Anyone who makes things knows the satisfaction that comes from creating, whether it’s a nice garden, a piece of furniture, a pot, a model airplane, a song, a story or a house. The utilitarian drive to make practical and beautiful things is part of the American psyche, part of what was ingrained in our culture as the early pioneers fashioned a way to survive and then thrive in a new land.

That’s one of the reasons why the demise of the American manufacturing sector is perhaps doing more than just slowing our economy. It is forcing many to reassess some of the basic tenets of their existence.

Many today want to pooh pooh old style industrialists and manufacturers as polluters who employ poorly educated people to make gadgets for a spoiled populace. I disagree. I look at factories and think of the intricacies of machinery and man coming together in ingenious ways to devise wonderful products. Sure we need to modernize as our views and knowledge about the environment have evolved, but that realization does not do away with the wonders created by an industrialized world.

But America will no longer build the stuff used around the globe. Choose your study or story, but the facts are irrefutable: this country, and North Carolina in particular, is facing a massive transition. Manufacturing of traditional goods is going overseas. Last year this state led the U.S. in the sheer number of manufacturing jobs lost. One study I read said that Rhode Island lost a higher percentage, but we far exceeded their number. From July 2000 to July 2001, one report said 36,000 manufacturing jobs simply disappeared in this state. Half of those were in apparels and textile, and another hefty percentage was in furniture.

The mountains are running headlong into this reality. Though we have never had the percentage of manufacturing jobs enjoyed by counties in the Piedmont, jobs at factories in WNC have played a crucial role in the workforce since the early part of this century. Together with tourism and agriculture, manufacturing jobs have allowed mountain people to attain the same economic wealth as that enjoyed by all other Americans.

A few days before Christmas, furniture maker Lea Industries in Waynesville will close shop. About 240 people will be looking for work. Another factory out in Cherokee County announced a closure a couple of weeks ago. A new company coming to Haywood County is delaying arrival, bringing in only about six workers as the new year gets under way.

Many will blame globalization. Whether it’s NAFTA or the WTO, though, the real culprit — sad as it seems — is our own prosperity. A couple of weeks ago I heard the top man at Volkswagen complaining that Mexican workers were demanding wages that would make the company’s manufacturing plant in that country unprofitable. Those workers wanted $9 a day.

If one of the world’s top automakers can’t earn a profit paying workers in a day what U.S. autoworkers get in 15 minutes, the picture should become perfectly clear. We will not be building cars for too much longer. That job will go to what we in the U.S. consider poor countries.

We know where we must go. The high-tech industries who need an educated workforce are what America must develop. On Monday, Western Carolina University Chancellor John Bardo and Rep. Charles Taylor announced a joint agreement between WCU and UNC Charlotte that will one day bring jobs in photonics and opto-electronics to this region. As best I can understand, this is an emerging field in which data travels as light over thin wires of glass. No more copper wire sending a juiced up string of electrons. This new technology is faster and more efficient. According to a press release, it is a $170 billion a year industry.

I guess those people involved in this industry will make things. But the men and women who are leaving Lea Industries won’t, I suspect, be able to re-educate themselves and work in this emerging field, though their children might. Employment experts say the unemployed Lea workers should look toward health care and other service industries. I suspect there are plenty of jobs there.

But whether one made furniture or blue jeans, I suspect there was still some satisfaction at the end of the day for having produced something tangible, something you could hold in your hands and see for sale at the local furniture or auto parts store. Anyone who knows a tradesman or skilled craftsperson has seen the pride that accompanies a job well done.

And a whole lot of these older Americans who still need to work are becoming job seekers. Let’s hope they find a way to make a living and a new life.

(Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com)

 

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