Author Topic: A Nation That's Losing It's Toolbox  (Read 4705 times)

Offline Tater

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A Nation That's Losing It's Toolbox
« on: July 24, 2012, 03:23:56 AM »
I thought this article might be of interest to the forum...a trend we are each doing our own small part to turn back.



A Nation That?s Losing Its Toolbox
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y.

THE scene inside the Home Depot on Weyman Avenue here would give the old-time American craftsman pause.

In Aisle 34 is precut vinyl flooring, the glue already in place. In Aisle 26 are prefab windows. Stacked near the checkout counters, and as colorful as a Fisher-Price toy, is a not-so-serious-looking power tool: a battery-operated saw-and-drill combo. And if you don?t want to be your own handyman, head to Aisle 23 or Aisle 35, where a help desk will arrange for an installer.

It?s all very handy stuff, I guess, a convenient way to be a do-it-yourselfer without being all that good with tools. But at a time when the American factory seems to be a shrinking presence, and when good manufacturing jobs have vanished, perhaps never to return, there is something deeply troubling about this dilution of American craftsmanship.

 This isn?t a lament ? or not merely a lament ? for bygone times. It?s a social and cultural issue, as well as an economic one. The Home Depot approach to craftsmanship ? simplify it, dumb it down, hire a contractor ? is one signal that mastering tools and working with one?s hands is receding in America as a hobby, as a valued skill, as a cultural influence that shaped thinking and behavior in vast sections of the country.

That should be a matter of concern in a presidential election year. Yet neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney promotes himself as tool-savvy presidential timber, in the mold of a Jimmy Carter, a skilled carpenter and cabinet maker.

The Obama administration does worry publicly about manufacturing, a first cousin of craftsmanship. When the Ford Motor Company, for example, recently announced that it was bringing some production home, the White House cheered. ?When you see things like Ford moving new production from Mexico to Detroit, instead of the other way around, you know things are changing,? says Gene B. Sperling, director of the National Economic Council.

Ask the administration or the Republicans or most academics why America needs more manufacturing, and they respond that manufacturing spawns innovation, brings down the trade deficit, strengthens the dollar, generates jobs, arms the military and kindles a recovery from recession. But rarely, if ever, do they publicly take the argument a step further, asserting that a growing manufacturing sector encourages craftsmanship and that craftsmanship is, if not a birthright, then a vital ingredient of the American self-image as a can-do, inventive, we-can-make-anything people.

That self-image is deteriorating. And the symptoms go far beyond Home Depot. They show up in the wistful popularity of books like ?Shop Class as Soulcraft,? by Matthew B. Crawford, in TV cooking classes featuring the craftsmanship of celebrity chefs, and in shows like ?This Old House.?

Traditional vocational training in public high schools is gradually declining, stranding thousands of young people who seek training for a craft without going to college. Colleges, for their part, have since 1985 graduated fewer chemical, mechanical, industrial and metallurgical engineers, partly in response to the reduced role of manufacturing, a big employer of them.

The decline started in the 1950s, when manufacturing generated a hefty 28 percent of the national income, or gross domestic product, and employed one-third of the work force. Today, factory output generates just 12 percent of G.D.P. and employs barely 9 percent of the nation?s workers.

Mass layoffs and plant closings have drawn plenty of headlines and public debate over the years, and they still occasionally do. But the damage to skill and craftsmanship ? what?s needed to build a complex airliner or a tractor, or for a worker to move up from assembler to machinist to supervisor ? went largely unnoticed.

?In an earlier generation, we lost our connection to the land, and now we are losing our connection to the machinery we depend on,? says Michael Hout, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley. ?People who work with their hands,? he went on, ?are doing things today that we call service jobs, in restaurants and laundries, or in medical technology and the like.?

That?s one explanation for the decline in traditional craftsmanship. Lack of interest is another. The big money is in fields like finance. Starting in the 1980s, skill in finance grew in stature, and, as depicted in the news media and the movies, became a more appealing source of income.

By last year, Wall Street traders, bankers and those who deal in real estate generated 21 percent of the national income, double their share in the 1950s. And Warren E. Buffett, the amiable financier, became a homespun folk hero, without the tools and overalls.

?Young people grow up without developing the skills to fix things around the house,? says Richard T. Curtin, director of the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers. ?They know about computers, of course, but they don?t know how to build them.?

Manufacturing?s shrinking presence undoubtedly helps explain the decline in craftsmanship, if only because many of the nation?s assembly line workers were skilled in craft work, if not on the job then in their spare time. In a late 1990s study of blue-collar employees at a General Motors plant (now closed) in Linden, N.J., the sociologist Ruth Milkman of City University of New York found that many line workers, in their off-hours, did home renovation and other skilled work.

