Travels, etc.

I just got home a short while ago. Morning comes early and I will set off on a 3-day whirlwind trip that will have me in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and two cities of southern and southwestern Arkansas. And coming in on the last inbound flight Friday night. Did I mention that I hate to fly? But I have no choice - I need a job, bad.
I spent some time recently with people at a locally-based 'Executive Recruiting' firm, looking at the stacks of resumes of persons who, like myself, went into the so-called STEM occupations (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) who have had a rough road. Despite what you hear about the need to graduate more engineers and constant pressure to admit even more foreign ones, there are good people (including myself) who have been scrambling to eat for years now. I saw records just today of people with great records of accomplishment, verifiable achievement, multiple patents, true contributors, who are stocking Wal-Mart shelves, driving trucks, and all the rest, all of it far removed from their fields of expertise. Or, in many cases, working a series of 4 to 5 month long ''contract'' jobs at locations far removed from their families and homes. Then I was shown a stack of other resumes, persons either in country or trying to get in on H-1B visas, from India, Pakistan, Egypt, Korea, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Guatemala, Mexico, and elsewhere. I saw one from someone who was just 19months ago at a university in Iran. And some of them will be hired. Mustn't be accused of being ''nativist'' or of being opposed to the wonderfulness of unrestricted immigration.
This may be good for the country. But you couldn't prove it by me.
Add to that, the continued hollowing out of manufacturing and production in this country, and the outlook is bleak, despite what the ''progressives'' will tell you. I am reminded of my own history.
1981-2 with a division of ITT, making parts for nuclear plants. Closed in 1983?
1984 -90 with a division of GM, now part of Delphi, massive downsizing and bankrupt
1990-92 with a maker of electronic components. Massively downsized, sold 3 times and closed.
1992-1999 with the most admired corporation in America. Takeover victim, gutted, much production sent to Mexico and China
1999-2004 with a well respected niche manufacturer supplying the appliance industry. Division dissolved, hostile takeover, massive downsizing of the supplier and the major customers
2004-2006 series of short 'contract jobs
2006-2007 manager with a manufacturer now in massive retrenchment and turmoil and another downsizing.

Two of the unstated requirements of a good society are certain levels of stability, as well as enough vitality that the stability does not become stasis. I've seen far too many good people hurt badly to think that it is always a Good Thing to send my neighbor's job - or mine - to Mexico or to the ChiComs. Like it or not - and I don't necessarily - Ross Perot was right in 1992 about the ''sucking sound'' and a whole lot of people owe him an apology.

Further bleg 26 April 2007

I ask that the family and I be in your prayers. It appears certain that my position with my current employer is ending. We have endured so much over the last years - plant closings, buyouts, mergers, downsizings, etc. Since 1992, we have moved across state lines four times and have endured terrible privations. And I'm considered to be a valued professional, respected and accomplished in the area of manufacturing engineering. Perhaps I would have done better to train as a machinist or plumber - such people are in high demand. Which is not always the case with those of us in the so-called ''STEM'' areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

While I believe in the sovereignty and presence of Almighty God in the world, and I know that He not only cares for us but knew long ago that this would be our lot, I confess to a hope that we might achieve a less tumultuous life - something we've never had. I'm getting tired of job hunting and relocations.

----------
UPDATE
Well, it is official. I have now rejoined the ranks of the unemployed. This is not what I hoped to be reporting at this stage in my life, but that's the reality of the matter.
Having said all of that, I am aware that God knew a million or so years ago that this would happen. And He sent me into this situation knowing that. He has always been faithful, despite having pretty poor stock to work with.
If you happen to be surfing around on the 'Net, you might want to check out a piece of music I'm listening to right now, created by Mike Speck of the Specks, called '' Till the Storm Passes By''. URL is http://www.mikespeckministries.com/MP3/Till%20The%20Storm%20Passes%20By.mp3
It expresses the moment pretty well. I was privileged a few years ago to be a member of a backup choral group for one of the Speck's performances in Tennessee. They have a powerful message.

American Manufacturing Again

There is a good letter in the current version of the online edition of Modern Plastics magazine, in the section called ''As I see It''. You can find it online, titled 'Shortage? What Shortage?' . Go and read it, it's a story I've heard many times, in many places, from many people. I've been there myself. Individuals with excellent track records of accomplishment and value-add, part of the 'collateral damage' of the hollowing out of American manufacturing. Unable to get a job. In some cases, unable to get ANY job, at ANY level. Too qualified for some, or in some cases being experienced in the ''wrong'' CAD package, or something relatively trivial. For being unemployed - the folklore that it's easier to get a job when you already have one is true. Stupid, but true. Even, and this is true, for having a bad credit file. Being unemployed, particularly extended unemployment, is not conducive to a good financial picture. Keeping someone unemployed because of that is beyond asinine, it's something only an HR type or a beancounter could invent. But it happens daily, truly it does. And the type of attitude and business culture it reveals is part of the rot that is part of the real damage to the nation's industrial base - more than finances, quality, or regulatory environment, it's a terrible lack of leadership with a defensible moral philosophy. Part of the overtaking of industry by lawyers, accountants, and other leeches.

Anyway, I came across the letter this afternoon as I was trying to make some calls and navigating through the labyrinth of some of these devil-inspired voice mail systems. I was making the calls trying to get a recommendation for a repair facility for a worn/damaged injection mold. Many of the people I once dealt with are out of business, and the craftsmen they employed are gone to the winds. Let me give you one observer's recollection.

Back in the 1990's, I worked for a now-bought-out major maker of consumer goods. Most of our products were made of rubber and plastics. At one time, so I was told, we operated American-made injection presses, processing American-made polymers through molds made at American tool shops, some near-by. Along the line, someone with a cut-price MBA decided that the molds, the more pedestrian ones, could be made more ''competitively'' off-shore. In Portugal, in fact. So there was less business for the US tool shops, and the trade, the craft, the respect and pay due a tool & die maker, suffered a bit. By the way, so did the profession of the tool engineer. Later, some one with a ''world-class quality'' chant on his lips, decided that we needed to try out some alternative presses, from Japan. Less work of course for the makers of injection presses and all their components, and of course for those who design them. Then it was decided that it was ''too expensive'' to operate these presses in the US, so some of the work was shifted to Mexico, and some to China. Then more and more to China. Then it was decided that it was silly to arrange a product in the US, make the tool in Portugal, and then ship it to China. So the tool build was also contracted into China. Of course, that meant Chinese tool & die makers, using Chinese machine tools to work on Chinese-made steel, made molds to go into Japanese (and then Chinese) injection presses to make consumer goods for American customers. Having work done by slave labor is cheap, but I thought we were better people than that.

Does this give a lower-priced toy at the big-box retailer? Probably. And this is not a bad thing, it may even be a good thing. Is that the only thing that matters?

Meanwhile, now I have trouble finding someone who can reliably repair the collapsing core of a low-volume injection mold. The shop in Ohio that repaired another mold for me two weeks ago is now deemed to be ''too expensive''. But while I could once find a dozen such within a few hours' drive most of those I once knew have been boarded up.

Those who periodically sign up for big government programs that want to up the numbers of students going into the so-called STEM majors (Science, Technical, Engineering, Math) seem blissfully unaware that the history I just recounted is going on all over the country. Finance majors, beancounters, and lawyers seem to be doing just fine. The engineering types, and the honest craftsmen that work with us, see their livelihood and sometimes their designs, heading to China, Mexico, and the like.

This is good for the retailers. And it lets us have more ''stuff''. Is it good for the country? Does it send a good message to our children as they consider their own futures?