Rough Draft Complete, looking for peer reviews

[Peilo]

Running head: MADE IN AMERICA, OUR FORGOTTEN ERA






Made in America, Our Forgotten Era
Vincent Behm
Com 120 Persuasive Writing
Instructor Tammy Harosky
December 14, 2006

Axia College of University Of Phoenix

This forgotten era of ours, what happened to our traditional patriotism and the known fact that quality meant “Made in America”? We were never more proud to be American, then in 1908. Globalization factors were not a topic or even an issue people had to deal with, let alone something many people understood or cared to define. In those days, the impact of creating the combustion engine or conceptualization of the assembly line would not have been a concern for raised awareness, but the new system did initiate the intimidating trend we see today of outsourcing our jobs one sector at a time to off-shore companies to make things more rapidly and cheaper the Henry Ford way.
Later that year in 1908, Henry Ford the architect of the modern assembly line then realized his dream of producing a cheap affordable for all automobile that would dramatically shape our lives in infinite ways. This new modern marvel would put the world in a tail spin, and from there on out, and still until this day it continues to shape many other aspects of our lives we have not even begun to realize.
From the assembly lines (AL) innovative approach to manufacturing and production, following the creation of the Model T, everything in the world would now be produced on a grand scale, and the plight of American workers would never be the same. But, that is just the icing on the cake. This was not just going to be the ordinary production of an automobile or an automobile produced the old fashion way, which was by a skilled American craftsman that carefully hand crafted each separate piece or part. Back then things were truly American Made.
In the beginning, workers had a hard time keeping up with demand brought on by the new system, so he raised their daily 8 hour pay from $2.50 a day to $5. Just as an example of the time and labor that went into some of these earlier automobiles.
There were over 7,881 distinct tasks required to assemble Ford’s 1923 Model T touring car, but through the innovative design of flowing production, and the standardizing of interchangeable parts, this was easily accomplished without breaking a sweat. The (AL) productive system was so successful that it would carry over from the automobile industry of yesterday, to the food industry and many other large corporations around the world today. Its innovation continues to affect our life in some form or another, this so called more rapid and better system. This includes: how we bank; shop; live; eat, and work in today’s modern world.
Soon after the evolution of the automobile, the combustion engine, and (AL), everything came to be about Production and eventually in these modern times, the realization of instead of interchangeable parts to make the bottom line (BL) more profitable. They start to move the production to foreign countries where it is less expensive to operate and labor is cheaper. On top of mass production, and it needing to be done more rapidly and cheaper and, of course, bigger it made much more sense when taking into account the (BL). Nothing made more sense than outsourcing for cheaper labor. What ever happened, to it being about a better made product for the customer? Soon after the (AL) creation our Nation would make its mark on the world as an emerging super power full of innovation and mite.
Today the modern automobile consists of about 14,000 parts, divided into several structural and mechanical systems that all need to be assembled in one fashion or another, and this requires the labor of people. Preferably these would be assembled by American workers, but we can not always have our way. I mean why should we?
We will not even mention the Mechanical Robots that have cost American workers a few jobs over the last few decades. But, I would have to say those were jobs that needed to be lost due to safety risks that workers were then performing on daily basis.
If it is not American Made, or for relevance sake, of higher standards and quality then the ones produced by American workers, then by all accounts it should not be used. I mean come on; we pay the difference in the long run when buying the products.
Does this not seem to make more sense? A simple example of production laws: we earn a certain dollar figure per hour, for X amount of hours or for producing X amount of products. Well, based on the costs to produce the product, the corporations then in turn normally pass the costs on to the consumer who pays the difference. That is you, me, and the American worker, Think! We take longer to produce X amount of products; we pay more for it in the long run. We should then also realize it will take X amount of time longer to make the purchase. This is because the price index of the merchandise goes up more from the slowly produced products and sales. The forecasted outcome is then, X amount of American consumers purchase the cheaper foreign imported product. It is an everyday problem influencing our economy, and mostly because of our own more slowly producing production habits. The American made products price index rises, and we then end up buying less American, which in turn contributes to our jobs being shipped off to hard working, but cheaper paid workers, then we are stuck with NO jobs.
Henry Ford knew these facts and wanted to exploit them, with his paternistic ideas for employees at work and at home. I do not think he ever became conscious of how the impact of American production and the (AL) invention was going to transform the world, and make outsourcing and the National Trade Index of today what it is, out of whack with a very large deficit! For because of the development of (AL) in 1913, this seeming paradox, we face today grows out of control, and since after all, there are very few individuals who have altered our lives more systematically than did Henry Ford that I mention him as the scapegoat.
When it, in fact seems to boil down to how productive we are in our everyday lives at home and at work that affects our very own outcome in the end. In fact it truly boils down to how we end up spending our hard earned money as a consumer that matters. We just do not buy the foreign products or products made by American companies who ship our jobs over-seas. Mr. Ford did however change the whole world in an instant with his engineering and social innovations that I believe made the world what it is today. This innovation has shaped our way of life, and it is something we cannot escape today. As a result, we face this outsourcing problem to keep up with demand in technology and production. His inventions: some good; some bad changed our world’s natural evolution, just as the first home computer did in 1975. None the less it will never be the same, and because of him and is contribution to society with the assembly line, I considered this his contribution to the off-shore problem we face today.
Globalization is forcing all America and other parts of the world to rely on foreign outsourcing and imports as a means to supplement lowering our costs, and there ever so important (BL). We need to contribute to solving some of the related issues by “Buying American”, and not supporting foreign interests by purchasing there sometimes lower quality but always cheaper products. We need to invest in our education and development more. Perhaps maybe our government should tax the imports more heavily to keep the final sales price of the merchandise, both the foreign and domestic products close to the same price at the checkout.
Maybe we need to be forced to buy the better quality American product that costs a few dollars more because of slow productions, unions or other outside interests…. Big brother will have to make sure we are not hurting ourselves like they have always done.
Beyond all that I have mentioned, foremost there is a critical need for skilled workers and higher education in the United States and as the demand for more skilled and technical workers becomes a need here and abroad, we the American worker would be able to meet these demands.
We are falling short. This would also include foreign language studies to stay ahead of the foreign competition when it comes to the highly educated and skilled workers that countries’ like India and China are producing. The solution to that problem is its not being provided or even talked about in regard to us the citizens. When jobs evaporate, education is the key. Chris Brantley, managing director of IEEE-USA, Washington, DC, (an organizational unit of the transnational institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Inc., Piscataway, New Jersey)

