One day, I walked into the office of Mike Dukakis, then a professor plotting has gubernatorial comeback, and said “I want to do my Masters thesis on the most dire problem facing Massachusetts - what is it?” And without missing a beat, he said “Job retraining”.
The year was 1981.
At that time, it was clear that the states that pivoted to the new, globalized economy with its emphasis on human capital had a chance of survival, while the ones that sat around feeling sorry for themselves (looking at you, Pennsylvania) were going to spend decades in the wilderness. The result was the “Massachusetts Miracle” (admittedly a bit overblown, there are still some rough mill towns struggling) and comparative prosperity.
But it takes real effort to explain globalization to working class communities. Bill Clinton sometimes drove me crazy, but he was the only major Dem leader to really pull it off. Even the sainted Obama kind of breezed over these issues, undoubtedly at the behest of those ever-cautious consultants. The fact remains, as you noted in your book, as manly as being a steelworker might be, no one wants their son to follow them into the furnace.
This is perhaps the most difficult conversation we Dems have to have in the coming year, keep hitting on it.
When you bake a cake the kitchen always looks messy. Once all the tariff deals are completed, the universities become real again, the border is sealed, the illegals are deported, boys no longer play in girls sport, etc etc, Chef Trump will then pull a beautiful cake from the oven. Next, he will thoroughly clean the kitchen. Joe will then write a column praising the spotless kitchen. Or will he? The big test is coming.
The cake is made with concrete, a pre-digital model. You simply don't understand how corrupt the carnival barker is. If you lived in the rest of the world, you would understand how corrosive corruption is. This man is self-dealing. He is surfing populist anger. He is the opposite of a patriot. When was the last sacrifice he made for America, or for anything but himeself.
Joe, your jealousy of President Trump and his accomplishments and your TDS blinded ignorance is highly entertaining. So how exactly is President Trump a “carnival barker”, perhaps you just aren’t intelligent enough to understand what he’s saying? After all, didn’t you say previously that crooked Joe Biden is an honest man? So exactly how is President Trump self-dealing? Are you going to try to resurrect the moronic emoluments nothing-burger or justify the ludicrous democrats’ lawfare? And what makes you think populists are angry? We’re always a good natured bunch, it is the political left who is always angry (keyed any Tesla’s lately)? And President Trump is the gold standard of a Patriot and to answer your question the sacrifices he’s made is losing $billions in his businesses because of the bad faith of the TDS infected morons and taking a shot for the people he selflessly represents. I doubt you can answer any of these questions but thanks for the entertainment.
From Bruce Springsteen - “They’re closing down the textile mill across the railroad track, Foreman said those jobs are going, boys, and they ain’t coming back - to your hometown.” That was 1984 - and Bruce had a more trenchant understanding of the economy than Trump ever will. And given that Trump needs that dirty kitchen to generate enough rage to keep him in office, I don’t expect him to break out the mop and sponges anytime soon.
Brilliant piece! One of the best descriptions that I have ever heard of Walz: "profoundly mediocre"! I cannot believe that Walz, Sanders, and AOC are the best that the Democrats have to offer! I saw rising star Ro Khanna on Monday at the City Club of Cleveland, and was profoundly disappointed in him, too. He just recited progressive Democrat talking points: Medicare for All, childcare for all, and it will all be paid for through high taxes on the rich! Where is the new Bill Clinton, the policy wonk who will explain the hard truth, who will drag the Democrats back to the center, who knows the government cannot solve everything, who talks about growing the economy to benefit everyone, not just about redistribution of wealth? What is wrong with the Democrats? Oh, and Biden returned this week. Another nail in the Democrats' coffin.
Well Joe, at least you paid attention to my previous comment that the AI technology revolution will radically change the global manufacturing and service industry paradigms.
But your vision remains incredibly myopic; looking to the past rather than recognizing what is possible for the future.
In the first place, since you’ve obviously never created, managed or worked in a manufacturing business, the “manufacturing jobs” aren’t just assembly line workers. This isn’t just Henry Ford’s Model T assembly line or just UAW or Steelworker union jobs. In manufacturing there is a vibrant palette of professional disciplines from design engineering, manufacturing engineering, safety engineering to skilled trades, purchasing, material handling, inventory management, scheduling, accounting, finance, HR, marketing, sales, etc. There is an order of magnitude more professional disciplines in manufacturing than in the service industries and they are far nobler than the investment banker wolfs on Wall Street.
