Dalton McGuinty is not a real leader just like Stephane Dion is a pretend leader.

[ 24 March 2008: Message edited by: Fidel ]

Manufacturing employment in Ontario has indeed decreased by 200,000 - but total employment has increased by 400,00.

During the period 1997-2001, manufacturing employment increased by 200,000, and real average weekly wages increased by 0.76% a year.

Since 2004, manufacturing employment decreased by 200,00, and real average weekly wages increased by 0.93% a year.

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Originally posted by Stephen Gordon:
I`d like to know why anyone thinks it's a problem.

Manufacturing employment in Ontario has indeed decreased by 200,000 - but total employment has increased by 400,00.

During the period 1997-2001, manufacturing employment increased by 200,000, and real average weekly wages increased by 0.76% a year.

Since 2004, manufacturing employment decreased by 200,00, and real average weekly wages increased by 0.93% a year.

So why do we care if manufacturing employment is down? Total employment is up, and real wages are rising faster than they were during the manufacturing boom.

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1) The 52 year old who is laid off from the auto-assembly plant is probably not going to become proficient in web design or electrical engineering.

2) is a matter of (mis)perception.

[ 24 March 2008: Message edited by: Stephen Gordon ]

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Originally posted by Stephen Gordon:
1) is not a new problem, and it's less severe than you might think. The decline in manufacturing employment is almost entirely due to attrition, not mass layoffs. Layoff rates in the manufacturing sector are lower than what they were in the 1990's. What's bringing employment numbers down is that hiring rates have dropped to almost nothing.

2) is a matter of (mis)perception.

[ 24 March 2008: Message edited by: Stephen Gordon ]

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Originally posted by Stephen Gordon:
The same way an individual person can: by trading for them.

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How is an individual person within a country analogous to a an individual country within a planet?

The individual person in the country has the benefit of an existing system of laws with a good track record. This does not seem true internationally.

For example, we could decide to kill agriculture in Canada by stopping subsidies for our farmers. They would then perish vis a vis the over subsidized farmers in Europe and the USA. But then, would we not be vulnerable to their manipulation and extortion in a manner which is neither secure nor stable?

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ETA

Giving up on manufacturing should not, I think, be left up to the market, because once it's gone it's really hard to bring back.

I don't understand what services we have to offer to the third world that they wouldn't be able to develop themselves soon, at which point we'd have nothing to offer.

I suspect all it is is that the occident has bought itself a permanent share of third world profits.

[ 24 March 2008: Message edited by: 500_Apples ]

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Originally posted by 500_Apples:
[QB]
How is an individual person within a country analogous to a an individual country within a planet?

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Conservation and efficiency programs along with investments in diversification of power generation has worked in U.S. states and other countries where deregulation disasters forced them to consider green alternatives and using more locally-generated power where possible.

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Originally posted by Stephen Gordon:
1) is not a new problem, and it's less severe than you might think . . . What's bringing employment numbers down is that hiring rates have dropped to almost nothing.

2) is a matter of (mis)perception.

[ 24 March 2008: Message edited by: Stephen Gordon ]

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That sounds like it might be a good thing if it wasn't for Ontario being home to the largest number of children living anywhere below the poverty line as of several years ago. Almost half of the jobs created in Ontario have been public sector and wages paid for by taxpayers.

Ontario is the only province where public sector job creation has exceeded private sector jobs over the last five years. Ontario now ranks ninth out of ten provinces for economic growth.

Since 2003, Ontario has lost a total of 71,804 people to other provinces and recorded consistently negative inter-provincial migration.

McGuinty's Liberals have allowed $6.6 Billion dollars in wages to slip away from Ontario's economy along with over 15 percent of Ontario's manufacturing base. TD economists have suggested that we could lose another 250, 000 good-paying jobs over the next five years if nothing is done about it.

Since giving themselves a whopping 25% taxpayer-funded pay hike, McGuilty's Liberals have done even less than before as inconceivable as that sounds.

Liberals vote to “Sell-Out” Ontario, reject “Buy Ontario”

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The bill, proposed by NDP MPP Gilles Bisson, would have required Ontario municipalities and transit authorities to give a preference to mass transit vehicles whose final assembly is done in the province and where at least 50 per cent of the total dollar value of the contract to purchase the vehicles is attributable to parts or labour originating in Canada. The bill was defeated by a vote of 41 to 20.

“Other jurisdictions all over the world already have this kind of legislation in place. Here in Ontario we had it until 2005 when the McGuinty government scrapped it,” said Bisson.

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This is what we get for allowing a 22 percent phony-majority Liberal government to dictate the agenda. Good things grow in Liberal Ontario. And so does child poverty.

[ 24 March 2008: Message edited by: Fidel ]

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Originally posted by Stephen Gordon:
The decline in manufacturing employment is almost entirely due to attrition, not mass layoffs.

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Big Ontario auto parts firm lays off hundreds

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Linamar Corp. of Guelph, Ont., confirmed Tuesday that it is trimming 400 to 500 more people from its 12,000-strong workforce in tough times for the North American auto and construction-equipment industries. ...

"We have 22 of our 38 facilities in Guelph, so the vast majority of the impact would be felt in Guelph, but it's not limited just to Ontario," the company's communication manager, Crystal Roberts, told CBC News.

About 7,000 people work at the Guelph plants, all of them non-union.

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FIVE YEARS AGO, alongside autoworkers and environmentalists, Jack Layton unveiled a job-saving Green Auto Strategy:

.Spurring innovation by setting mandatory fuel-efficiency standars for all vehicles sold in Canada.

.Jumpstarting production by investing in the development and assembly of efficient hybrid and alternative-fuel vehicles.

.Building markets for greener cars by offering consumers GST rebates and greening the massive federal vehicle fleet.