Am I the only one (no, I don't thinkso....) that understands that about
One in ten jobs
in this country are related to the automobile industry???What I see as the main (and perhaps only reason to save the Detroit auto industry is that the amount of new unemployment that would be created will throw us into what the Fed chairman (Mr. Ben B.) received his Doctorate for studying, what I call, "Depression 2.0.
The sudden demise of Chrysler, and closing of myriad auto plants will not only affect the 40-100,000 direct employees of this company, but will also affect workers in companies downstream from them.
(this paragraph really belongs in the 'useless facts you already should have know department')
The auto industry under Henry Ford quickly became a totally integrated industry, which started out creating everything, and slowly started to shed manufacture of some items, by either spinning out ownership of some plants or simply by subcontracting.
Now. With unemployment (as of 2/1/09) standing at 8.1 percent officially (with some estimates as high as 10% unofficially, and up to 28% in Detroit), we approach reason one why we need to save the automakers:
* Adding 300-500,000 jobs in One industry to the "been there, done that" department will not help our country recover.
Reason two adds critical details on what to do with all this idle labor.
* Using the manpower of these jobs to concentrate on "green manufacturing", and Mass/Heavy/Light ** transit will provide thousands if not hundreds of thousands of these jobs (AND will ALSO help to resolve some 'downstream' [read:Dealer related] job redirections that will need to happen.
Review:
Reason 1: 100K-500K jobs eliminated is not good in economic 'recession'
Reason 2: re-directing these jobs into GREEN economies will help US manufacturing base.
'nough said today.. Schluffy calls!
** My definitions of XXX Transit:
Mass Transit: High impact /(often underground=EXPENSIVE) Commuter rail projects that bring jobs to the people (and people to the jobs--the two are very different, see an older post I wrote about Robert Moses, how he destroyed the NYC /LI/NJ economy by deliberately refusing to consider anything but automobiles for transportation HERE.)
Light Transit: Think streetcar. Think electric powered bus in a dedicated lane . Think FAST construction, FAST payback times. Think Baltimore (?..)
Heavy Transit: NEW Freight Rail lines, designed to OFFLOAD existing (18 wheel) tractor trailers from existing highways, by running down the CENTER of existing highways.
Think Heavy construction, but the ABSOLUTE fastest and most critical infrastructure payback that we can create for our country. (See here) . Creating Heavy Rail will eventually lead to more interconnected rail systems and fewer trucks. This new system must NOT be owned by any existing rail-roads, or monopoly conditions will be re-created.
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