Third Quarter in America

There have been a lot of discussions about Clint Eastwood's Super Bowl Chrysler commercial, "Halftime in America" having had political overtones. I definitely disagree that any political message was intended. The point was that American manufacturing can and should come back to an energetic and vibrant status. Our past interest in short-term profits led to sending many jobs and capabilities overseas so that our corporate revenue statements looked good. It's time to take a longer term point of view. Forget those quarterly reports and rebuild our technical capabilities. Encourage college students to take technical courses and majors again by telling them that American manufacturing can and will grow so that they'll have good jobs. When you shop, look for that Made In U.S.A. label and give it priority over products from other countries. Encourage those who start small American manufacturing businesses. Start being proud of the things we can make instead of seeking dollars regardless of the source. If this sounds too much like patriotic cheerleading, that's too bad...It is OK to be patriotic and proud of your own team. Try it; you might like it.

Jobs and the U.S. Economic Recovery

According to the Bureau of the Census data (Click on the title of this piece.), there are only 17047 firms in the United States that have more than 500 employees. There are 19,523,741 firms that do not have any employees at all. These are one-person operations that may be run on a full or part-time basis. There are also 5,885,784 firms that have payrolls, 4,980,165 of which have fewer than 100 employees. The most direct path to economic recovery lies in a combination of more people starting their own businesses and a significant percentage of small businesses adding a single employee. The Federal Government would do well to encourage entrepreneurship and to take steps to make it easier for small businesses to hire one additional person. The leverage of small businesses on the economy is huge, and their employees tend to stay with their companies for as long as those businesses remain economically viable. Add to these choices the fact that the government is finally starting to encourage the manufacture of products domestically, and we may find the light at the end of the tunnel.