I'd love to see our control of manufacturing return, but here's a reality I've witnessed, and I'm sure others in other parts of the country have better stories they could share. I live in Rock Island, IL and I'm old enough to remember when the area here referred to itself as the "Agricultural Equipment Capitol of the World". I haven't heard that phrase since I don't know when. Rock Island is right on the Mississippi river across from Davenport, IA. Time was, there is a stretch of road here on the Illinois side, you could start at one end, drive to the other, and along the way pass factories of J.I.Case, the Farmall tractor, John Deere Plow and Planter, International Harvester's combine works, and John Deere's combine works, just to name some. Now the Case plant is a freight warehouse. The Farmall plant is gone with only a few buildings left. John Deere still manufactures planters and hydraulics and the combine works has been featured on the History Channel's mega factory series, but the IH combine works is an empty lot that stretches out for acres and they're trying to develop it into something else. In downtown Moline, IL, where many manufacturing facilities used to be, there are "trendy" little shops selling concrete statues, children's books and overpriced coffee. John Deere once had huge foundries on both the Illinois and Iowa side of the river here. They both sit empty because John Deere came up with a more profitable source of the materials they produced. Caterpillar is another brand that has roots in my area, but they're constantly moving and changing things.
I'm also old enough to remember driving past the front gate of the Farmall plant and seeing the workers huddled around burn barrels to keep warm while sitting on their picket line on strike. Not long after that, they got a new contract and there was a building blitz brought on by a huge contract from China for agricultrual tractors. Their shipping area was filled to capacity with shinny red tractors waiting to be hauled off. Wasn't too long after those shipping lots were empty that Case bought out IH, came and took what they wanted from the factory and closed the doors. Now one of the largest employers in the area is the Rock Island Arsenal located on an island in the river between Illinois and Iowa, but every time there's a government fiscal re-alignment, they talk about cutbacks and closures there. As another point of interest, if you look at that Honda facilities in the U.S. map I linked in my earlier post, you'll see they have a parts distribution center in Davenport, IA. That started out in a small building next to what used to be the J.I.Case factory in Rock Island I mentioned. They out grew it and built the huge building they occupy now, and employ a lot more people as well.
Popular past time around these parts now is bashing government employees for the wages and benefits they get, but back in the day, all the factory workers around here got far better pay and benefits than any body else. Nobody bashed them, they set the standard for the rest of the community. So, now the factories are gone, taking the jobs with them, and the governments are crying that they're broke because they can't afford what they're paying their employees. The City of Moline is considering letting 12 firefighter/paramedics go and privatizing the ambulance service. If it gets passed, there will be no limit to municipal lay offs here, and the jobs will go to employment services. Good for a city's budget, I suppose, but what of the workers that lost their jobs who are also consumers? Their ability to buy anything, where made in America or Tim-Buck-To will be affected.
I was recently talking to my local Honda Power Equipment dealer. He owns the business, which was started years ago by his father, back in the day when they sold only "American" made lawn care equipment in their shop. He has seen the quality of equipment from Honda change over the years and knows first hand that Honda has taken to outsourcing it's products from their Japanese facilities, just as American companies have done. Like Honda says on their world page that I posted before, "in accordance with our policy of producing products where they are in demand". Thus, we have Honda factories here in the U.S. and I'm guessing this is the same reason John Deere is building factories in other countries. They are building so that they may produce products where they are in demand.
Good for us that John Deere is building overseas because it solidifies their bottom line, and they are controlling their manufacturing base. But it isn't brining manufacturing and jobs to our area, and honestly doesn't guarantee that the factories they have here will remain open. If they find a cheaper way to produce what they do here, they'll move them, I'm sure. So is it necessarily bad that Honda, or other foreign companies, are building here? I have to say we'd probably jump for joy here in Rock Island if Honda were to come along and say they wanted to build a manufacturing plant on the empty lot where Farmall tractors were once built. I would venture to say that zoning ordinances and building permits would be issued faster than you can say Made in the U.S.A. Mitsubishi builds cars in Normal, IL, a couple of hours from me, and remember that the State of Illinois was absolutely giddy when they did. (I wonder if our governor back then got a cut some how? Oh well, he's in jail now and our last one is headed that way too, but that's another topic for another forum.)
So, in my limited example, John Deere, an American company, is building overseas. Good for their stock holders but the manufacturing jobs aren't here in the U.S. Various Asian and European companies are building factories here, which they control, but employ American workers. Yes, I'd love to see a re-establishment of control of manufacturing, but how can this happen? Seems when somebody farts in a foreign bank, it's smelled on Wall Street, and it what was ate to cause the gas gets speculated about on CNN every hour on the hour.
