Happy Phriday and Happy Mother’s Day.
Poem I am Considering:
My Mother Kept A Garden, by Kelly Z.
My mother kept a garden A garden of the heart She planted all the good things That gave my life its start She turned me to the sunshine And encouraged me to dream Fostering and nurturing The seeds of self-esteem And when the winds and rain came She protected me enough But not too much because she knew I'd need to stand up strong and tough Her constant good example Always taught me right from wrong Markers for my pathway That will last a lifetime long I am my mother's garden I am her legacy And I hope today she feels the love Reflected back from me
Sammie’s Journal
I am not much of an expert on anything, except for manufacturing. I have spent my entire life involved in moving stuff from one end of a factory to another. I have studied the masters, Joseph Juran, Taiichi Ohno, Eliyahu Goldratt, The Toyota Way, Peter Senge, Lean Thinking, and even old Frederick Taylor. I have visited a wide variety of factories over the years, both here and overseas. I understand what factories are, how they think, and what it takes to make them run effectively.
Also, I am a bit of a cynic. If you put my experience and knowledge about factories with my natural cynicism, you might understand why I say this. The idea of bringing manufacturing back to our shores is a fantasy, at least in the the world economy as it exists today.
Here’s why.
In the late nineties and early 2000s the US lost the jobs we wanted to lose. Many of these jobs were jobs no one wanted to do. Even if we did bring back these shitty jobs, who would do them? Our unemployment rate is 4.0% . It has been 4.0% for a long time. That is considered full employment by most economists.
Many of these lost jobs did not go overseas, they just disappeared because the industry disappeared. For example, if you grew up in Southern Illinois, as I did, you know, and felt, the jobs lost in the coal mines. That industry died. The jobs died with it. Another example, how many horseshoe factories are there these days?
Also, many of these missing jobs did not really leave. Automation and robots replaced the positions to reduce headcount. And while it is true that many jobs went offshore, even these jobs have been automated. (I guess we could bring back the robots. But robots do not pay payroll taxes.) My first real job was tire-builder. Tire at that time were basically handmade. I would turn out 90 to 100 tires a day. Today one tire builder on a multistage machine can produce over 500 tires a day. And believe me, they aint busting their ass they way I did.
Some of these jobs that the Rust Belt supposedly lost, did not go overseas, they went south, to our southern states. North Carolina has a thriving auto industry now. There are over 250 automotive companies there employing a workforce of over 37,000. And it is still growing.
Another impediment to bringing back all this manufacturing is that it takes a long time to plan, build, and make-operational a large factory. Believe me, I know. Years ago, I opened a small factory on the west coast. I found an existing building. I filled it with machinery I already had on the shop floor in the Midwest. I had employees willing to move out there and start it up. Easy, right? This simple startup took 10 months to get the plant running product.
Final word.
I hear trade deficit being thrown around in a negative way. But think of this, I run a trade deficit with my barber but it does not hurt me financially and our local economy is strong.
Book of the Week: Abundance, Ezra Kline and Derek Thompson
If you are a liberal/progressive, this might be a tough book to read. I will use this tired quote by the great philosopher, Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Reading this book was a little like looking in the mirror in the morning with a hangover.
But there is good news in this book. The authors show us places where we can start to change some of these bad habits.
What Amazon has to say about this book
To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, America has a national housing crisis. After years of limiting immigration, we don’t have enough workers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven’t built anything close to the clean-energy infrastructure we need. Ambitious public projects are finished late and over budget—if they are ever finished at all. The crisis that’s clicking into focus now has been building for decades—because we haven’t been building enough.
Mike’s Friday Funnies: Shoes
A man walks into a shoe store and tries on a pair of shoes. "How do they feel?" asks the sales clerk. "Well ... they feel a bit tight." replies the man. The clerk promptly bends down and has a look at the shoes and the man's feet. "Try pulling the tongue out." offers the clerk. "Nath theyth sthill feelth a bith tighth." he says. A man with two left feet goes into a shoe store... ...and asks the shop assistant: "Do you sell flip-flips?" “Sabe inglés?" "Si." "Como se dice 'un zapato' en inglés?" "A shoe." "Salud." "Gracias.” (I had to have my bilingual friend help me on this one. It's funny.) Worst name for a shoe brand? Achilles. Me: You’re shoes are on the wrong feet. 4yo: I don’t have any other feet. Me: Fair enough. What do you get if you cross a river with tap shoes? Riverdance. What do you get if you cross a river with crocs? Eaten.
GoodEnough:
In this episode, Mark and Sam discuss AJ Humpreys' new novel, "Trip" and his new publishing company, Dark Journeys Press. This one is not for the squeamish. And the word "fuck" is used liberally. AJ Humphreys is an emerging author of thrillers, horrors, and mysteries and a 2024 addition to the Horror Writer's Association. The four-part Season of The Monster saga has served as his debut within the publishing world. Not one to fear going against the grain, Humphreys ditched the corporate world in 2021 for the food service industry, permitting him more time to focus on the haunting tales his mind conjures. When AJ isn't writing, it’s a safe bet he’s outdoors and his best pal, Kobe The Husky, is somewhere nearby.
Friday Twain is Leaving the Station
"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."
Moment of Zen
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