Mahoning Valley Forum

I was able to attend the Dan Rivers radio program this morning.  The topic was American Manufacturing.  The guest panel (pictured below) included Richard A. McCormack (author), Scott Paul (from American Manufacturing.org), Dave Johnson (Summitville Tile), and John Russo (YSU Labor Studies).


The topic of American Manufacturing will continue this evening at YSU.

 :'( We are doomed!  :'(

Jay, Why do you say we are doomed? At least any more so than we have been for the past 30 years.

I came away from the presentations with the feeling that no entity is really for American businesses, American workers, or the American people.

I agree Jay ... a day doesn't go by that we hear American businesses slammed.

"Tax them out of business." "Tax the rich" they scream! Slap all sorts of rules on business that force them to look to other countries.

I'm a Democrat that is sick and tired of the way the party is headed, and even more fed up with those third and fourth parties that are anti business.

They talk the talk but they don't walk the walk until it's election time.

I went to the evening session. It was very good. In some respects, it was preaching to the choir. Our area has been crying for years about the importance of loss of US manufacturing.

I am not a war hawk, but I am a realist. This world has wars and I don't see any end to wars in my lifetime. What if our country needs to defend itself big time?  Where is the industrial base (like we had in WWII)?

It's pretty frightening.

We need to support any politician who supports US manufacturing (I'm not saying support everything that politician espouses, but definitely US manufacturing issues).

According to McCormack, there is almost no one advocating for US manufacturing in Washington, maybe Ryan (can't remember if he mentioned Kucinich). He said he is just about the only journalist in DC covering manufacturing. Other Washington journalists look at him in surprise when he mentions his specialty area. They are not used to meeting peers in DC that cover this field.

McCormack said that there is almost no analysis being done. For instance, if a US company relocates to China, who is saying "Why are you leaving?" "What do we need to do to stop you from going?" "Can we offer you incentives to stay?" I was shocked to hear this. I just assumed that "someone" was asking these questions and following up.