Indiana and Factory Jobs

I said for years Indiana's addiction to factory jobs was dangerous to its health. 

I was telling a New York friend just last night how people in my high school thought they needed no education since they were going to work for General Motors which would take care of them for all their lives. That never happened.

People here keep waiting for the return of the Golden Age promised them by Indiana politicians.

Unperformed promises create the resentments capitalized on by Donald Trump to feed an American fascism.

Now, I find someone else crying about Indiana's industrial policy. See Michael Hicks: It's time to face facts about factory jobs. For me it feels familiar.

That’s right, the inflation-adjusted peak year of manufacturing production in the USA was 2021. That shouldn’t be too shocking to folks, but apparently it is. I then ask, “When was peak manufacturing employment in the USA?” The answer there is 1979, which seems not to shock too many people.

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 Our workforce development system, which spends a billion dollars each year on training, is primarily focused on filling factory jobs. This seems odd because wages for new factory workers have been in steady decline here in Indiana for more than two decades. And, as I write this letter, the most heavily advertised manufacturing occupation in Indiana pays just $17.00 on average.

Indiana should have known better, should have done better. Why we did not is a question you should be asking.

sch 8/7/22