this may be a dupe but did anyone hear how Bush intends to create

[eagler]

1000's of new jobs- by reclassifying Mcdonalds workers as production jobs? I heard it last evening on NPR.

[youngred]

1. Is there a link or story for this

would be curious to see how/why he could do that

[EstimatedProphet]

2. I did hear this on the radio last night

It would fit this administration's philosophy (although philosophy isn't a good word here because it implies thought occurs)to classify unskilled minimum wage labor as production. I seriously doubt they would be recommending wage raises to production class jobs though. How convenient.

[JasonDeter]

3. Its was on Lou Dobbs friday. He was flabbergasted

as were all who watched the story. The same character who said is was a good thing outsourcing American jobs said it could be legitimate to reclassify McDonalds hamburger makers as production jobs. ROTFLMAO

[Elidor]

4. They seem determined to blow what little economic credibility they have

This one is blowing up in their faces. In any rational world, the idiot who thought this up would be fired. They make it sound as though we ship hamburgers off to China.

[eagler]

5. Hey! great idea.

Seriously this one should not be left to die. They may very well use this idea. If few enough people hear about it,it just might work for bush.

[CatWoman]

6. .....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/20/business/20jobs.html?

[Bozita]

7. That's the article that started all of the talk

David Cay Johnston is a Pulitzer winner.

from the article:

In the New Economics: Fast-Food Factories?
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

Published: February 20, 2004
Is cooking a hamburger patty and inserting the meat, lettuce and ketchup inside a bun a manufacturing job, like assembling automobiles?

That question is posed in the new Economic Report of the President, a thick annual compendium of observations and statistics on the health of the United States economy.
Advertisement

The latest edition, sent to Congress last week, questions whether fast-food restaurants should continue to be counted as part of the service sector or should be reclassified as manufacturers. No answers were offered.

In a speech to Washington economists Tuesday, N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, said that properly classifying such workers was "an important consideration" in setting economic policy.

Counting jobs at McDonald's, Burger King and other fast-food enterprises alongside those at industrial companies like General Motors and Eastman Kodak might seem like a stretch, akin to classifying ketchup in school lunches as a vegetable, as was briefly the case in a 1981 federal regulatory proposal.

more...

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

8. Where was this published? Link? eom

[Bozita]

12. It's the link in CatWoman's post

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/20/business/20jobs.html?

[mike1963]

9. It's pretty much all over the net...from the same guy who said outsourcing

was a good thing. Mankiw (sp?)?

:grr:

[terryg11]

10. So, would new jobs actually be created?

or would they claim that they had "created" thousands of new jobs in the production sector just because they reclassified them? I'm still at a loss as to how that would create new jobs.

[terryg11]

11. just read the article smells of presidential desperation

and must admit they have to be getting pretty damn desperate to think this one up