Technology Excellence, which trains local people for skilled jobs managing computerized
robot-heavy modern factory jobs, the Link has brought more than $4.6 billion in
investment and 5,600 jobs to impoverished northeastern Mississippi.^209
These are just illustrative examples of the ways in which educational opportunities can be
restructured to provide the working class with meaningful skills. Doubtless there are
others. My main point is that elites need to stop implying or stating that the working class
should accept its diminished status, and start talking instead of steps toward jobs that
provide a modest middle-class life.
The truism that manufacturing has fled the United States for good can be exaggerated.
There are strategic, bottom-line reasons to keep manufacturing local. Take Boeing. In the
early 2000s, Boeing shifted massively to outsourcing production of its new 787
Dreamliner aircraft, replacing its traditional hub-and-spoke supply chain around Seattle
with about 50 production hubs around the world responsible for wings, engine, and so
forth.^210 Only final assembly remained in Seattle.
Global outsourcing resulted in quality breakdowns and cost overruns. In a product where
millimeters matter, the components produced in other countries were not quite right, and
quality control issues plagued the plane for years. The launch was delayed, and cost
overruns were enormous. A strike added to Boeing’s woes. Its stock price sank so low
that it took 6 years for it to recover.
In a 2011 speech, the CEO reflected, “We spent a lot more money in trying to recover
than we ever would have spent if we’d tried to keep the key technologies closer to
home.” In 2013, Boeing reversed course. It announced it was moving wing production
back to Seattle and investing in a new factory and training there. It would continue to
produce some parts abroad but “we need to bring it back to a more prudent level.”^211
Commerce is getting both more global and more local. 3-D printing and other
technologies pave the way for a new generation of niche products tailored to individual
consumers and delivered with high-quality customer service. Liam Casey is incubating
hardware start-ups that provide high-value products for which low-cost labor is not a key
factor. “It’s more important that producer and customer are close to each other,” he
remarked.^212 This adaptation of the German model—make the best products, not the
cheapest—holds the potential for new industry in the heartland. So does the fact that
major producers like IKEA and Emerson are moving to regional manufacturing to solve
transportation problems.^213
- Don’t They Understand That Manufacturing Jobs Aren’t Coming Back?