LordoftheHildago
30311
473
17
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/09/nx-s1-5375146/trump-tariffs-factory-jobs-nostalgia
May 12, 2025 1:43 AM
LordoftheHildago
30311
473
17
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/09/nx-s1-5375146/trump-tariffs-factory-jobs-nostalgia
cuttysark
Big companies never roar. They research, plan, budget, examine, delay, research, watch their competitors and then if and only if, things are going well, they commit to change manufacturing location. For spending the large amount of money invoved in moving manufacturing to the USA, a president with an innacurate understanding of econimics will not win over profit.
Munchman347
Herr Shitzenpants, 'Don't worry America, I'll pull out, oh, and the check is in the mail!'...
beaubrent
When enough jobs are lost, AI and robotic automation will reach a tipping point into chaos.
MarkRavingMad
All this talk about bringing back manufacturing is straight nostalgia porn. We still actually have a lot of manufacturing jobs, but they aren't the good "Support a middle class family on one wage" jobs people remember, and onshoring won't change that. Even if you tariff people into buying domestic at higher prices, they'll just buy less because the average american consumer can't afford a home, let alone a huge spike in consumer goods prices.
RetrogradeLlama
No one dreams of a factory job.
humuhumunukuapuaa
Owners dream of factory jobs
Grenateh
No one is dreaming about factory jobs. They're dreaming about being a real country again where a person has the option to work in a factory and get paid a living wage with the added benefits and protections of a labor union.
ComandoCuloMandril
And kids yearn for the mines... /s
IHaveAGuyForEverything
No one dreams of labor.
JackalopeElope
We dream of one 40 hour job buying a three bedroom house which was mostly just tv.
CrisprCAS
Short answer: No
Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
thisiswhyicanthaveanythingnice
Do people dream of factory jobs or is this propaganda? Because I smell propaganda.
AdroitCudgel
MAGA and factory work - NFI
HaniiPuppy
The CHIPS act was about doing exactly that, and he fucked it.
fstngutz
“You people” won’t pay a burger flipper 15 bucks an hour, but expect me to believe you wanna work in a factory for 10 bucks an hour. Oh the golden age of child labor is about to start anew….dumbest fucking timeline
Whatwhatsomethingbutt
Yeah, some people do want factory jobs. Not like a bunch of steel mill, coal factory, dirty, dangerous sort of jobs, but modern assembly line manufacturing sorts of jobs, sure. Biden was bringing them back with good success. They pay well and they're a low barrier to entry to people who need it. Factory jobs lift people out of poverty and support the middle class. This is largely thanks to unions as many have pointed out, but factory unions are more powerful atm than service industry unions
buzkilljoy
No. I'm dreaming of affordable healthcare. Pipe dreaming
cosinewave
Yeah with low wages and terrible working conditions. Fuck these people.
wolfenstien98
Actually, I work in a factory, and it's the best job I've ever had. It's worth noting that my employer is an ESOP, so that definitely has an impact on quality of life, and the type of work definitely isn't for everyone.
Luffian
Americans want UNION jobs, but saying that triggers people so here we are I guess
Sh1tMovieGroup
Apes together strong...
RenegadeBlob
Factory jobs used to be defacto middle class. Saying no one's dreaming about it kinda ignores who won the white house.
ArcUlfr
Yes, people are fucking morons. They're looking to the man who put the nails in the coffin of the middle class and expecting him to bring back the middle class.
stonerhino
So, they'll have to completely dismantle the EPA, Labor board, and OSHA. Then you'll need to dismantle state level blockages.
tallyhoho
Way ahead of you there champ
stonerhino
Unfortunately
charondaboatman
There needs to be a spectrum of jobs available to all people. There are multiple levels of competency and capabilities. From widget makers to physics professors.
TheCriticsWereConciseItOnlyTookFourLines
And on top of that, there's Bob
luckybreak91
"The picture that we get with smokestack nostalgia is that these were good, solid jobs that people had for generations," he says, "that forgets that it was union activity that secured those [wages]. And it was often [a] violent struggle, right?"
Quote from the article.
The one picture on this imgur page is not a particularly accurate summary of what the article actually says.
JackalopeElope
Of all the jobs we automate: Can strangling the boss for being anti union be one ???
aseriesofknots
THANK YOU.
KingXizor
The article examines nostalgia for those good factory jobs that could support a family for generations. It further examines where this nostalgia ignores or misses greater global trade networks and the massive effect unions had in ensuring this jobs and their having been undermined in the decades since, such as via this article NPR quotes for their first point. Don't misrepresent the intent as 'they yearn for the mines' when it is 'they yearn for the security these jobs offered' >
Awmph
Homer Simpson style factory jobs MAYBE, not Foxconn-suicide-prevention-nets type of factory jobs
KingXizor
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-american-studies/article/abs/wages-work-and-the-industrial-past-in-three-contemporary-labor-market-narratives/F1F008AAD21D25082D4B1C133CFFBCB5
RevolutionOnHerLips
can we be mad at the ragebait title then?
