• Carl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    People don’t miss manufacturing jobs, they miss high wages. We associate American manufacturing with high wages, so the idea that bringing back manufacturing would bring back high wages is a kind of cargo cult notion - but of course we all know that it was high unionization that drove high wages, high progressive taxes that built all the infrastructure in this fukken country, and high imperialism that made it all possible.

    • EnsignRedshirt [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      9 days ago

      This exactly. What they want is the benefits of organized labor and central planning, but that’s communism, so they’re forced to focus on the jobs themselves. It’s really stupid when you think about it even a little.

  • happybadger [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    A relative worked a union factory job with the UAW. He had a house, a farm, three cars, a small plane, and a 40 year retirement. That was only working as a draftsman, not a full engineer or any other kind of prestige position. I’d totally make that deal with the devil to ensure I could do the things I care about.

  • comfy@lemmy.ml
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    9 days ago

    🐷 “No-one wants to work anymore”

    I’ve done warehouse work and I’d never want to do it over in the US. I assume it’s the same for manufacturing. It’s not a hypocritical position, the problem is that manufacturing jobs are especially hellish in the reactionary regime than regular union-struggled liberalism. Like, pretty sure I’d get cancer from them, judging from the US chem workers I’ve talked to.

    That said, there are probably plenty of “Not In My Career Path” jerks in there too who want children and immigrants to do it.

    • IHave69XiBucks@lemmygrad.ml
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      9 days ago

      I have worked in a warehouse in the US and i was being sent into a small unventilated building that was being treated with aerosol bug sprays which are a neurotoxin. I found this out after i began to develop persistent migraines. I quit, and reported the company and nothing was done about it.

      • Hestia [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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        9 days ago

        Reminds me of a previous job where a manager subverted the normal acquisition process to buy paint which had formaldehyde in it, and it was illegal to even have it on premises.

        He just got shifted to a different department and no real punishment was metted out for poisoning my colleagues.

  • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    The charitable reading of this is that 55% of Americans want to bring back manufacturing for the benefit of other people who might benefit, even though they don’t believe they need such a job themselves.

    Americans have done absolutely nothing to earn a charitable reading.

    • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      9 days ago

      I think proles know deep down somewhere subconsciously that there was more bargaining power and a stronger position for their class when manufacturing and heavy industry was domestic. They know at some sort of level that globalisation and offshoring of this harmed them, they can’t articulate why precisely but they know that it was better with it than it has been without it.

      • TreadOnMe [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        9 days ago

        Some is good, some is bad, depends on the pay and the hours you have to work. If you can listen to podcasts or music, your retention rate triples, it is mostly the monotony that gets to people.

  • peeonyou [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    i love working in factories tbh… much rather do that than work behind a computer at a desk all day. They just don’t pay shit or have any benefits in comparison.

      • peeonyou [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        8 days ago

        I do IT for a tech company… but I’ve worked in a pork processing plant and a box making factory before and the satisfaction I got from doing those jobs was pretty damn high in comparison. I make at least 6 times now what I made then.

        • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          8 days ago

          I’ve never done anything but retail and white collar but what was fun about those jobs? The work seems pretty monotonous and mindless

          At least with retail I was working in a country with nicer people than america so the customers were generally kind

          • peeonyou [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            8 days ago

            It probably wouldn’t appeal to many people but I loved just doing routine things over and over all day long and getting really really good at them. At a certain point it’s just a flow and you’re free to daydream about whatever you want. Before you know it the day is over and you did a ton of shit and it feels good.

            • GaveUp [she/her]@hexbear.net
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              8 days ago

              Fair enough. I actually want a job like that too eventually because my coding job is a nightmare of being around the worst people ever and trying to keep up with my much better teammates (who all hyper-optimized their life for a coding career, hence being the worst people ever) in the cutthroat environment

              That being said, I never imagined it would be a job I like, just one I dislike less

              • peeonyou [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                8 days ago

                i agree… i feel the same way except I’m not even a programmer so I just get shit on constantly on top of having to deal with insufferable personalities with massive god-complexes. i thought i wanted to get into programming when i took this job, and they made it sound like that would be a possibility, but it isn’t and i don’t want to now.

  • Balefirex [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    I wouldn’t really consider this inconsistent? 80% agree more manufacturing jobs is a good thing, and 25% of people are willing to work those jobs. I think the 80% (or 55% excluding overlap) would be happy with a 25% increase in more than doubling the manufacturing industry.

    Well, “happy”. I imagine most would still be upset with increased prices or whatever.

  • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    8 days ago

    Because most Americans are dumb and most American boomers are even dumber. “Bringing back manufacturing” is not a thing they have ever dedicated a modicum of thought to. If they have it’s probably “factory work manly, service work gay” or whatever. There is no thought about industrial policy or even an assesment of the current industrial landscape.

    For instance where I live there are basically nonstop free or even paid courses to train and place people in industrial trades so that they can work in manufacturing or construction. These jobs cannot find enough employees. i honestly don’t know why more people don’t do it. My only guess is that these jobs are quite brutal and require a ton of OT compared to making 60k a year in an office/wfh working ten hours a week.

    The boomers up here still say “bring back manufacturing though” as if it means anything.

  • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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    9 days ago

    Ironically a lot of them already do have harder, longer, more stressful and more dangerous jobs in various hustle gigs than they would have even in XX century factory not to mention modern one.

    Then again, i might be overestimating the safety standards in the USA, i wouldn’t be surprised if what counts as “modern” factory in US was some XIX century industrial hell with open pools of toxic shit, machinery maiming people regularly and no protective gear.