New political plan to stem the loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

[Jim0322 Profile]

This is really funny. (but it shouldn't be)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/20/business/20jobs.html
In the New Economics: Fast-Food Factories?

Is cooking a hamburger patty and inserting the meat, lettuce and ketchup inside a bun a manufacturing job, like assembling automobiles.

That question is posed in the new Economic Report of the President, a thick annual compendium of observations and statistics on the health of the United States economy.......

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I imagine that if the jobs are reclassified as above, Bush will use this increase in "manufacturing" jobs as a sign of the economy improving under his leadership.
Jim

[Jim0322 Profile]

That is odd. My link above won't work, but it worked from google. The article is below.

In the New Economics: Fast-Food Factories?
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

Published: February 20, 2004


Is cooking a hamburger patty and inserting the meat, lettuce and ketchup inside a bun a manufacturing job, like assembling automobiles?

That question is posed in the new Economic Report of the President, a thick annual compendium of observations and statistics on the health of the United States economy.

The latest edition, sent to Congress last week, questions whether fast-food restaurants should continue to be counted as part of the service sector or should be reclassified as manufacturers. No answers were offered.

In a speech to Washington economists Tuesday, N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, said that properly classifying such workers was "an important consideration" in setting economic policy.

Counting jobs at McDonald's, Burger King and other fast-food enterprises alongside those at industrial companies like General Motors and Eastman Kodak might seem like a stretch, akin to classifying ketchup in school lunches as a vegetable, as was briefly the case in a 1981 federal regulatory proposal.

But the presidential report points out that the current system for classifying jobs "is not straightforward." The White House drew a box around the section so it would stand out among the 417 pages of statistics.

"When a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, for example, is it providing a 'service' or is it combining inputs to 'manufacture' a product?" the report asks.

"Sometimes, seemingly subtle differences can determine whether an industry is classified as manufacturing. For example, mixing water and concentrate to produce soft drinks is classified as manufacturing. However, if that activity is performed at a snack bar, it is considered a service."

The report notes that the Census Bureau's North American Industry Classification System defines manufacturing as covering enterprises "engaged in the mechanical, physical or chemical transformation of materials, substances or components into new products."

Classifications matter, the report says, because among other things, they can affect which businesses receive tax relief. "Suppose it was decided to offer tax relief to manufacturing firms," the report said. "Because the manufacturing category is not well defined, firms would have an incentive to characterize themselves as in manufacturing. Administering the tax relief could be difficult, and the tax relief may not extend to the firms for which it was enacted."

David Huether, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers, said he had heard that some economists wanted to count hamburger flipping as manufacturing, which he noted would produce statistics showing more jobs in what has been a declining sector of the economy.

"The question is: If you heat the hamburger up are you chemically transforming it?" Mr. Huether said.

His answer? No

[JAG Profile]

I just want to know how many of my tax dollars were spent on that analysis!:confused::wall:

[Colonel Ingus Profile]

And thus endeth America.


Yes Virgiana, poor Common Sense is dead and there is no more hope.