Where Have the Jobs Gone?

This is Don Stott’s weekly collum from  http://www.coloradogold.com
The last two paragraphs are political lambasting Obama.

Where have all the jobs gone? There are a couple of answers, but let’s tae the most obvious one first. Everything, no matter which field of work, has lost jobs over the last few decades. with no exceptions.

When I was young, (many decades ago!), the only self service elevators were in small apartment buildings. All the rest had elevator operators, which were low skilled jobs. but employed many tens of thousands of people. Now, all elevators are automatic, computer controlled, and have no operators. Those jobs are gone. Telephone operators, the same, and now with cell phones, there are no more telephone booths to maintain and empty. Those jobs are gone. Railroads have shed probably 75% of their employees over the last few decades. Trains used to have 5 man crews, and now one or two. Steam locomotives, which I love, were terribly inefficient, required water every hundred miles, boiler washing, coal, 2 men in the cab, and it was impossible to “MU” them. MU means ‘multiple unit,’ and today, if you watch a mile long train, and four or more locomotives, there is only one engineer, who controls all by radio. With steam, there had to be two men in each locomotive. Diesels can go hundreds of miles and even many thousands with no maintenance, water, or fuel. Track maintenance now, is done with multi-million dollar machines which do all the work of the former maintenance of way teams. Those jobs are gone.

The auto industry, has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs, thanks to robots and automation. I have in my garage, a large, metal sign with two fingers pointing up. It advertised Kendall Motor Oil. The two fingers meant that you only had to change your oil every 2,000 miles with Kendall, rather than the customary thousand miles. With synthetics, it’s at least 5,000 miles. Cars required a tune-up every 10,000 miles, but no more. Solid state ignition, and fuel injection, has eliminated tune ups, and engines can go a hundred thousand miles easily, with no maintenance. Cars always start now, whereas with carburetors and ignition points, millions of cars wouldn’t start on cold or wet mornings before those improvements. Auto mechanics by the millions have lost their jobs, and the shade tree mechanic is almost extinct, since it requires a computer to diagnose car troubles now. New automatic transmissions don’t even have drain plugs with which to change the oil. They’re permanently sealed. Auto factories have robots doing the welding, painting, and other jobs. Gas station attendants are long gone, and everyone pumps their own gas, and washes their own windows. Tubeless tires last three times as long as the old belted tires, and tire men by the thousands have lost their jobs. Power steering and brakes, plus old style brakes with shoes, used to have lots of problems. No more. Those jobs are gone. Alternators have replaced generators, so a dead battery is a rare thing now. Cars used to overheat regularly, but no more. No more grease jobs either. Most cars and trucks have no grease nipples now.. More jobs gone. That’s just in the auto industry.

Farmers now have air conditioned cabs, and computer controlled tractors. Farming has become so efficient, that millions of farmers have found their hired hands unnecessary. Tractors are now diesel, and no longer gasoline, which makes them last twice as long. Automatic milking, feeding, watering, and fertilizing have made hired hands out of work.

The computer and internet, have cost millions of jobs. I now wonder what would happen if there were no computers to direct trucks and trains, land airplanes, do accounting, figuring, analysis, selling, and banking. Want to order from a TV ad? No one is there to take your order. It’s all done by computer. Those jobs are gone. Ticketing for shows and travel are done now with computers. Those jobs are gone. The bar code has made cashiering simple, and self service check-out stands in supermarkets and big box stores, have cost potential jobs of probably a million low talented workers.

And now for the jobs lost due to low wage Chinese and Mexican labor. That is now changing, because all the fifty cent an hour jobs created in China, have raised their life styles, and made them get higher wages. The higher wages have destroyed their jobs, and now jobs are now coming back to America. Slowly, but the trend is there. Apple has just built a new factory in America for their products, and Ford has called back 1400 employees for a Detroit factory. There is a clothing company that brags that their clothing is made with all American labor as well as fabrics. Go to allamericanclothing.com. Walmart is now beginning to buy American made merchandise. Mercedes and Toyota, among others, now make many of their cars in America. A recent survey found that a huge majority of Americans won’t mind paying a bit more for merchandise made in America.

Every thing seems to have its peaks and valleys. When something gets outrageous, it self corrects, which is merely basic economics. Housing got so high, thanks as usual to government, it had to go down, and when it got to the obvious bottom, it has started to rise. Gold and silver got to the point where there were so many sellers taking profits, that it corrected, and now is going back up. All tangible things will have to go up, because the presses are running night and day, and as Stott’s Law says, “The more of anything there is, the less they will be worth,” and there are no exceptions to that rule. Gold and silver got so low, that the mines were shutting down, which was an obvious indication that the bottom had been reached. Housing got so low, that prices were far below replacement cost, so that was the bottom. The Obama regime, with all its corruption and excesses, surely have made the Democrats tremble at the next elections. The Presidency and Obamacare has reached an all time low in public opinion, and the situation has to elevate itself with elections next year. We hope so, anyway!

As far as the Presidency going to new, all time lows, check out this fact. The British Monarchy, with the vast land holdings, and pomp and circumstance, costs $57.8 million a year. The Obama White House cost taxpayers $1.4 billion last year. This included $102,000 for a ‘dog handler,’ a $100 million trip to Africa, plus may other vacations costing hundreds of thousands each, many dozens of golf outings, shopping sprees, Michele having 142 staff to keep her ‘well groomed,’ and Obama having the biggest staff (469) under him, of any President in history. Air Force One is running like it a a commercial liner, so often is it used. More government rules, regulations, and spending. The debt has increased $5 trillion in the last 3 1/2 years, under Obama and his Democrats.

I rally do believe, that the liberal Democrats, Obamacare, and Obama and his gang, have so outraged America, that like a pendulum, the peak of stupidity has been reached, and America will vote to take the Senate back and keep the House next year. Even unions hate Obamacare, which was passed without even a single Republican vote. If a war is started in Syria, that will cook the goose of all who voted for it. John Boehner and McCain are idiots. Rand Paul is correct. MYOB. Mind our own business. Ron Paul says the whole gas thing is a false flag, and it may be true. The U.N. inspectors could not determine who did it,. Asser says he wouldn’t kill his own people, and had nothing to do with it. Yesterday, the rebels were found with sarin gas in their possession. In previous columns I urged America not to go into Iraq and Afghanistan. Write or call our Senator or Representative and tell them to vote NO on anything Obama wants.

Author: Roy

80 year old retired AF officer with VA combat related disability, educated beyond my intelligence with three at taxpayer expense Degrees. I am a Deist (hedged Atheist) who believes man made god in his own image and what we call god is what I call mother nature. I agree with Bertrand Russel that with all these different religions they all cannot be right but they can all be wrong, same applies to economic theories. View all posts by Roy