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The American Economy’s Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Week [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-04
The Price of coffee went up last week, and so did the price of Tea. Farmers in the USA growing wheat and soybean wonder if their farms will survive. GM is laying off workers in Kansas as it pushes for electrification of automobiles, but Trump wants fossil fueled cars,
RFK Jr. laid off 10,000 health associated personnel on Wednesday. On Thursday he said many were laid off by mistake and will be called back.
Musk fired those guarding our nuclear stockpiles. Realizing nuclear materials were unguarded, Musk tried to hire them back, but could not find their contact information.
And Social Security, I don’t think I need to go into that fiasco.
In short, uncertainty prevails over every asset in the United States economy.
Anxiety is contagious.
Trump, and those who believe in Trump expect this anxiety will be short lived, that manufacturing will come back to the United States. Please allow me to explain why that won’t happen.
Manufacturing is already here. Honda, Mazda, Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Nissan, Lucid, Rivian, Stellantis, Tesla, all manufacture cars within U.S. borders. These plants now have robots on the assembly line. Their forklifts auto drive, and automatically head to refueling stations when low on hydrogen, or battery. The people who design and program these robots have engineering degrees.
If President Trump wants to employ more Americans at automobile plants, we need more skilled labor. Unskilled labor will never command a competitive price because there is always a supply of unskilled labor.
And then there’s desire. Growing up in coal country, I started work in a garment factory at age 8. I ran the plant in my twenties. Mostly we employed women, women who were the daughters and wives of miners. Many had watched a loved one die young from Black Lung. The Coal Barons did not care, just as the landowners in the North did not care about lumberjacks. There was always another generation of unskilled workers to gather employees from. But these women did not want their sons working in coal mines, dying young, leaving loved ones behind, and poor. So they worked and ensured their children did not become unskilled laborers.
So yes, one can try and bring back those garment factories, but they as well are mostly operated by computerized machinery, right down to the robotized stackers which then transport the work in process from work-station to work-station.
Ask yourself, do Americans want to compete with Vietnamese for jobs? A Vietnamese garment worker makes less than $4.00 an hour. MY employees were making almost twice that rate 50 years ago. So no America, we are not going back.
Our economy thrives on innovation. It is innovation that led to the Industrial Revolution and made England a powerhouse. It is innovation that led to the invention of the automobile by Henry Ford, the airplane by the Wright Brothers, and it was innovation that led to the creation of the internet.
If America wants to stay on top, it should not try and return to a 19th Century vision. If America wants to lead it needs to foster innovation, not tariff products the United State can purchase more cheaply than it can itself produce.
Donald Trump does not seek to promote the economic well-being of 99% of Americans. He announced his tariffs at the close of the market on Wednesday, knowing the stock market would tank on Thursday. But Wall Street entrepreneurs could sell in the aftermarket when it was too late for Working Class Americans to manipulate their retirement funds. Trump’s economic vision will create an oligarchy to rule America, to stagnate economic development, to make Working Class Americans dependent on merciful CEOs like Elon Musk
Anybody happy with what Trump has done thus far? One thing all economists seem to agree on: It will get worse. The responsibility for this lies with 100% Donald Trump. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate foreign commerce, impose import tariffs, and raise revenue. Trump has violated the Constitution, he has committed a crime. It is an impeachable offense.
Don’t like it, contact your elected representatives. Tell them no one intended to make the economy a fourth branch of government under direct control of a convicted felon who just stole trillions form the American economy. “Do Something.”
Keith Newman
Anyone who wishes to copy this and submit to their local paper as an OP-ED has my permission to do so.
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