GE CEO Speaks on How To Fix America!

In a recent speech at the Detroit Economic Club,GE CEO Jeff Immelt shared his thoughts on what he felt was wrong with the US economy and what should be done to fix it.
He was very clear about what is needed.He said.'We should set a national goal to create high value added jobs and have manufacturing jobs be no less than twenty percent of total employment,about twice what it is today.'He went on to add,'The last generation has been tougher on workers....In the fight between workers and management,the worker has suffered.'
He called for a renewed focus on manufacturing and R&D and that the US must once again become a leading exporter of manufactured goods.Here Immelt repeated the concern expressed by many that the decline in US manufacturing is seriously eroding the country's ability to innovate.With China already having become the workshop of the world can it be long before it becomes the world leader in technical innovation as well?But this requires an end to the idea that the US can retain its position as the most technologically advanced nation even as a services led,consumption based economy.This needs a change in focus from producing financial engineers selling shady mortgages to promoting proper PhD's.The US is in danger of losing the race as China now produces more PhD's than it.
The false prosperity of the bubble years has ended once and for all.If the US is to find a lasting solution to its economic problems it must rebuild its competitiveness.The government and the private sector must come together to promote scientific research,an area de-glamorized to such an extent that a dream job is only one on Wall Street and not in any research lab.Finally the hype surrounding outsourcing must be cut down.So far corporates have only talked about its increased profitability.They must now be willing to publicly admit to its downside as well.The real wages of American workers have not increased since 1980!Increased wages must follow increased productivity and profitability,if standards of living are to be raised.Allowing cheap imports is not the right way of doing this.Its time corporates stopped working to please Wall Street and started taking sound business decisions instead.