Oh get over it!

I'm trying to make a wider point here.

Saying you will fight to bring the jobs back when you know you won't win the fight is disingenuous politicking.  

If a  politician told buggy whip manufacturers he/she would fight for their industry after the automobile was invented, should those manufacturers take that to the bank?  Better to believe the politician who tells the manufacturers to retool because the horse and buggy days are over.  

I've always lived by the rule of thumb that it's not how hard a person works, it's whether they get the job done.

Personal anecdote:  I once worked with a woman who stayed at the office until 11:00 pm almost daily.  She couldn't understand why she was passed over for promotion since she worked so hard.  And she was furious that I got the promotion when I went home at 5:30 and never worked weekends.  She didn't notice I got at least a much done in half the time.

Yeah, I'm confused about at what point exactly progressives started judging ideas based on their political expediency as opposed to their actual objective value. The image is in fact NOT the valuable part of the message.

Those old dinosaur industries are what built America, and by dis'ing them you are dis'ing Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and the rest of the rust belt and the people who worked very hard to build America.

The worst part about it is that you just validated McCain's Michigan talking point.

Perhaps you would like to restate your position.  I have a hard time believing that any democrat would dis' good paying union work.  And, I know that you are a good Democrat (otherwise you wouldn't be here) I will give you the benefit of the doubt and say that we just have a misunderstanding...  

am I imagining it, or did you get ghost mojo?

spooky!

Well you are really not getting it.

If you are in a position of power and commit to do it, you possibly can bring some back, they won't be the same but wether you bother to try is the point.

It's not pandering... the jobs certainly CAN come back if people really tried to bring them back... but, no one has the courage to do so...

Even if it is truly impossible, you don't tell someone you just met they have an ugly mole on their face.  You smooth your way around it.

Saying, "the jobs won't come back" is a slap in the face of the people who worked hard to build this country in places like MI and OH.  It demeans everything they've worked for and insults them by saying they are irrelevant.

Manufacturing is key to long-run prosperity because it is a major center of productivity growth and innovation. When U.S. manufacturing moves offshore, associated R&D can move too, thereby further diminishing future innovations at home. Another problem is that international trade remains concentrated in goods. This means that, over the long haul, countries need to be able to produce and sell manufactured goods in order to finance imports. The erosion of U.S. manufacturing capacity undermines this ability, potentially risking a future decline in U.S. living standards . . .

pp. 20-21 at http://www.levy.org/pubs/ppb_86.pdf

And we know more or less what has been happening: other countries are manipulating exchange rates and/or not paying their workers well, and that obviously has long (!) made our manufacturing industries non-competitive:

U.S. consumers buy imports rather than American-made goods because imports are cheaper. This price advantage is often due to under-valued exchange rates in places like China and Japan, which often swamps U.S. manufacturing efficiency advantages.

Under-valued exchange rates are only one of the policies countries use to boost exports and restrain imports, so that they run trade surpluses while their trading partners (including the U.S.) run deficits. Other policies for export-led growth include export subsidies and barriers to imports.

In the modern era of globalization export-led growth is supplemented by policies to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), a pairing that has been particularly successful in China. Such FDI policies include investment subsidies, tax abatements, and exemptions from domestic regulation and laws.

These policies encourage corporations to shift production to developing countries, which gain modern production capacity. This increases developing country exports and reduces their import demand. Meanwhile, corporations reduce home country manufacturing capacity and investment, which reduces home country exports while increasing imports.

http://www.thomaspalley.com/?p=91

Reviving domestic manufacturing and at the same time domestic demand (by empowering labor to claim a greater share in the wealth it creates) are must. The following Thomas Palley article sums the matter up:

http://www.thomaspalley.com/docs/article s/economic_development/international_lab or_standards.pdf

I am going to start reclaiming the word "elitist," much like "queer" and "bitch" have been reclaimed.  But just like those words, only elitists get to use it in a non-pejorative way with other elitists.  Let's all get on board with this.  

but if you're for unregulated free trade, then you should certaintly be HONEST about it.

Worried about what?  That people are going to be told the truth?

It's like the Gas Tax Holiday bullshit that Hillary was spouting.  It DOESN'T WORK the way she said it did.  EVERY economist was against it.  But to the uneducated, it SOUNDS good.  

It's basically lying to people to get their votes.  I'm not cool with that.  I'd rather lose then lie.  I mean, how cynical does one have to be to advocate LYING to folks?

Yeah, next thing is going to be union bashing...

thank you,

Do you have a link to this alternet article, I'd love to have a look at it.

Angels don't exist, so zero.