A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — RAH

Agree – manufacturing, or even something as simple as bottom-tier management in a fast food place can teach much.

Unskilled labor is dying, as a career path. That doesn’t mean manufacturing is going away – J. Sobieski repeatedly points out that it’s not. Hurting? Sure, but what sector isn’t hurting…. but using far, far less unskilled labor.

Your “skilled shop floor labor” certainly looks like a target for an apprentice program to me.

Mew

Economically, we’ve become more service-oriented that product-oriented. After working in manufacturing for 18 years, there are so many different things that can be learned simply by being directly involved in a manufacturing process. Product design and development…production methods…quality standards… productivity and efficiency…return of investment….costs of production, etc.

These kinds of principles can have a tremendous of influence in a person’s worldview, both personally and politically. A lot of our young people don’t have the slightest idea of what it means to evaluate costs of provision of anything, service or product. That’s the primary reason I say that utilizing the kind of opportunities included in Jindal’s education proposition and doing so in a way that includes manufacturing could be a boon for our society (and quite possibly for Conservatives as well) because of the principles they learn in the process.

Let’s pick apart that last one. There’s at least three types of unions. Unskilled-labor, bureaucratic, and trades/guilds.

Unskilled-labor unions grew out of the anarchist movement in 1800s Chicago, and are a pure power play – put together large groups of workers for political purposes. There’s no room for apprenticing here, as there’s no *skills* to learn, eh? This group is being destroyed by the changes in manufacturing, and as it never had any inherent value, so what?

Bureaucratic unions – AFCSME, for example – exist to suck on the government teat. They are, like unskilled-labor unions, a pure power play – they leech tax dollars and use those dollars for political purposes, mostly ensuring they keep the gravy coming. There’s a potential for apprentices here, but … unlikely. Apprentice school teacher? Apprentice secretary?

Trade unions (and guilds) serve two purposes. Yes, they have a political arm and are quite Dem-friendly, but they are also supposed to be enforcing quality standards upon all members. This is where an apprentice program – specifically, the one Jindal is behind, makes sense.

Note that this is the precise split point between unions that Scott Walker hit in Wisconsin.

As for the article, I think the point Mead is trying to make is that – ignoring the “conservative” and “liberal” labels – there’s a huge opportunity for whichever group successfully frames the debate about what comes after big-government…. and I’d prefer that to be us.

Mew

(Sigh)

I’m just one of those people who has the kind of mindset that would allow me to go a long, LONG way outside the proverbial box on a lot of different things. I’m not a typical Conservative when it comes to considering in what ways public sector and private sector might be able to join forces.

I’ll give you an example…take the situation going on in the state of LA with Jindal’s proposition on education. One of the things that has impressed me the most about the approach that Jindal is taking is that he’s including apprenticeships as part of this venture.

Our society as a whole has gotten bogged down in a heavy emphasis on state (read government) managed capitalistic endeavors without protecting, preserving, restoring and rejuvenating a strong sense of entrepreneurial endeavors. And our education system completely and totally supports this mentality

But if you include private sector apprenticeships in an education venture, like the state of LA is attempting to do….man, this could open a lot of doors!

I’ve heard you say many times over that a certain scope of manufacturing jobs are gone from this country and they aren’t coming back. I understand why you say it, and I don’t disagree with you for the most part…but I still cringe every time it is expressed, acat.

Why? Because there is a way that certain manufacturing jobs could be utilized in a nontraditional format for the purpose of allowing young people in our country to learn from experience what it means to work. And it is possible that such arrangements could be established via the type of apprenticeships that Jindal has included in the legislation in LA.

We badly need that human element of an entrepreneurial spirit in our country right now. It could make all the difference in the world for us, both economically and socially, going forward. Especially if it comes about that those apprenticeships succeed within schools that are located within inner-city, primarily minority districts.

I know what all the obstacles are, believe me. I’m just not willing to accept the premise of arguments that people like Mead make about where we go from here.

A significant amount of the conversations on Red State seem to be more about re-arguing “conservatism is…” rather than “how can we displace liberalism with conservatism?” …. We’re tripping each other, and it’s quite disheartening.

As to the article, the point I was aiming for wasn’t how we got here, but rather that the door is wide open for conservatives to work together and become the next “reigning party”…. but the extent of our victory is going to be small if we can’t figure out how to work together, eh?

Think about it – a new, more liberty-centric government expands the role of the church (et al) in society. A church with an expanded role can encourage (rather than enforce) the kind of social changes that are desired. The two go hand-in-glove, and the change can be significant and long-term….

…but we’re not going to get there by trying to keep the blue model intact…

another little article for you.

Mew

If things move forward with in utero genetic testing, the outcomes are likely to be used across the entire spectrum of life. And as horrible as it sounds, I believe it is possible that this is exactly what the left wants…not just for the purpose of eugenics, but because they want to fundamentally transform America and the sooner they can get rid of the baby-boomer generation, the easier this transformation is likely to become. And yes, I do think it would appeal to that darker side of human nature that craves, desires and lusts after power and control. The left isn’t exactly known for the ability to keep their baser desires “under control”, acat. Of all people in our society, they have the least amount of self-control.

