I’ve noticed lately that many people on the left are outright hostile to the idea of factory labor, and I don’t mean from an economic viability standpoint or “bringing manufacturing back”.
As an example, on the Ezra Klein podcast he had a guest who angerly said “I DON’T WANT MY KID SCREWING IN SCREWS ALL DAY” as justification for his argument that manufacturing can’t work here, despite the fact manufacturing jobs do exist here and pay a decent wage.
I’m apprehensive to blame it entirely on Trump’s hollow promises to “bring back manufacturing”, as I’ve seen this anti-blue collar labor rhetoric for years before even his first term.
What is the deal with this? I feel it’s a big part of why we’re in the situation we’re in now. Many people work these jobs and are happy with them. But if you only listened to liberal discourse on the subject you’d think they were some of the worst jobs you could ever have and you’d only make slave pay.
What happened to workers rights, what happened to encouraging living wages? Why should that only be something college educated people have? It makes no sense why this is the current state of discourse.
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I’ve noticed lately that many people on the left are outright hostile to the idea of factory labor, and I don’t mean from an economic viability standpoint or “bringing manufacturing back”.
As an example, on the Ezra Klein podcast he had a guest who angerly said “I DON’T WANT MY KID SCREWING IN SCREWS ALL DAY” as justification for his argument that manufacturing can’t work here, despite the fact manufacturing jobs do exist here and pay a decent wage.
I’m apprehensive to blame it entirely on Trump’s hollow promises to “bring back manufacturing”, as I’ve seen this anti-blue collar labor rhetoric for years before even good first term.
What is the deal with this? I feel it’s a big part of why we’re in the situation we’re in now. Many people work these jobs and are happy with them. But if you only listened to liberal discourse on the subject you’d think they were some of the worst jobs you could ever have and you’d only make slave pay.
What happened to workers rights, what happened to encouraging living wages? Why should that only be something college educated people have? It makes no sense why this is the current state of discourse.
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>I’ve noticed lately that many people on the left are outright hostile to the idea of factory labor…
No, you haven’t.
You are (almost certainly) misinterpreting what you have seen.
If you show us examples, then we can examine them for ourselves.
There’s nothing wrong with manufacturing jobs, and the US has a lot, usually towards the end stages of production. Trump and MAGA believe we should be doing base level manufacturing, somehow believing wide swaths of Americans will want to work in them and pay American level prices over Chinese ones.
It’s about basic economics and consumer habits, not workers rights. Companies should still be safe and pay people living wages.
Cause those perks aren’t the future of manufacturing in the USA. Most of the work would go to robots and Ai because it’s cheaper and less hassle for factory owners. Plus the US can’t compete in the factory economy against developing nations with for lower wages.
Basically what Trump promises new factories to provide, they will not. At least not at the expected scale. It’s pretty pillow talk for low education, low opportunity workers to get excited about and support him for… But they won’t get that dreamy 1950s factory job for life with a pension that you imagine.
>What happened to workers rights…?
They are still good. No part of this discussion dismisses that.
>…what happened to encouraging living wages?
We still like that.
> Why should that only be something college educated people have?
It shouldn’t.
You are assuming a bunch of implications that aren’t there.