Richard Florida's Creative Class focus doesn't actually work.

[EastsideAl]

Of course what cities like Detroit and the other cities mentioned above really need is not a huge growth in personal income for a smallish number of "creatives," but growth in the type of economic activity that would create large numbers of decent paid jobs. Like, say, manufacturing...

Oh, wait, we decided to give that away, didn't we?

[mwilbert]

Of course what cities like Detroit and the other cities mentioned above really need is not a huge growth in personal income for a smallish number of "creatives," but growth in the type of economic activity that would create large numbers of decent paid jobs. Like, say, manufacturing...

Oh, wait, we decided to give that away, didn't we?

No, or at least not mostly. Certainly a lot of jobs have migrated elsewhere, but mostly they have disappeared altogether. Global manufacturing employment has been falling for at least 15 years and probably longer. Leaving aside problems of distribution, which are important, collectively Americans don't need more stuff, and manufacturing makes stuff. Productivity improvements mean you don't need as many people to make the same amount of stuff. So manufacturing employment falls.

Could the US have retained more manufacturing employment? Almost certainly. But the underlying dynamic is inevitable.

[Detroitnerd]

Productivity improvements mean you don't need as many people to make the same amount of stuff. So manufacturing employment falls.

So you go to a 32-hour or 35-hour workweek, with no reduction in weekly pay, like France and Germany. More people work, fewer people work overtime, everybody has more money to spend, more time to spend with their families, people are happier, have more money to spend and leisure time to spend it, driving a recreational economy, crime falls, the nation is more secure, etc.

[Shollin]

So you go to a 32-hour or 35-hour workweek, with no reduction in weekly pay, like France and Germany. More people work, fewer people work overtime, everybody has more money to spend, more time to spend with their families, people are happier, have more money to spend and leisure time to spend it, driving a recreational economy, crime falls, the nation is more secure, etc.

The GOP would have a field day with this. Even though those countries have a better quality of life than the US, less poverty, less crime, it's still socialism and that is the root of all evil.

[mwilbert]

So you go to a 32-hour or 35-hour workweek, with no reduction in weekly pay, like France and Germany. More people work, fewer people work overtime, everybody has more money to spend, more time to spend with their families, people are happier, have more money to spend and leisure time to spend it, driving a recreational economy, crime falls, the nation is more secure, etc.

There is certainly a lot to recommend that approach, but it doesn't solve the problem; manufacturing employment in Germany and France has been falling for a long time as well. You can't offset a doubling of productivity with a 20% reduction in hours.

[Hermod]

So you go to a 32-hour or 35-hour workweek, with no reduction in weekly pay, like France and Germany. More people work, fewer people work overtime, everybody has more money to spend, more time to spend with their families, people are happier, have more money to spend and leisure time to spend it, driving a recreational economy, crime falls, the nation is more secure, etc.

No, they will still work the longer work week and be paid more because more of it will be at overtime rates. The base costs in worker benefits, contribution to state unemployment insurance, and workman's compensation
will still make it cheaper to hire two guys with overtime instead of three guys.

The US high pay for industrial workers grew from the following phenomena:

1. Industrial expansion for WWII and the post-war boom increasing demand for workers.

2. Severe restrictions on immigration post-1920 restricting the supply of workers followed by the low depression era birthrate.

Pay declined for the following reasons:

1. Automation and movement of factories overseas reducing the demand for workers.

2. The slug of baby-boomers joining the workforce coupled with relaxation of immigration enforcement increasing the supply of workers.

The rental rates for labor are subject to the economic laws of supply and demand.

[Detroitnerd]

No, they will still work the longer work week and be paid more because more of it will be at overtime rates. The base costs in worker benefits, contribution to state unemployment insurance, and workman's compensation will still make it cheaper to hire two guys with overtime instead of three guys.

Oh, big, big surprise: Hermod is against high pay and European-style short workweeks, but chooses instead to say it's inevitable, which is the cop out the right wing likes to use to ease what little social conscience hasn't atrophied and fallen off over the years.

God knows we don't want to have short work weeks and high pay. It would ruin the country, right? I mean, look what it did to Germany ...

... oh, wait ...

[Det_ard]

The rental rates for labor are subject to the economic laws of supply and demand.

Not in liberal fairy-tale-land they're not. Free lunch for everyone!