Can we replace the high-wage manufacturing economy with a high-wage, high-cost service economy?
I think we can replace the high-wage manufacturing economy with a high-wage service economy. It’s already taken place in some places. Health care, for example: We have a lot of well-paid health care professionals in this country. And people come to America to have their operations and all sorts of things. It’s one of the great things about American modern life. We can do the same thing with the minimum-wage cashiers that we find in the millions in all of the big-box stores. These people can have a higher standard of living. Yes, it would reduce some of the profitability of some of these firms, but the result would be an explosion of consumer demand in the American economy itself. You’ve sort of taken Wal-Mart to task for not offering what you would call decent full-time jobs that would sustain a middle-class living standard. Raise that question with Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart comes back and says to you: “Look, we’re not out to do that. … We’re not trying to create the same kind of jobs G
Related Questions
- Is the department adequately resourced to remold the workforce from a manufacturing to a service and knowledge economy?
- Will manufacturing be de-emphasised in an economy where the service sector will grow faster?
- Which country would you rather be...one with strong manufacturing or a pure service economy?
