[Wash Times] President Trump made boosting manufacturing the centerpiece of his economic agenda, vowing to revitalize blue-collar America, but factories just aren’t what they used to be, and the notion of "good-paying" manufacturing jobs that connect high school graduates to the middle class is quickly becoming a myth.
Instead, rank-and-file production workers now lag behind much of the rest of the economy in terms of paychecks, forcing economists to wonder whether the push for more factories is desirable in the first place.
Factory workers may indeed need factories. But what do I know ?
Even the service industry, long dismissed as second-tier employment, averages higher wages than factory laborers, according to a study by the Congressional Research Service that casts doubt on Mr. Trump’s promise of a Rust Belt renaissance.
"The strong middle-class entree that the manufacturing industry offered two generations ago is no longer really there," said Michael J. Hicks, an economics professor at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
Blinding flash of the obvious Hicks, blinding flash.
"Manufacturing jobs are increasingly bifurcated," said Mr. Hicks, who wasn’t involved in the study. "For well-educated people, they are good-paying jobs, and for poorly educated people, they are fairly poor-paying jobs." |