"Our challenge," says Brantley, "is to educate our members so that they understand the real implications of offshoring and what they need to do to remain competitive in the job environment that we have here in the United States and that we are going to have in the foreseeable future. How do they compete in the global environment? (Schweitzer. C, 2006, p.5)

For example, 70,000 engineers were graduated in the United States last year, compared to
350,000 in India and 600,000 in China, the National Academy of Sciences committee said in a new report. And in 2001, the U.S. industry spent more on liability lawsuits, than on research and development. The biggest threat to our industry and to the U.S. is the ability to compete worldwide in education. If for the whole of society not to notice the subtle, but definite changes after almost 93 years of this rat race lifestyle we Americans or people of the world have been forced to adapt to, We are Doomed. What will we do when every technical or skilled job is moved overseas? Forrester Research Inc. analyst John C. McCarthy says “You will see an explosion of work going overseas”. He goes so far as to predict at least 3.3 million white-collar jobs and $136 billion in wages will shift from the U.S. to low-cost countries by 2015. (Geewax. G, 2003, para. 8)


The McKinsey Global Institute reports that in 2002, offshoring was worth between $32 billion and $35 billion and estimates those figures represent just 1 percent of the $3 trillion in business functions that could be performed overseas. The market is projected to grow 30 percent to 40 annually over the next five years, making offshoring an industry worth well over $100 billion in annual revenue by 2008. (Babcock, 2004, para. 5)

Soon or later there will not be a demand for any skilled, technical or perhaps executive jobs, because the corporations with their cheaper paid employees are now in foreign countries, where they are not getting more bang for their buck, just fatter pockets for their treason. Eventually, and more likely sooner than later there will be no decent paying jobs left for Americans to do, and with no incomes or prevailing economic flow in the United States to keep us sufficed and able to live half way civilized life, our role as the innovative capitalistic leader in the free world will be gone and our lives ruined. Think about the middle ages.
Experts in the private sector are trying to quantify the impact of 'off shoring' of American jobs; initial estimates show at least 15 % of 2.81 million jobs lost in the last two years have reappeared overseas. (Uchitelle. L, 2003, para. 3) If we continued going the same direction and only considering the (BL), we will be right back where we started from. There are X amount of people in the country. There are the ones with jobs. And there are the unemployed or displaced workers that are also part of this overwhelming equation. These workers could be displaced for many reasons, including local economic downfalls that contribute to businesses just simply moving. Sales are not good; cheaper real-estate and other tax incentives offered to Corporations persuading them to build factories here, there or elsewhere. That is just more bottom line Governmental and Corporate agenda malarkey being considered first before considering “We the People” or outsourcing problem.

