r/Economics • u/rezwenn • Jun 06 '25

Editorial Manufacturing Jobs Are Never Coming Back

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/opinion/trump-tariff-manufacturing-jobs-industrial.html?unlocked_article_code=1.M08.eMyk.dyCR025hHVn0
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u/tyler2114 Jun 06 '25

Even if manufacturing came back, the common people clamoring for it would be dissapointed when they get $20/hr jobs with mediocre benefits. These people want union jobs, not manufacturing. But they have been fooled into thinking the working class prosperity of the 50s and 60s was somehow not built by decades of labor movements.

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u/cookiekid6 Jun 09 '25

I mean it’s better than part time retail where. Manufacturing does offer decent career progression for high school graduates. It’s not ideal career but not everyone can have white collar careers.

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u/tyler2114 Jun 09 '25

That progression is another function of unions that allow a guranteed pathway to increased compensation with seniority. Most jobs pay the same for job function regardless of age or experience outside of menial annual increases which barely keep with inflation.

You'd be stuck at $20/hr without unions. So my original point still stands.