?I have often thought,? Ms. Milkman says, ?that these extracurricular jobs were an effort on the part of the workers to regain their dignity after suffering the degradation of repetitive assembly line work in the factory.?

Craft work has higher status in nations like Germany, which invests in apprenticeship programs for high school students. ?Corporations in Germany realized that there was an interest to be served economically and patriotically in building up a skilled labor force at home; we never had that ethos,? says Richard Sennett, a New York University sociologist who has written about the connection of craft and culture.

The damage to American craftsmanship seems to parallel the precipitous slide in manufacturing employment. Though the decline started in the 1970s, it became much steeper beginning in 2000. Since then, some 5.3 million jobs, or one-third of the work force in manufacturing, have been lost. A stated goal of the Obama administration is to restore a big chunk of this employment, along with the multitude of skills that many of the jobs required.

And there is an incipient upturn in the monthly employment data, although the president will almost certainly finish his first term with the manufacturing work force well below the 12.6 million it was when his administration began. (It was nearly 11.9 million last month.)

?We sit in rooms with manufacturers who tell us that location decisions to move overseas that were previously automatic are now a close call, and that the right policies can make a difference,? Mr. Sperling says.

THAT is particularly the case if federal, state and local governments intervene with generous subsidies, like those seen in China, Germany, Japan, France, India and other countries eager to sustain manufacturing.

Government subsidies are helping to make manufacturing in America more attractive, but the turnaround may be hard to sustain. And it may be too late. Big multinationals already operate factory networks in Europe and Asia, as well as in the United States. Stepping up exports to those markets from the United States, rather than producing in them, is becoming less of an option ? short of an international agreement like the Plaza Accord of 1985, which realigned currencies and gave American manufacturers a temporary boost.

As for craftsmanship itself, the issue is how to preserve it as a valued skill in the general population. Ms. Milkman, the sociologist, argues that American craftsmanship isn?t disappearing as quickly as some would argue ? that it has instead shifted to immigrants. ?Pride in craft, it is alive in the immigrant world,? she says.



Full article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/business/what-happened-to-the-craftsmanship-spirit-essay.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Offline xatxtal

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Re: A Nation That's Losing It's Toolbox
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2012, 07:34:03 AM »
Sad to report here in the United Kingdom we have the same problem consecutive governments of the two main party have never had a crafts person in there rank. They no not have a clue about anything made with the hands.
They can only think of  funny money like stocks and shares, manufacturing in the UK is near dead.
What a sad future we will leave our grand children.
I could go gripe on for hours but prefer to get in the workshop and play engineering.
Trev
:old:

Offline Deko

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Re: A Nation That's Losing It's Toolbox
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2012, 12:47:31 PM »
Goods are designed these days to need a minimum amount of skill to produce, because skilled labour costs money,then how would the poor old bosses get there million pound wages.

Cheers Derek. :old:

Offline IanR

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Re: A Nation That's Losing It's Toolbox
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2012, 11:40:44 PM »
Yes, sounds much the same as over here, apart from the positive government attitude bit.
Having Ford Motor Company and craftsmanship in the same sentence seems a bit odd. :shrug:

Offline gbritnell

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Re: A Nation That's Losing It's Toolbox
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2012, 04:59:30 PM »
 We have become a world of necessity as opposed to desirability. I guess I should define my use of desirability. I would explain it as wanting things, houses, cars, tools and for that matter garden hose nozzles not only for their usage but for their artistic value.

 If one looks at older homes, not just the ones that were built and owned by the affluent but even the working class home one would find the use of wood, hardwoods and fine woods, sawn, trimmed and sculpted into things of beauty. The cabinetry, crown moldings, head and footboards for beds all were made with art and craftsmanship in mind. 

 The automobile in it's glory days had sculpted hood ornaments, enameled badges, wood appointments that were made by craftsmen and artists. Sometimes one and the same.

 This might be a little obscure but I find the lack of artistry even in the schools.
 My Granddaugter is 8 years old. Sometimes I help her with her homework. When I do I have to sign her workbook. Awhile back she asked me a question. Her teacher had checked her work and then saw my signature. She jokingly asked my Granddaugter if I had signed the Declaration of Independence. Naturally at 8 years old my Granddaugter didn't get it but that is what she asked me. When I went to school we spent hours learning to print and write properly. For cursive practice we made swoops and circles in a workbook daily to be able to apply it to our writing.
I asked my Granddaugter what she did in school to practice writing and printing and she said the teacher helps them but they don't practice making curves and straight lines.

 I could go on but you get the idea.