KingXizor
Mhmm, no. It's NPR and the title IS meant to lure you in to an informative article, but it's not rage they are trawling for, it is piqued interest knowing it is an out-of-character headline. Were it Fox, CNN, or the like I'd be pissed because they are likely trying to misinform or inject an opinion, but NPR, AP, ProPublica, or the like would be disseminating fact as raw as they can.
bippityboppitybuttsex
A reminder that any manufacturing that comes back to the US will be hyper-automated....
cdlong
I heard somewhere that a typical open pit mine, that Appalachia claims they want back so they can all have jobs again, has like 4 people in it. A manufacturer's rep from Bell (bike helmets and accessories) once told me anything complex is made overseas, all the simple crap is made in the states. He didn't say this part, but complex stuff needs more human interaction and labor is cheap overseas. A machine making water bottles or some such can run all day with very little oversight
bippityboppitybuttsex
Which indicates the future jobs might be in maintaining those machines... I am telling younger folk to become electricians and plumbers... You can't outsource those jobs
cdlong
Definitely true, but there's another level of consolidation there too. One person can probably maintain a dozen machines or something.
StrandedonEarth
Automated jobs, robot jobs...
acetothermus
Robots and automation sourced from China.
hereforthememes420
Actually, as someone who has worked in manufacturing for years in the US, most automation is from Europe (Germany, Austria, and Italy) or Japan. Chinese engineering, build quality, and materials are mostly insufficient to be reliable enough for a 24/7 operation.
SergeyPrkl
Even the chinese factories rely on european automation. Couple of my friends visit there all the time. They install new units.
acetothermus
But the robots are still most made in China. That's just the reality of the current global economy.
StrandedonEarth
Industrial automation equipment comes from Europe. Optimus comes from China
NKato
My dude, as someone who works in industrial manufacturing: You are talking out of your ass. Most industrial automation comes from North America, Europe, or Japan. Very little of the actual equipment is manufactured in China.
GarmBlack
I dream of robots doing factory jobs... So we can do art and write and create. Not the other way around.
redpandabanana
Well…robots still need people to make the art for them to steal and make worst versions of said art. They aren’t exactly creative.
Salticido
The robots don't need that any more than a spoon needs food. It's the people using the tools that need or want something.
VaultGirl69
I work in tech and don't use AI images for my tabletop games. It's theft. I know it is. Someone tried to compare not using AI art to being vegan, which frankly makes no sense. I pretended not to understand the bad analogy so that stupid conversation would end.
redpandabanana
Well I think AI art is ok if it’s not ethically sourced from artists paid to contribute to their training data. But it’s always gonna be some what sloppy like two left feat or the wrong number of fingers
VaultGirl69
They should receive at least margin. It just turns their art into something slightly different. In America people have lost respect for artists and art. We've even ripped band from public schools. I paid an artist on Fiverr for a headshot of my character and it was only $15. $15 is nothing.
AdroitCudgel
art and creativity DO NOT put food on the table, clothes on the body, or chairs you sit your lazy ass to do art and create.
AfterTheRainComesTheRainbow
Bro has never heard of movies, music, artists, designers, woodworkers...
zafner
Hey everybody, don't worry about this kind of comment, just block them and move on. It's not worth it to engage
DoctorCaptainProfessorAmazing
So the entertainment industry just doesnt exist to you? Movies, TV, music, gameshows, sports, none of those exist in your world?
FlintNorth44
Go home, Ben...
Hammertulski
Categorically false, you fuckin failure.
thomerow
Are you dumb?
arghthisissohard
Art and creativity absolutely earn money. Developed societies and economies bear testament to that. Your comment is insanely uninformed.
naomiMoonBeast
If it wasn't for creativity and artists you wouldn't have food to put on that table or the clothes to put on your body or the chair for that matter just sit on. Where do you think those ideals came from creativity, artist It takes creativity to look at something in one form and go hey I can do something else with this. An artists aren't lazy they are always working they are always creating there is no off time. So how about you take your pampered ass back to your keyboard and hush
idenoh
"The poors, they yearn for the factory."
Cilvaa
"children yearn for the Mine...craft"
Thanshin
... Now that the children have stolen all the mining jobs.
donorkort
They yearn for the lines.
thedtp
SignedEpsteinsMother
Let us oblige them
afatality
unions made factory jobs worth it.
CyborgScribe
Yeah that's what the article says
malbec
And while the pay was good, those are the employees that pushed their kids into college for a better life. Because their supervisors were all college grads.
