Letter to the Editor June 12

Drastic action needed

to create jobs

The article, "The pain and promise in manufacturing" in the June 5 Nevada Appeal does a good job of covering the loss of jobs due to outsourcing and productivity.

What is not mentioned is the root cause of the situation, which is compounding. Compounding, which causes exponential growth, has elevated wages to such heights that it has become far more profitable to outsource.

High wages, in turn, have prompted businesses to accelerate job-eliminating productivity changes. Other activities which eliminate jobs are making items smaller, and reliability.

Obviously, if an item is smaller and performs the same function, the cost of materials, packaging, storage and shipment are reduced. Regarding reliability, if an item has lasted a reasonably long time, it is usually better to replace than to pay for repairs.

Drastic action is needed to make more jobs available. When Social Security was started, one of the selling points was the fact that if people were able to retire at 65, more jobs would become available. Congress forgot about this when they raised the full retirement age to 67.

What has to be done is lower the full retirement age to 62 and eliminate the incentives to work longer. A means test would be required with gradation to take into account geographical location and the higher cost of living in metropolitan areas.

For this to happen, Congress would have to put aside the politics of the problem and do what has to be done.

Donald W. Cunningham

Carson City