Opinion: Made in America . . . Once

By Frank De George

Retired Driver 

This Opinion piece appears in the July 23 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

When I hear the current challenger for the presidency of the United States talk about job creation, I think back to one night in November 2005 when I was on the road and listening to a nationally broadcast radio talk show. Two highly respected economic experts who were affiliated with two of the nation’s leading universities were talking about the economy of the country. They were predicting that a catastrophic recession — and possibly even a depression — would occur prior to the end of the then current administration.

I recall thinking to myself at the time that it all sounded rather extreme and unrealistic. However, as I continued to listen, it became clear why they were making these bizarre predictions. They pointed out that for several years the United States had been exporting jobs to other countries — mainly to China and Mexico — at an alarming rate, maybe as high as 500,000 to 750,000 lost jobs per month.

In addition, they said, in their view the attack on labor union jobs would prove to be a major economic factor in the years ahead. They noted that the severely declining unionized labor force in the United States earned more money than nonunion workers, had better health insurance, and most had defined pension plans. The economic experts said that in their opinion, these factors meant that segment of the workforce was paying a greater portion of income taxes than nonunion workers to the federal, state and municipal governments. In addition, these people had a greater amount of disposable income during their working lives — and into their retirement years — and that had a major effect on driving our economy.

The experts’ view was that the combined factors of job exportation, the decline of labor union jobs and the rising debt of two major wars would be what led to the economic collapse of the aforementioned branches of government, not paying unionized police, firefighters and teachers under the terms of their contracts, but because of the lack of income tax revenue from the declining workforce in general.

In the end, it sounded like the many would go without so that the few could prosper.

Today, as we listen to the politicians telling us they are the ones who know how to create jobs and get the country moving again, I wish I could see them in person to ask one simple question: If you knew the answers, why didn’t you speak up back then when it was beginning? Why didn’t you stand up then for the American people during the previous administration when jobs were leaving the country by the hundreds of thousands per month. Why did you just stand there, watching the destruction of America?

Simple logic would dictate that what we need most now isn’t job creation — it’s job recovery. We had the jobs right here in America, and our leaders stood idly by and let them go to foreign countries. And prices for goods continued to rise and have stayed high since all our jobs left the country.

The politicians now say that tax breaks for the “job creators” are the answer to all of our economic problems, but that certainly has not proved to be the case.

The predictions of those two economic experts I heard on the radio back in November 2005 did, in fact, come true. And perhaps the actions of the current administration actually have saved our country from another Great Depression.

I recently attended an antique truck show where I saw many nostalgic photos and signs displayed by various show vendors and featuring many of our country’s major trucking firms that have gone out of business over the years. At one time, those American companies created many good-paying jobs, both union and nonunion, and generated a great deal of income tax revenue for the country as well as for the cities and states in which they operated.

I stopped at a vendor who was selling denim shirts with a logo that contained the word “American” embroidered over the chest pocket of each $45 shirt. When I checked the label inside, it read, “Made in Vietnam.”

The author is a retired truck driver who lives in Westfield, Mass.