televisions, clothes, washing machines, radios, typewriters, shoes, telephones, and furniture. And we also used to make the stuff out of which stuff was made: steel, aluminum, plastic, rubber, glass, and electrical components. Today that's largely made overseas. They send us their stuff and we send them our money.

It also used to be that Americans liked to make stuff. Think of all the things Thomas Edison invented. Or consider Henry Ford, who made the car affordable, perfected the assembly line, and paid workers a decent wage. Countless others, such as my grandfather, worked as toolmakers and machinists because they liked to work with their hands. Today we rely on people around the world to do that innovation for us.

To be sure, outsourcing has some benefits, but the danger in abrogating our desire to make things is that, in doing so, we forget what made America great. It wasn't manipulating money; it was hard work and persistence. It wasn't "flipping houses"; it was having a dream and being patient and self-sacrificing to achieve that dream. It wasn't speculative gambling; it was belief in a line of labor that rewarded honest risk. Forgetting that contributes to America's deterioration.

Nowadays, young people want to work in the financial industry (at least until recently). While money managers may be worthy occupations – we do need capital to meet payroll and buy the goods and machinery used to make stuff – focusing solely on such jobs removes us from the mainstream of making useful things, which, in turn, provide jobs and help to make everyday life more enjoyable and productive.

This is where we have to start questioning what's at stake. Are we truly satisfied with letting someone else make everything we need? If so, when the time comes for repair and maintenance, who will do the work?

Young people today are not encouraged to work with their hands. It's thought to be demeaning. But working with your hands to create something new is energizing and rewarding. It boosts self-esteem. Even better, it helps you see how something can be improved. Let's not forget that Ford and the Wright brothers were mechanics before they became innovators. They saw first hand how things worked so they could make them work better.

Historically, young people were encouraged to learn a trade. This not only taught them the value of hard work, it also gave them a sense of self-reliance and community. The farmer could not only plow the ground, he could also fix the plow and help his neighbors.

Today's schools must help teach our young people the value of manual labor and help us take advantage of the greatest place to be for innovation. A Japanese neighbor visiting a US factory told me once that he envied Americans because they did not accept cultural limitations in improving the way something is made. He said that you could never go against the grain like that in Japan.

The US just can't afford to squander this perfect climate for jobs and progress by not placing value in innovation or the act of working with one's hands.

This current financial mess brings with it a lot of challenges: energy, housing, crumbling infrastructure – to name just three. But the "can-do spirit" is still alive in America.

We just need to encourage it in our young people. We can begin by testing students for a mechanical aptitude. Those who show promise should be encouraged by a coalition of schools and industry to work on real-world projects. That step alone will help place the value back in making stuff and pave the way to return to innovation at a time when we need it most.

• Paul Sedan is an artist in North Carolina. His day job is in carpentry.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1128/p09s02-coop.html

Art and culture for Americans has been suppressed so long. We have been told to buy foreign this and that. I hate foreign everything

Sedan is right. As a kid in high school that had an entire wing for vocational training, I really hoped to take wood shop and engine mechanics. Unfortunately, as a female, they pushed me into home ec and typing. (I had no interest in becoming a hairdresser, which was another one of the selections--with apologies to anyone in that profession.) In the years afterwards, I cannot add up all the money I have spent hiring people for small engine repair (lawn mower, changing oil in the car, etc.) or having someone replace a piece of wood around the house. That education was high school. Instead I went off to college where they did not offer any engine mechanics or shop in those days.

But Bush told us that this was all good for us. He told us we would be better of by all this so called free trade. NOT

vortex:

I made my daughter take auto 1, and have not regretted it. I have had to do plumbing, auto repair, paint, and on and on as a woman around my home. Life is hard and difficult; and I could not afford the prices of hiring others.

Just the other day I had to find the stopped up hoses leaving my car. I was getting rain water into the interior when it rained. My regular mechanic said I was going to need a body mechanic. I cannot afford that so I found the hose myself.

But I consider myself capable of learning and making mistakes just as well as the next American, and duct tape and a power vac are total blessings.

Loss of manufacturing hurts America, greedy corporations over the past
35 years have outsourced, built manufacturing plants in any third world
they could deal with while in turn America has lived on credit, a disastrous
receipt and now we are paying big time.

vmonkey: you will appreciate this: my venture into plumbing was replacing some gizmo in the toilet tank. I knew enough to turn off the water but had no clue that instead of turning it off, I was turning it on full force. Friends later told me to flush and see if the tank refills or not. As I pulled the old gizmo out to put it the new one, water shot up to the ceiling. I look at it this way: I didn't have to wash the bathroom ceiling.

Positive outlook.

Psalm 27:1-6

Once, it took me two and half days under the kitchen sink to replace pipes. Boy I saved the money, and hurt a lot.

Currently, I am behind on all repairs around the house. I guess depression of the empty nest and the economy is starting to lose the place value of being number one in causing me pain. LOL.

Today on Thanksgiving I went and met others in the family. And in a van on the road was a plumbing company named ? "Seven Seas"...I had to look to see if the van driver was a possible immigrant.

The driver was and so was the passenger.