PRESS RELEASE

Obama-Bush Devastation of Manufacturing Workforce Rivals Great Depression

Dec. 15, 2014 (EIRNS)—The City of London financial oligarchy’s enforced collapse of the U.S. physical economy, administered by the successive regimes of flunkies George W. Bush and Barack Obama, has reached the devastating point that since 2000 the percent collapse of the U.S. manufacturing workforce rivals that of the 1929-32 Great Depression. In January 2000, U.S. factories employed 17.28 million manufacturing; by September 2014, it had fallen to 12.15 million, a loss of 5.13 million manufacturing workers, or 28.9%. In 1929, the U.S. employed 11.06 million manufacturing workers; this level fell to 7.35 million in 1932, a loss of 3.71 million manufacturing workers, or 33.6%.

The rape of some manufacturing industries has been far worse, their workforce losses far more than 30%. Some examples, since January 2000: Apparel, down 73%; Textile Mill Products, 69%; Communications Equipment, 59%; Furniture and Related Products, 45%; Printing, 45%; Paper and Paper Products, 39%; Electrical Equipment and Appliances, 37%; Primary Metals (mostly steel and aluminum production), 35%; and Motor Vehicles and Parts, 34%. These nine industries constitute half of the 19 primary industrial categories that are tracked by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The manufacturing labor force is a critical component of the productive labor force which alters and enhances the surrounding biosphere, through man’s growing cognitive powers. This raises mankind to higher levels of development, standards of living, energy-flux density, and ever-greater cognitive powers. The Obama-Bush decimation of three-tenths of the manufacturing workforce, which corresponds to a significant reduction in the level of manufacturing production, is a scorched-earth policy. It has degraded the U.S. physical economy to a level that it cannot support human existence. This has been punctuated by genocide.

Twenty-one states lost 30% or more of their manufacturing labor force since Jan. 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—from California’s 30.6% to Rhode Island’s 41.5%. Another ten states lost between 20 and 29% of their manufacturing labor force. In addition to their critical role in advancing the physical economy, manufacturing jobs pay decent wages, which enable families to survive. The axing of millions of manufacturing jobs eviscerates state and local government corporate and individual income tax revenues, leading to the mass shut down of vital services and infrastructure.

However, today, the situation is worse than 1929-33. In 1933, U.S. factories, many of which were less than 20 years old, were kept in existence. Franklin Roosevelt re-opened, expanded, and scientifically improved them in his 1933-45 revolutionary economic recovery. But since the 1970s, and especially under the Bush and Obama administrations, tens of thousands of factories have been either blown up, sold for scrap, or moved to other countries. In fact, between 2000 and 2011, the number of U.S. manufacturing establishments fell from 404,758 to 338,273, a loss of 66,485, or 16.4%.