Secondly, for those with the intelligence, knowledge and creativity to make things it is obvious that AI isn’t just a replacement for assembly labor. In the future AI will be used to build the factories and to build, operate and maintain all of the factory automation furniture. With the exponential acceleration of AI technology it easy to visualize Ford’s raw material to finished product River Rouge Complex will be 100% automated in a dozen years including the extraction of the raw materials.
Once again, President Trump is a visionary and recognizes that now is the time for the US to stop the managed decline of globalization and to pounce on this prosperity opportunity of the future. To the naysayers who say that it isn’t possible it’s just because it either cuts into their globalization grift funded by loose monetary policy or they aren’t intelligent, knowledgeable, creative and hardworking enough to be able to understand the task.
Joe: another excellent column. From a Minnesotan perspective, Stolen-Honor Timmy is indeed “profoundly mediocre”, but not “warm and fuzzy”. That’s a great act for a sharp-clawed, lying, embarrassment to our state. His future in national politics (and hopefully local politics) was doomed the minute he stepped outside our warm and fuzzy state.
Truth, whether we like it or not, is almost always recognized, for what it is.
Outside of Rahm Emanuel and a few others like him, do you really see a Democrat willing to speak Truth to Power, sacrifice the Progressives, and actually seek to win over the American people?
He's a talented guy. I'd like to see him as Secretary of State in the next Democratic government, if there is one. But--and I hate the unfairness of it--it may take some time before America is ready to elect a gay president, even an extremely talented one like Pete.
Joe, you seem like a smart guy, but it so counterintuitive as to make one blush that you seem to suggest that technology jobs will somehow replace factory floor jobs in the AI-robotic future. Sure, there may be some coding jobs created (although AI has shown itself to be quite adept at coding). But why on earth would a firm invest in robots unless it would reduce production costs - read employees and benefits. There will be mass unemployment within twenty years such as to create a fiscal crisis born of reduced tax revenue and increased unemployment outlays. Rather than cheering for protectionist tariffs, the unions should be working to protect employees displaced by these increasingly powerful technologies, such as requiring very extended severance benefits. And it's offensive to say that untouched will be those whose jobs require "not much knowledge at all (cleaners and cafeteria workers)." Those too are doomed, as such simple tasks readily lend themselves to robotics.
One day, I walked into the office of Mike Dukakis, then a professor plotting has gubernatorial comeback, and said “I want to do my Masters thesis on the most dire problem facing Massachusetts - what is it?” And without missing a beat, he said “Job retraining”.
The year was 1981.
At that time, it was clear that the states that pivoted to the new, globalized economy with its emphasis on human capital had a chance of survival, while the ones that sat around feeling sorry for themselves (looking at you, Pennsylvania) were going to spend decades in the wilderness. The result was the “Massachusetts Miracle” (admittedly a bit overblown, there are still some rough mill towns struggling) and comparative prosperity.
But it takes real effort to explain globalization to working class communities. Bill Clinton sometimes drove me crazy, but he was the only major Dem leader to really pull it off. Even the sainted Obama kind of breezed over these issues, undoubtedly at the behest of those ever-cautious consultants. The fact remains, as you noted in your book, as manly as being a steelworker might be, no one wants their son to follow them into the furnace.
This is perhaps the most difficult conversation we Dems have to have in the coming year, keep hitting on it.
I agree with you 100%!
When you bake a cake the kitchen always looks messy. Once all the tariff deals are completed, the universities become real again, the border is sealed, the illegals are deported, boys no longer play in girls sport, etc etc, Chef Trump will then pull a beautiful cake from the oven. Next, he will thoroughly clean the kitchen. Joe will then write a column praising the spotless kitchen. Or will he? The big test is coming.
The cake is made with concrete, a pre-digital model. You simply don't understand how corrupt the carnival barker is. If you lived in the rest of the world, you would understand how corrosive corruption is. This man is self-dealing. He is surfing populist anger. He is the opposite of a patriot. When was the last sacrifice he made for America, or for anything but himeself.
Joe, your jealousy of President Trump and his accomplishments and your TDS blinded ignorance is highly entertaining. So how exactly is President Trump a “carnival barker”, perhaps you just aren’t intelligent enough to understand what he’s saying? After all, didn’t you say previously that crooked Joe Biden is an honest man? So exactly how is President Trump self-dealing? Are you going to try to resurrect the moronic emoluments nothing-burger or justify the ludicrous democrats’ lawfare? And what makes you think populists are angry? We’re always a good natured bunch, it is the political left who is always angry (keyed any Tesla’s lately)? And President Trump is the gold standard of a Patriot and to answer your question the sacrifices he’s made is losing $billions in his businesses because of the bad faith of the TDS infected morons and taking a shot for the people he selflessly represents. I doubt you can answer any of these questions but thanks for the entertainment.