They will use and all means they can think of to deceive the American people on such things. I have doubt about that at all.

As to your article….about the rent-seeking coalition….that’s one of those side-effects of state managed capitalism..

I don’t want to paint any rose-colored illusions about Conservatives, but I believe that of all people living in our modern day society, we are the most likely to place a higher value on life itself, and that we are mostly likely to be creative, innovative, etc., in finding ways to protect and preserve what we know to be of good in the society in which we live, both economically and socially.

The one thing Conservatives seem to be lacking many times is that there is such a strong sense of individualism (which I respect with everything in me) that we don’t focus as much on fighting for a common cause as the left has been inclined to do.

I do believe that if we ever succeed in reaching the point where we do rally and fight for a common cause…it could drastically alter the direction our country goes in from this point forward.

With that in mind…yes, tripping over own well-meaning selves can do more harm than good.

I have no intention of making common cause with the eugenics folks, I was trying to point out that they aren’t tightly tied into the Left .. they represent a weak point in the coalition.

Even with the cross-over between the two, I don’t think they can replace their model … I think we’re at a national inflection point, and that conservatives have the opportunity to define the way forward – on many fronts including social issues – if we can keep from tripping one another.

Interesting little article for you,

Mew

What I’m looking at is exemplified in a mindset that displays the following….desperate times call for desperate measures. Just one of those very simply human things, I guess.

I’d agree with you that doctors aren’t as easy to threaten, but the changes in how our reimbursement system is structured increases the threat to their survival day by day. Many of them are doing what they can to avoid it, acat (integration and all that). Others stand independently, just biding their time, waiting to see how things go…and if it reaches that point where medicine is no longer about “first do no harm”….they’ll leave. But we also have the IMG group that is being brought in from other countries via O-care. They come from societies outside our own…many of them from cultures where abortion is simply considered a “necessary evil”. Plus, if the US government pays for their education, then they are basically bound to the system for up to ten years…they go where the government tells them to go, do what the government tells them to do, etc.

Then consider what is happening in that high school in Los Angeles. Primarily a minority school where pregnancy rates are high. PP inside a high school? The abortion industry operates on the principles of supply-and-demand. What better way to garner demand than to set up shop where demand could be the highest and the targets most vulnerable? What about the precedent it sets for other schools?

It’s a cross-over point of the two sectors of business…private sector and public sector. It’s also a cross-over between an area of medicine and education, with PP as the link. Think those two orgs won’t be contributing to each other’s survival? And with PP going after self-accrediting status…little to no government oversight on what goes on within these transactions.

I believe that it is possible desperation could drive them to try a new approach, so to speak. I think they COULD find ways to double down and try to compensate for the power they are losing via abortion. I wouldn’t put it past them in the least to try. Having the power to define the value of life….that would have to be one of the ultimate highs for power junkies.

We are in for a correction…more of what we have witnessed the past couple of weeks. Obama knows what no significant Fed intervention means heading into the general election season.

My sources also tell me that Obama’s people are FURIOUS with Bernanke for exercising restraint with regards to QE. Of course they are. Up to now, the Fed has been willing to kick the can down the road to cover u p the damage that Obama has done to the country. Now Obama’s chickens are coming home to roost…and the American public is taking notice.

The unions – specifically public-sector and unskilled-labor – have the same goal – to harness bulk muscle and dollars and turn it into a Dem jobs plantation. The smarter thugs are rewarded, the money flows, and if the money is threatened, they roll out the muscle for intimidation.

The eugenics wing of the lib/dem outfit don’t function the same way at all – the money flows into the hands of abortionists and the party, but it’s not as much as unions bring … and it’s hard to threaten with doctors. Further, there’s less of a direct and immediate threat to society… but there’s an equal or greater long-term corrosive effect…

The “bouncing betty” reference is to a land mine – the purpose of which isn’t to kill; it’s to maim, and weigh down the unit that trips the mine with an injured person they have to care for on top of their mission.

I tend to see the eugenecists as not particularly intellectually tied to the rest of the Left, the only parity I can find is the belief that the “smart people should be in charge”. They’re more on the Left due to unified opposition from Conservatives than anything the Left otherwise believes.

This is a wedge that Conservatives – especially social conservatives – could better exploit – most of the Union types aren’t pro-abortion, they’re apathetic about it .. and that could be changed.

Mew

I’m totally mortified…Watts is my representative. If I could find a legal way to remove this particular pimple from the face of NC politics…I’d do it in the blink of an eye. My apologies to all law-abiding and law-respecting Americans!

http://www.freep.com/article/20120607/NEWS06/120607030/Poll-Barack-Obama-dead-heat-Mitt-Romney-Michigan-popularity-slips