References

Automobile. (n.d.). "" ("automobile:” 2006, Para. 1) Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 04, 2006, from
Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/automobile

The Henry Ford: The Life Of (para.7) (2003). Retrieved December 2, 2006, from
The Henry Ford: The Life Of Web site : http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/

Globalization. (2006). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved December 3, 2006, from Encyclopedia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9344667

Babcock, P. (2004, April). America's Newest export: White Collar jobs. Human Resource magazine, 49(4), 1.

Geewax, M. (2003, June 27). Conference On Sending Jobs Abroad Stirs Anger
8. Retrieved December 1, 2006, from http://bernie.house.gov/documents/ar...0701154957.asp

Schweitzer, C. (2006). When Outsourcing Gets Personal. Associations Now, 2(5), 31-36. Retrieved Monday, December 04, 2006 from the MasterFILE Premier database.

[Peilo]

formatting was lost due to copy and paste, the indentations and paragraphs for some reason

[ByteMeHere]

That is actually a really good report. I congradulate you


I agree with all that is stated. America is going downhill do to jobs going over seas. The products that come back are not nearly as good as they used to be either. You pay more for cheaper shit. It really pisses me off, as I used to work for a company that shut down do to going overseas. I worked their an extra 2 months after the shutdown date, just to repair some of the work the other country made mistakes on, and let me tell you..... they didnt, at that time, know their ass from their forhead when it come to making the product. It seriously pissed me off, that these people stole my job, and then I had to fix their mess. (not to mention being scared to open the boxes shipped from there to here, with all the bugs and shit..... it is seriously a state wide, country wide hazzard!!!!! and that scares the shit out of me)
Then I was out of a job. *shakes head* and here I am, just one American. It is happening to us all.

It pisses me off too, that people with college degrees are here in Virginia bagging groceries. *shakes head* it is seriously hard to make a living anymore. Especially in a state that survived because of it's big factories and industries.

I get really pissed off too, when the American people dont try to better themselves. Everyone is wallowing in self pity, instead of doing or saying something about it all. Unemployment only goes so far.
I get soooo frustrated seeing those commercials about sending money to children in other countries so they can be clothed. Eat. Go to school. AND yet, ALOT OF THE Americans are suffering just as much. There are no American Associations for Children like that here. People look down at the homeless, but noone ever asks themselves how that person became that way. No one even cares. (well, not many)

And the american people, though care, wont stand up as a whole and do/say something about it. *shakes head*

[Johnboat]

I watched a show the other day about all the IT outsourcing to India. A large amount of Indians think that they are getting the jobs because they have better education and skills. It was interesting when a guy broke it to them that AT MOST they are on equal footing with Americans as far as education and skills. The reason they are getting the jobs are because they are willing to work for a third of the pay rate.

[Peilo]

Exactly Lisa, It is a nation wide problem, and we don't seem to be doing to much about. I think part of the problem is our fast and inundated lifestyles. Were constantly so overwhelmed with the media, and having the American Dream that we don't have time to stop and think about the problem, or sometimes even realize the problem exists. I have been laid off almost a year, and oddly enough I went to some interviews last week and received a job offer. 1 week short of a year and I finally found something. In Toledo Ohio. I start the day after X-Mas. But sadly to say I took a 25%+ pay cut, but hey I got my foot in the door, and I'm a worker. LMFAO, it's in a gosh darn different state. Still only a 35 minute drive on the highway, but it just goes to show how the migration of jobs has been taking place. It's mostly the main reason I decided to go back to school. I'm scared to be left behind. I was in Information Technology but think I'm going to switch to supply chain and logistics, and stick to transportation since thats what I have been doing the last 5-6 years as a job. I think in the long run it will be a more secure job in the future. As shitty as it sounds, someones gonna have to be responsible for shipping the foreign products back to our country. THANK YOU VERY MUCH for the feedback, now if I could only get some more replys. I'm on a 2 week break because of the holidays and then a week later my final paper is due, and wanted to do some changes, just looking for some critisim and or opinions on the issue.

[Gilgar]

Your paper seemed to cover the bases very well. I think you could have MAYBE given Henry Ford a little less credit for the outsourcing issues of today. He was just trying to help bring america into a new age, though when hasn't big business exploited every angle. All in all I think it was well written and nicely thought out. Though I can't speak from a standardized education viewpoint. Kudos.

[Peilo]

Thanks, any and all feedback is wonderful. I have been out of school for awhile now, and was a dropout, problemed child when I was younger. Just the fact that I had it in me to to do the work is enough motivation to continue. Thank you for the feedback.

Originally Posted by Gilgar

Your paper seemed to cover the bases very well. I think you could have MAYBE given Henry Ford a little less credit for the outsourcing issues of today. He was just trying to help bring america into a new age, though when hasn't big business exploited every angle. All in all I think it was well written and nicely thought out. Though I can't speak from a standardized education viewpoint. Kudos.