FlyingButtPliers
For the people working in them. For the owners is spawned NAFTA and "free trade" so they could put the factories in Mexico instead.
luckybreak91
"The picture that we get with smokestack nostalgia is that these were good, solid jobs that people had for generations," he says, "that forgets that it was union activity that secured those [wages]. And it was often [a] violent struggle, right?"
Quote from the article.
The one picture on this imgur page is not a particularly accurate summary of what the article actually says.
KatInTheCorner
SkamanSam
And those companies used automation to get around unions.
skooksies
Unions made every job worth it, in fairness
MeowMachine12
Yep! I work for Harley-Davidson and it's only tolerable because the union makes them pay us almost $30/hour and treat us like human beings within the confines of our contract.
ministryofpeace
And lack of unions in other countries made it not worth it to have most of them in America anymore
ScienceHarder
Yeah, no one dreams of factory labor. People just dream of having safe, stable, well-paying jobs with reasonable hours and requirements, that come with healthcare and a pension.
channelranger
And that was *only* the reality for a time post WW2, when the US was the biggest industrial powerhouse in the world, in part because everyone else had been bombed into the stone age in the war. That kind of situation is not happening again. You want those jobs, you gotta start building strong unions and threatening major strikes.
yoyo42
Even so you either have an isolated USA that has to just move money around from the same pool but spread it around more fairly (not happening) or else you have goods or services to sell to other countries to bring money into the pool (currently decreasing in popularity). Unions can't give you well paid blue collar jobs if nobody can afford the product.
channelranger
modern manufacturing is far too strongly built on basically slave labor, yes. I mean more that if you want job security and good benefits and pay, you aren't gonna find it in manufacturing anymore. The scenario that allowed that is long gone. You'll find it in other industries, by having a damn union.
Astramancer
I was talking with my mom last night and mentioned hoping the stock market doesn't crash again thanks to presidential shenanigans and she was like "oh, you invest in the stock market?" I then had to explain to her that pension haven't been a thing in forever so my retirement is tied to the stock market... I have no idea how she missed that in the past 40 years.
SliderOfElay
And well-paying doesn't mean the labor market rate. But enough to own a house.
SergeyPrkl
Houses could be cheaper, though... Especially in US.
SliderOfElay
Yes, it's become another avenue for wealth to flex its power. How hard is it to understand everyone gets one first before we go for seconds or thirds. Corporations shouldn't make money. People who work for them should.
SergeyPrkl
But... that IS communsim.
Alurkerforcedtologin
People always seem to forget that unions are the ONLY reason there is and middle class at all. Otherwise, it would be super elite that own evening and peasants working the factories for pennies an hour. Proof: look at China. Factories, no unions.
djangojazz
Umm China is having a thriving middle class from what I have heard. Check out the ACFTU which has millions of members. The US is being lied to by propaganda that we have it better. Most of the world has a better middle class than us in terms of pay, healthcare, quality of life. We have been on a decline since the 1980s for middle class. When all that trickle down bullshit came in, it was the beginning of the end.
NotACanadian
China has both unions and a middle class.
Alurkerforcedtologin
Union, singular, operated by the government, independent unions are illegal. It's not a real union. The right to strike was removed from the Chinese constitution, and the average Chinese factory worker earns the equivalent of $8,000 USD per year. Americans are not going to do those jobs for that pay no matter how much your Lord God King Trump tells you they will. Try again.
tachyx
It was considered impossible to unionize factories in the south. What's special about "the south"?
HandoB4Javert
LtRooney
I'll give you one guess. In fact, you probably don't even need the whole guess. Take about 3/5 of a guess.
ThatRaccoonGuy
They're idiots
SalmonTheWise
Legacy of slavery.
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
In addition to what other commenters said, probably the fact that it equalizes employees - including black ones. Usually in a union you get promoted by seniority, so you would end up with plenty of times where a black person got promoted above a bunch of white ones. Can't have that.
Indeedwearethedead
Education, or lack thereof.
req4adream99
As the other commenter noted education - or lack thereof. also a strong sense of individualism and honor. Receiving help is seen as a weakness (to be exploited).
NeverConfusedForNaught
While avoiding help and togetherness is the real weakness
zorock
You need to fact check yourself. China is actually pretty big on unions, and have a massive trade union with about 300 million members. About 44% of chinese workers are in unions, compared the US 10%.
KR1570F
and exactly how free of government control is the literally only legally allowed union within china? how much does it advocate for the worker's rights and how much does it tell the workers what they'll accept if they know what's good for them?
Alurkerforcedtologin
I didn't count that "union" as an actual union. It's controlled by the government. Independent unions are illegal in China. The right to strike was removed from China's constitution. The average Chinese factory worker earns the equivalent of about $8,000 USD per year. Your goalpost moving, bad faith agreement was unsuccessful. I award you 0/10, better luck next time.