Manufacturing Matters

Recently, I watched my local City Council lecture a manufacturer looking to relocate about the fact that they didn’t feel his wages were high enough to receive incentives and it really got me thinking about how detrimental the current political grandstanding around wages is. Part of that reason is that we’ve been focused on becoming a service economy so long that many of our politicians simply don’t understand how transformational manufacturing jobs can be. A manufacturer paid for my Master’s degree back when I made $5/hour in my first job of out college–that was a great tradeoff that has paid dividends my entire career. In virtually every manufacturer I’ve worked for, I’ve watched other people increase their skills and earning power through the training, tuition refund programs and career advancement opportunities. I focused my Circuits Assembly article in April on that topic. Feel to send copies to any elected officials that you feel are in need of enlightenment about the contributions your companies make to our society as a whole.