Well, they did have some pretty cool cars back then.
Posted on 11/04/2017 10:30:20 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
U.S. services companies in October grew at the best rate in more than a dozen years.
The Institute for Supply Management said Friday that its services index rose last month to 60.1 from 59.8 in September. Any reading above 50 signals expansion. The October reading was the biggest since August 2005. The services sector has reported growth for 94 consecutive months.
The strength in the services sector is emblematic of a U.S. economy that looks increasingly healthy. Employers added a robust 261,000 jobs in October, the Labor Department said Friday. Economic growth climbed above an annualized level of 3 percent for the past two quarters – and appears to be solid for the final three months of 2017....
(Excerpt) Read more at pressherald.com ...
This is a great sign! I hope and pray that this is followed up by some good blue collar jobs!
Not good news imho.
Millions of jobs is bad news? Or do you assume that all service sector jobs are at McDonalds?
Okay, so the service industry had a “best reading”. But coffee servers and hotel clerks do not make a country strong. Steel mill workers and factory workers and make a country strong.
President Trump, you promised to bring industry back to America. Make that happen.
He has. Search the keyword “jobs” here at Free Republic for evidence.
I’d much rather see more manufacturing high skill jobs. Service jobs are fine but generally lower paying low skill.
Only real wealth creators are:
(1) Mining (includes oil & nat gas)
(2) Manufacturing (enhances value of raw materials)
(3) Agriculture (from seed & fertilizer to abundant crops)
(4) Applied research (includes new drugs, useful software, scientific inventions useful in market place, etc)
There would be no service sector without above (4) items.
But you are never going to have 1950’s number of steel mills & factory workers given the advances in robotics (much more to come!), etc. Now we could purposely subsidize those industries to keep the numbers of “human workers” high!
Maybe we want to do that. I can make a social policy argument as to why it might be necessary. It would possibly be poor economics but good sociology. I am not comfortable with the argument I can construct, but I could see a need for doing it.
Scientists, accountants, salesmen, nurses, drivers, programmers, doctors and many others are in the service sector.
Like computer programmer, software engineer, marketer and salesman?
> But you are never going to have 1950’s number of steel mills & factory workers... <
Right you are, for the reasons you stated. I am concerned about jobs for Americans. But I am equally concerned about where the wealth creators are. If the factories are overseas, that’s where the wealth is going.
Then there’s the national defense angle. If, heaven forbid, we get involved in a really big war, do we still have the industrial base to win? We had it in 1941. Do we have it now?
Those are all good jobs no doubt. But is this trend good for the long run? I guess we’ll just have to see.
So all the family members fed by those jobs should just say “shove it, we’ll wait for the factory jobs”?
If I take something to market at a certain asking price.
Buyers A, B & C show up. Buyer A will buy at the asking price. Buyer B says, “Hey wait a minute I really need that I will buy it at 2 times ‘the asking price’!.” Buyer C says, “Not so fast! I really really need it! I will buy it at 3 times ‘the asking price’!.” I sell it to C has “additional wealth” - 3 times the ‘asking price ‘ minus ‘ the asking price’ = “additional wealth” been created “ex nihilo” by the market or not? If it has then there is a 5th category - free market!
That makes your description free market capitalism, your 4 categories makes your description more a form of physiocracy.
> Scientists, accountants, salesmen, nurses, drivers, programmers, doctors and many others are in the service sector. <
Good point. But the article said that the growth was in construction, retail, finance, insurance, and accommodation and food services.
Construction...that’s very good. And there is nothing wrong with working in those other fields. But those other fields are not, for the lack of a better word, muscular.
Disclaimer:
I grew up in a steel mill town. As a child I would see the night sky lit up from the blast furnaces. And in my youth I worked in a rolling mill for a couple of years. So I equate mills and factories with strength. Perhaps I am just trapped in a lost era.
Will be used to portray need for more illegals to support since natives are drunk, stoned on opioids, or studying for SAT’s and won’t do the work.
1955 isn’t coming back, and do we really want it to?
To quote a Reagan-era truism, a rising tide lifts all boats. Would it have been better to see a surge in manufacturing, mining and ag employment as far as domestic wealth generation? Probably. But a job for someone who needs it is a very welcome thing, it also creates job mobility for people who are under-employed working multiple part-time jobs. So, I don’t share your negativity even though I think I might understand where you’re coming from.
Well, they did have some pretty cool cars back then.
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