A Country That Builds the FutureA Country That Builds the Future
Jesse Jackson
“The fight for American manufacturing is the fight for America’s future,” declared President Barack Obama, as he pledged billions to help save and reorganize Chrysler and General Motors. Yet, the president also says that he does not want to manage the car companies: “the sooner we can get out of that business, the better off we’re going to be.” But that sentiment — widely praised by editorials across the country — contradicts the commitment needed to revive American manufacturing.
Clearly, the future of an America that makes things will center on what happens to America’s automotive industry. The auto industry still accounts for one-fourth of U.S. manufacturing output and provides jobs for about one out of every 10 manufacturing workers. It is, in the words of AFL-CIO economist Ron Blackwell, “the spine of the country’s manufacturing capacity.”
Needless to say, the auto companies are besieged, battered by massive overcapacity in the auto industry across the globe, and burdened with “legacy costs,” the pensions and health care that were promised to retirees, while their competitors are free of such costs. Moreover, auto companies in Korea and Japan and France and Germany get significant government protection and subsidies. The U.S. companies have suffered without that help.
Obama has boldly pointed to a new American economy, one where finance is the servant of the real economy, not the master. In this economy, America builds the future — making the fuel-efficient cars, the windmills and batteries and solar panels vital to the next economy. The skilled workers and high technology of the Midwest get used to produce the products that will dominate the global green markets of the future.
But to make that transition will require planning, an industrial policy and government commitment. If Obama simply lends money to Chrysler and GM, forces their bankruptcy and downsizing, and then walks away, the result is likely to be failure.
Already, we’ve seen plans by Chrysler and GM in which they intend to expand production abroad, while eliminating high-production U.S. plants at home.
We did not provide taxpayer money to save the brand General Motors. We provided it to save highly skilled U.S. jobs, U.S. manufacturing capacity, and begin to rebuild an American middle class sinking under the failure of conservative economics.
Last week, I attended a Senate hearing on the impact of Chrysler and GM’s bankruptcies. Not once did I hear anybody speak about health insurance. About credit. Trade Policy or the price of oil and gas. Not once did anybody speak about the need to link the bank bailout to stemming the tide of home foreclosures and stimulating jobs and business.
What is required is an industrial plan that helps forge the new industry and new markets. Public investment in mass transit — buses, subways, fast rail — and subsidies for fuel-efficient cars help generate the market. Significant investment in research and development for the next generation of products helps capture the future. Resources to retool factories and retrain workers are needed to build the new generation of fuel-efficient cars, or renewable energy sources.
We need an industrial policy that bridges the gap between the old manufacturing sector and the emerging “green economy.” Republicans don’t get this. They are market fundamentalists; they would let GM and Chrysler go belly-up, rather than try to restructure them. In the midst of this crisis, they offer nothing but inane sound bites:
“I don’t want Speaker Pelosi . . . designing the car I drive,” fulminates House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, clueless about how vital this challenge is to America’s future.
Obama has stepped up to help the companies restructure, but has yet to detail the industrial policy needed to insure that American workers benefit. Instead, the restructuring has been done almost in a vacuum, as if it were a commercial deal, with most of the discussion focused on how to slash workforces, close dealers, shut down plants, and cut obligations to current and retired workers.
No one doubts that GM and Chrysler have been mismanaged. Reductions in workforce and dealerships are inevitable. But to revive U.S. manufacturing, the reorganization must focus on what will be built, on new markets and new technologies, not only on what gets cut. And that requires commitments and engagement of the federal government.
“Public transportation and renewable energy products are going to be the manufacturing focal points” of the future global economy, says Robert Pollin, an economist at the University of Massachusetts. “And the U.S. is going to need to devise an industrial policy to become competitive.” If we fail to do that, we’ll simply be a consumer of products made in countries that do have such policies.
Crisis creates opportunity. In this crisis, it is time for America to put aside the failed ideas of the past, and step up boldly to ensure that America once more builds the future.
You can write to the Rev. Jesse Jackson care of this newspaper or by e-mail at jjackson@rainbowpush.org.
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