From Bruce Springsteen - “They’re closing down the textile mill across the railroad track, Foreman said those jobs are going, boys, and they ain’t coming back - to your hometown.” That was 1984 - and Bruce had a more trenchant understanding of the economy than Trump ever will. And given that Trump needs that dirty kitchen to generate enough rage to keep him in office, I don’t expect him to break out the mop and sponges anytime soon.
How about your job?
I HOPE that you are right! Joe and I will then happily eat crow!
Brilliant piece! One of the best descriptions that I have ever heard of Walz: "profoundly mediocre"! I cannot believe that Walz, Sanders, and AOC are the best that the Democrats have to offer! I saw rising star Ro Khanna on Monday at the City Club of Cleveland, and was profoundly disappointed in him, too. He just recited progressive Democrat talking points: Medicare for All, childcare for all, and it will all be paid for through high taxes on the rich! Where is the new Bill Clinton, the policy wonk who will explain the hard truth, who will drag the Democrats back to the center, who knows the government cannot solve everything, who talks about growing the economy to benefit everyone, not just about redistribution of wealth? What is wrong with the Democrats? Oh, and Biden returned this week. Another nail in the Democrats' coffin.
Well Joe, at least you paid attention to my previous comment that the AI technology revolution will radically change the global manufacturing and service industry paradigms.
https://open.substack.com/pub/josephklein/p/liberation-day-on-i-95?r=4a06t3&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=106107218
But your vision remains incredibly myopic; looking to the past rather than recognizing what is possible for the future.
In the first place, since you’ve obviously never created, managed or worked in a manufacturing business, the “manufacturing jobs” aren’t just assembly line workers. This isn’t just Henry Ford’s Model T assembly line or just UAW or Steelworker union jobs. In manufacturing there is a vibrant palette of professional disciplines from design engineering, manufacturing engineering, safety engineering to skilled trades, purchasing, material handling, inventory management, scheduling, accounting, finance, HR, marketing, sales, etc. There is an order of magnitude more professional disciplines in manufacturing than in the service industries and they are far nobler than the investment banker wolfs on Wall Street.
Secondly, for those with the intelligence, knowledge and creativity to make things it is obvious that AI isn’t just a replacement for assembly labor. In the future AI will be used to build the factories and to build, operate and maintain all of the factory automation furniture. With the exponential acceleration of AI technology it easy to visualize Ford’s raw material to finished product River Rouge Complex will be 100% automated in a dozen years including the extraction of the raw materials.
Once again, President Trump is a visionary and recognizes that now is the time for the US to stop the managed decline of globalization and to pounce on this prosperity opportunity of the future. To the naysayers who say that it isn’t possible it’s just because it either cuts into their globalization grift funded by loose monetary policy or they aren’t intelligent, knowledgeable, creative and hardworking enough to be able to understand the task.
Joe: another excellent column. From a Minnesotan perspective, Stolen-Honor Timmy is indeed “profoundly mediocre”, but not “warm and fuzzy”. That’s a great act for a sharp-clawed, lying, embarrassment to our state. His future in national politics (and hopefully local politics) was doomed the minute he stepped outside our warm and fuzzy state.
Excellent. Reality “Trumps” hyperbole. The Silverado driver wears a new MAGA hat.
Truth, whether we like it or not, is almost always recognized, for what it is.
Outside of Rahm Emanuel and a few others like him, do you really see a Democrat willing to speak Truth to Power, sacrifice the Progressives, and actually seek to win over the American people?
Joe -- does Pete Buttigieg have a shot at the title in 2028? Could he be the truth teller the Democratic party so desperately needs?
He's a talented guy. I'd like to see him as Secretary of State in the next Democratic government, if there is one. But--and I hate the unfairness of it--it may take some time before America is ready to elect a gay president, even an extremely talented one like Pete.
Joe, you seem like a smart guy, but it so counterintuitive as to make one blush that you seem to suggest that technology jobs will somehow replace factory floor jobs in the AI-robotic future. Sure, there may be some coding jobs created (although AI has shown itself to be quite adept at coding). But why on earth would a firm invest in robots unless it would reduce production costs - read employees and benefits. There will be mass unemployment within twenty years such as to create a fiscal crisis born of reduced tax revenue and increased unemployment outlays. Rather than cheering for protectionist tariffs, the unions should be working to protect employees displaced by these increasingly powerful technologies, such as requiring very extended severance benefits. And it's offensive to say that untouched will be those whose jobs require "not much knowledge at all (cleaners and cafeteria workers)." Those too are doomed, as such simple tasks readily lend themselves to robotics.