A Symptom of Gloabalisation

[Sukerkin]

This story on the BBC is about my local city, which was once the beating heart of the ceramics industry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-22247663

Altho' it might be hard to see what I spoke about globalisation in the thread title, the link is really quite simple in concept. Monetarism, the focus on Supply rather than Demand to try and direct the chaotic forces of economics, lead to both a deregulation of the financial systems and the operational 'reach' of larger companies (the emasculation of the power of unionisation to protect the working man is a lesser factor here).

With controls on how capital could leave a country gone, it took very little time for 'bean counters' to start the outsourcing tide and the ceramics industry was one of the very hardest hit. Production was shifted abroad and cheap tat replaced quality Wedgwood, Spode, Royal Worcester, Minton, Doulton and Dudson. With mining and steel also gone, the whole region nose-dived into a depression from which it has never recovered. A recent national survey placed Stoke and Newcastle-Under-Lyme as two of the worst three areas in the country for unemployment and decline in quality of life and infrastructure.

Manufacturing is essential for meaningful employment and long term fiscal stability - financial services might bring in a lot of money to London but much of the rest of the country is withering.

 

[celtic_crippler]

Been happening all over the Western hemisphere for decades. We're all trying to go to "service" industries... which will mean absolutely squat if and when the world economy goes south. Try trading your "customer service" skills for a loaf of bread.

 

[Drasken]

I have said for the longest time that our economy isn't in the toilet because of illegal aliens taking our jobs. It is impacted more by the fact that our country has shut down factories, and moved everything overseas. Heck, most of my stuff is made in China. It's not easy to find any product that isn't.
I don't mean to say that we shouldn't trade with other countries. That would be stupid. But when we no longer have the jobs here to make the money needed to support our own economy, then it's bound to collapse.

And to respond to CC, it sucks that service industry jobs are all that seem to be left. And I agree that if there are no customers to serve, then what good will customer service skills do you? I do hope that people wake up and realize the need for our own manufacturing and jobs to go along with it. I have personally seen the effects of several factories shutting down. Over a 2 month period, crime rates went up and a nice area started to look more like a slum. It was horrible to see.

 

[Sukerkin]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/15/underemployment-corrosive-unemployment-on-rise

View attachment $the hard reality of employment.jpg

Leaving aside the human cost of this, which is a big thing to leave aside, even the just-interpret-the-numbers economist in me quails at what these figures represent for the country in the short, medium and long terms.

I do agree with Duncan-Smiths opinion on this by the way, even if he is a cast-iron-lying-hypocrite (Tory for short) but it is either a deliberate refusal to face reality or a disconnect of mammoth proportions to not see the problem that lies before the nation when it comes to employment. Banks and utilities making record profits whilst unemployment (hidden and otherwise) soars is not a recipe for a warm future. Or at least a future that anyone not silver-spooned at birth would want to experience.