Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Factory Jobs Return, but Employers Find Skills Shortage

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, July 2, 2010

Factory Jobs Return, but Employers Find Skills Shortage

from the NY Times. This does not surprise me because the history of US corporations off-shoring of manufacturing jobs to cheap labor, weak union and environmental law enforcement countries has not only created job losses for US workers, but over the long run has de-skilled US workers. The only solution is for taxpayers, already burdened by bank bailouts, to subsidize retraining of the US labor force.