General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCEO of United Technologies just let slip an unintended consequence of the Trump-Carrier jobs deal
The ultimate outcome of the deal: There will be fewer manufacturing jobs in Indiana.here's the kicker
The result of keeping the plant in Indiana open is a $16 million investment to drive down the cost of production, so as to reduce the cost gap with operating in Mexico.
What does that mean? Automation. What does that mean? Fewer jobs, Hayes acknowledged.
From the transcript (emphasis added):
GREG HAYES: Right. Well, and again, if you think about what we talked about last week, we're going to make a $16 million investment in that factory in Indianapolis to automate to drive the cost down so that we can continue to be competitive. Now is it as cheap as moving to Mexico with lower cost of labor? No. But we will make that plant competitive just because we'll make the capital investments there.
JIM CRAMER: Right.
GREG HAYES: But what that ultimately means is there will be fewer jobs.
MORE:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ceo-united-technologies-just-let-231538059.html
dhol82
(9,353 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Basically they are begging Comrade Casino (R) to sucker them, again and again.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)at the minimum with these types of deals. Automation is killing our manufacturing and in that lies the fact that our Nation refused to set up safe guards to help the people affected. Training for the Automation Technology and related positions was never addressed period. Instead we have a Tax Code that rewards Corporations to move Operations off shore.
At some point,our Consumer Nation will hit the wall,and that will be when no one has the ability to purchase all of this Imported Crap. Are we there yet? After the Con Job in Chief finishes,it won't make any difference,there will only be 440k that will have any disposable income.
Wounded Bear
(58,656 posts)BSdetect
(8,998 posts)Are these people totally ignorant?
Vinca
(50,271 posts)SubjectiveLife78
(67 posts)to run into this same problem. Trump, Sanders, anyone.
There are 7+ billion people on the planet, the world has either caught up, passed, or will catch up to American skills, so many people can do many jobs. Then you add in the technological innovation that makes those same people the world over increasingly unnecessary.
Other than more training and education, and it's never really specified training and education in what, or for how long, what answer does any political figure have to what's not only coming, but already here? Murmurs of ideas and a few trial run experiments concerning guaranteed income.
We joke about buggy whip makers in relation to the technology of the car, but we should really look at the horse. What do horses do today? They're all penned up. A few might race every now and then. Mostly they're not needed anymore, and are fairly expensive to keep alive.
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)A man might - stress on "might" - have needed two whips in his life, unless he lost one. They don't wear out and they all look the same, and you can use the same whip on all the horse-drawn vehicles you have. The people who were making whips ALSO made shoes, gloves, clothing and any other leather good you can think of.
Then came the car, and leather goods makers noticed something: you needed warm, protective clothes to ride in an open-air automobile. They dumped the whips from their lines, started making leather car coats and hats, and made more money than they ever had.
SubjectiveLife78
(67 posts)anarch
(6,535 posts)I have to wonder if they'll at least be U.S.-made robots...
I also have to wonder, if/when pretty much all manufacturing and even agriculture and transportation is automated (as it very well might be in the not-too-distant future) if everyone will still be expected to have a "job" even when there really aren't very many, but lots and lots of products. People just don't seem to be very forward-thinking, mostly.
hueymahl
(2,496 posts)Increased efficiency and automation is what turned this country, and the world, into a modern economy capable of supporting 6 billion people.
So why I think the whole Carrier deal is sleazy and a terrible precedent, I can't get terribly excited about a CEO talking about automating plants so that they are competitive world-wide.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)jobs for 35% of the population
Yesterday I went to Sam's Club ( no Costco in the area )and used the phone app to check myself out and walked out of the store. without having to talk to a store employee.
hueymahl
(2,496 posts)People have been making this same argument since the invention of the steam engine (and probably before that).
Are things different now? Some futurists say the advancement of AI could finally spell doom for employment, but just as many (really, most) say the opposite.
I tend to say technology will always end up creating more jobs in the end as new markets, products and services are developed.
It is a very interesting discussion!
annabanana
(52,791 posts)people having money in their pockets to spend on this stuff.
hueymahl
(2,496 posts)Stopping technological innovation is not the answer
bucolic_frolic
(43,161 posts)as if the Republicans are FOR the working class?
We are scapegoats
hueymahl
(2,496 posts)We have successfully been labeled as cozying up to Banks and the rich at the expense of the working class. Our brand has been tarnished.
bucolic_frolic
(43,161 posts)but the GOP are the country club, vulture capitalist, CEO class who
only look out for themselves
They need some tarnishing too and that is where we have failed imho
hueymahl
(2,496 posts)William Seger
(10,778 posts)... yet every Republican will brainlessly insist businesses are moving offshore because of taxes and regulations, so if we have to cut those.
lame54
(35,290 posts)DeminPennswoods
(15,286 posts)and the software that runs them, but it's unlikely anyone currently working at the plant will be qualified to do them.
hueymahl
(2,496 posts)A Democrat would have demanded Job retraining or structured the tax break to require it.
Javaman
(62,530 posts)Better they lose their jobs to greedy US corporations than them being outsources to Mexico, right?
this is the kind of logic you will be reading and hear very soon.
we are a cartoon of a nation.