 Today we purchase something, in general, strictly for it's utilitarian value. Wood products have become plywoods, particle boards and composite materials. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, some of the materials today are much stronger and durable than straight woods. Another reason is cost. Who can afford walnut, birch, mahogany and maple products.
On the other hand we buy all these particle board products, TV stands, cabinets etc. that for the most part will only hold up if they're not abused, otherwise the screws pop out, the corners break off and then they are discarded. Heck, we can't even build a sports stadium that will survive for more than 20 years.

 Look at old farm machinery, balers, threshers, tractors and such. They had hand lettering and pinstriping. Even old coffee grinders were sculptures in themselves.

 I am 67 years old. I grew up when people went to the car dealership of their choice and bought a car first of all for what it looked like. They added options to fulfill their wants and needs but uppermost was how the car looked. Today we have some attractive cars, albeit they all look somewhat similar, but I can't for the life of me understand what people see in the square, boxy  things they have running around. I won't get into names, my point being that they sure couldn't have been bought for looks.

 The times have changed. We have to live with the times, unless you're rich and can afford artistry and craftsmanship, but I'm afraid that even the numbers of people able to do fine work are dwindling.

 Enjoy the golden age with it's fine old buildings and architecture. The next time you see an old covered bridge look at the way the timbers fit together. When you see a classic car or motorcycle try to imagine what the designer had in mind, lets' make this out of brass or nickel and give it a swoop or curve, not just to make it work but to make it lovely to the eye.

 I was taught my trade by what I consider the last of the craftmen in the machining industry, and for that I will be ever grateful. One of my biggest laments is that I was never able to pass it along to my sons but they live in today's world. They certainly appreciate what I do but have no need to carry it on.

 gbritnell
Talent unshared is talent wasted.

Online steamer

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Re: A Nation That's Losing It's Toolbox
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2012, 09:46:26 PM »
Well put George!

Dave
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Offline xatxtal

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Re: A Nation That's Losing It's Toolbox
« Reply #6 on: July 26, 2012, 07:38:52 AM »
George you have been reading my mind, I could not have expressed it better, well said. :cheers:
My wife and I love antique shows on the TV not because we like old things, it is because we admire and love hand made goods and learn so much from them.
Thanks again
Trev
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:old:

Offline Tater

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Re: A Nation That's Losing It's Toolbox
« Reply #7 on: July 26, 2012, 01:08:11 PM »
George,

You are spot on.  For me, the appreciation of craftsmanship, not just in the aesthetic, but a real appreciation of the skill and the years of accumulated knowledge and the evolution of  technology represented by a beautiful cathedral, a vintage automobile, or a simple elegant well made hand tool, is what drew me to model engineering.  I wanted to learn just how these things came together and to try my hand at it.  And you are most correct - this is an appreciation that is being lost.  As kids grow up in a word of utilitarian homes, where products are made just good enough, and just cheap enough, they loose sight of quality, and I think it becomes a self-prepetuating phenomenon.

Offline dsquire

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Re: A Nation That's Losing It's Toolbox
« Reply #8 on: July 26, 2012, 10:34:50 PM »
George

I couldn't have said it any better. That is exactly the way I feel. Craftsman and artists are a dieing breed.

Cheers :cheers:

Don
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and your better best

Offline Raggle

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Re: A Nation That's Losing It's Toolbox
« Reply #9 on: July 27, 2012, 05:30:48 PM »
I'm a contemporary of George (well, 70 now) and grew up in rented local authority housing. Our neighbours were a goodly mix of craftsmen, my dad and the man nextdoor were toolmakers and in the same street were pattern makers, moulders, carpenter/joiners, smiths, springmakers, printers and teachers.

I never felt that these men hankered after home ownership as much as people today.
Much of the work in our area depended on the motor industry, Austin (Longbridge) Rootes Group (Coventry) Jaguar and others. It was said that for every assembly worker at these plants there were ten or more manufacturing jobs in the local area.

Along came Reaganomics and Thatcherism, with a fever for home ownership and share dealing. Homes bought at a discount became a frenzy of spirally increasing prices for ALL houses and a willingness by banks to lend. Thus the British worker, highly trained as he may have been, was priced out of jobs in the face of foreign imports. The 2008 financial crisis can be traced back to that era of the 70s/80s. The only mystery is why it didn't blow up much earlier.

Now we see "No user servicable parts within" labels on consumer goods, and you have to believe it. Make do and mend has become, if not impossible, uneconomic. So how can you inspire young people in finding out "how stuff works" or how or why would I want to make things?

I have recently come across

 http://www.imagineeringweb.co.uk/

and I have some hopes for it. It is a hands on learning kit for 12 kids plus a teacher and a helper.

Will we see craftsmanship return? Not in the sense we knew it, but maybe there is hope.

Ray

All we're trying to do is combine a fuel and an oxidant in the combustion chamber and burn it in the hope of getting some useful thrust out of the back end. It's not rocket science.

 

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