The De-Industrialzation of America… Random Thoughts.

Many moons ago, when I was a newly minted aerospace engineer, Ronald Regan told us that even though his policies were causing millions of “low tech” jobs to flee the US, his policies would create billions of hi-tech jobs. We, the tech elite, had nothing to worry about. If one was wielding a monkey wrench in an auto plant, or flooring a sewing machine in a shirt factory, one could simply get more skills and upgrade to a better higher paying job, and let the Chinese, do the rest for us. Now 30 years later, not only are we waiting breathlessly for these new jobs to appear, we are forlornly waiving goodbye to a lot of the so called hi tech jobs. Upon graduating engg school, I had multiple job offers. Companies asked why I turned them down, and immediately upped their offers when I told them I had better ones. Today, young engineers have to wait six months on the beach before they get their first offer. Take it or leave it. Most of the engineering on the projects like Boeing 7E7 dreamliner etc is being done in Japan and China. Most of the work on the propulsion systems is being done in India and Russia. Only those of us privileged or lucky enough to have special skills and special licensing are offered work here, simply because we are indispensable. A freshly minted Engineer makes about half the money I made when I graduated. So much for Reganomics. This reminds me of a true story about a company called Krupp GmbH in Germany. The Krupp corporation was called the Ironsmith Shop of Germany. During both world wars they turned out millions of guns, tanks, shells etc. “What was good for Krupp was good for Germany” The Krupp plants in the Essen, Duisberg, Halle triangle were the most heavily bombed real estate territory on the planet Earth. Even after the U.S.A.F and the R.A.F dropped millions of tons of bombs on them, they kept on going. After World War II ended, the younger Krupp hired an MBA from Harvard University to run the firm. Within 2 years, Krupp GmbH was bankrupt, the plants were sold off to shopping malls, and the 300+ year old firm was no more. What the combined might of the R.A.F and the U.S.A.F could not do in 5 years of day and night bombing, was accomplished by one Harvard man and his loony policies in 2 years. This is our Weapon Of Mass Destruction (W.M.D) I propose that we quit threatening and sanctioning and invading and occupying our various opponents’ countries. Simply send them Bernanke, Paulson, Geithner, our M.B.As and our financial whiz dudes from AIG, Citicorp execs……over there. Within 2 years they will be finished. Dead as a door nail. S-A-I-O-N-A-R-A. What say Coronadans???????