Comments on: Bissell, Part II

By: Don Attebury

Don Attebury — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:48:59 +0000

I think manufacturing will still play a major part in our economy in the 21st century. However, it will vastly change. I think the level of production likely will remain as high or higher than in the 20th century. But new factories will be extremely efficient and automated requiring much fewer, mut much better educated workers often with college degrees in operations management, engineering, or computer science. In the 21st century manufacturing will be like agriculture in the 20th century. I am sure American farms produced much more food in the 1900s than was produced in the 1800s. More food was produced by much fewer people

By: Lou Glazer

Lou Glazer — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:14:59 +0000

In reply to Don Attebury. Sure. But what Bissell is doing is more the model for future high wage job growth. Knowledge jobs off the factory floor in companies that make .

By: Don Attebury

Don Attebury — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:38:22 +0000

I agree that future manufacturing in an automated high wage, high education environment will not be able to hire nearly as many people for the same level of production. However I think it can be one part of the solution. In addition to providing a small portion of the high wage high education jobs Michigan will need in the new economy, such factories are essential if the United States is going to be able to produce many of the goods we need. Again, I am looking at a very automated, computerized manufacturing process where workers of ten need college degrees in engineering or computer science. A given level of production would require much fewer, but highly skilled, workers. Perhaps workers in these factories would do part of a manufacturing process and other parts requiring labor intensive low wage work could be done in low wage states or overseas.

By: Lou Glazer

Lou Glazer — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:02:07 +0000

In reply to Don Attebury. Sure. You can see that in industries like information technology, aerospace, pharmaceuticals and chemicals where factories have few workers but those they have are highly skilled, many with college degrees. But few are doing the kind of assembly/production work we think of as factory work. That is by and large done by machines. The work humans are doing is quality control, programming and maintaining the machines. The point you make that there will be far fewer jobs in the factories is real important. This kind of work will not be the foundation you can build a broad middle class on. Unlike last century where factory-based economies were the basis of a broad middle class. There just won't be enough jobs.

By: Don Attebury

Don Attebury — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:37:20 +0000

Is there a way for a high wage, high education economy to encourage high wage, high education factory work? What if factory production would become highly automated, requiring fewer workers, but very well educated ones to manage groups of machines. These`factories would produce a lot of products, but the automation would require fewer but well educated workers to oversee the production