Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
More specific. . . We could create new technologies that could create clean renewable power.
....
I don't have all the answers but this is something I know for sure. We aren't going to be growing manufacturing. We can't compete with workers who will do the exact same job for $1 a day that we pay workers $15 per hour for. So unless we pass some major protectionist laws those jobs will continue to be outsourced. That leaves us with developing new technologies as a way to rebuild our economy and work force.
|
yes, nextgen energy technology is one of the few things that could realistically expand and save the country. (It's actually quite hard to come up with many other specific areas of potential growth, unless you assume a collapse, and then there will be growth in farming and recycling and the like, but that would involve a massive reduction in wages.)
this almost guarantees that we won't try it, as a nation, lol.
one problem with what you are proposing is that there is very little in the way of forces that would keep any new technology we developed from being instantly sent by the multinationals to other countries. As you point out, they profit the most by making it there, why stay in the US.
so, ultimately you are proposing a further stratification into a caste society for this country, you are just hoping that the upper castes who still have decent jobs will include tech subcastes as well as the current managerial financial gubenatorial and high-end service subcastes we now have in the privilidged caste group.
now, it takes a long time for the former manufacturing castes to realize they have been cut out of the pie, but they will eventually as the economy transforms. dealing with their political anger and vulnerability is going to be a problem for some decades, until poverty quiets them down.