The Need for Less Labor

Off-shoring Manufacturing was made possible because of advances in design and manufacturing processes we developed to ensure product quality and manufacturability. Contributing factors included US laws and regulations that caused higher costs.

 

In the 1960s, government barraged the auto industry with regulations to reduce air pollution and safety regulations like seatbelts and then air bags.  This increased the cost and complexity of cars. 

 

We also had car manufacturers who wanted to change their car designs annually. Design Engineers didn’t have time to care much about how hard or easy their designs would be to manufacture.  Costs increased, but quality didn’t.

 

We also had unions who didn’t want their members to work hard, but wanted much higher wages and labor laws that supported extortion. Productivity suffered. By the 1970s we continued with regulations like air bags and catalytic converters but also noticed bad paint, too much rust, poor quality, high costs and malaise. 

 

US manufacturers had been expanding imports to other countries and putting factories overseas since the 1960s.But tariffs and technology limited these to moving factories to developed countries to make products sold in those countries. Many foreign countries had laws that required US companies to locate there for permission to sell there.

 

The increase in gasoline costs gave foreign car manufacturers a break. They had developed cars with better mileage.  US manufactured cars were abandoned for better quality imports with better mileage.

 

Productivity and US manufacturing took a leap in the 1980s with the advent of the personal computer. Manufacturing processes improved with computer integrated manufacturing. This allowed companies to integrate CAD with machine controls and eliminate extra programming. Design processes improved as well. Companies adopted Lean process improvement to increase throughput, ensure quality and reduce costs. Product testing was automated.

 

By the 1990s, companies were creating ways to simplify manufacturing processes that also ensured quality. This capability would eventually lead to moving factories to low wage countries.

 

NAFTA was passed in 1993, tariffs were lowered and manufacturers moved factories to low wage countries. Millions of jobs move out of the US.

 

The federal government takeover of education and healthcare resulted in 4 fold increases in cost. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1993 and HUD non-discrimination rules caused the 2008 Meltdown. Excessive immigration since 1989 increased the US labor supply and produced a real unemployment rate of 38%.

 

We have the highest corporate tax at 25%.  We have job killing unnecessary regulations. We have excessively high costs in education and healthcare and government.

 

We need to give education and healthcare back to the free market.  We need to get government out of all of its job killing unconstitutional activities. We need to stop immigration. We need to repeal the laws and regulations, amend the trade agreements and reverse the policies that proved to be damaging to allow manufacturing and design work to return to the US.

 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader