Well, howdy there, Internet people, it's Bell again.

So today, we're going to talk about Trump bringing back jobs.

This is a common refrain.

We hear it all the time.

Trump wants to bring jobs back to the United States.

He's going to get factories reopened and that's going to bring us good jobs.

There's some issues with this and we need to go over them.

But this rhetoric predates Trump.

The rhetoric has been around for a long time and it has its roots in the recessions of the 70s and 80s and companies offshoring factory jobs, which started in the 60s. Then it made a comeback in

the early 90s. When it came to political rhetoric, it was perfect for the time. Politicians could

blame two disliked groups, those elite rich people and foreigners, and really connect with blue-collar

workers.

The promise to bring jobs back resonated so well that it became dogma, just something politicians would say for decades. People accepted it early on because it resonated. Then over time,

people kept accepting it because they didn't question it as the situations changed.

Let's start with this. Look at the unemployment rates in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. The unemployment

rates were high. They ranged from 6 to 10%. What is it today? Even with everything going on, it's currently 4%. And aside from 2020 with

COVID, we haven't broken 6% since the 2008 Great Recession and the following recovery. So the rhetoric

isn't resonating because of unemployment. Maybe it's just the idea of tons of jobs being in those

other countries and the feeling that somehow Americans are missing out. But how many jobs do

people think will be required by modern automated facilities? So it's probably not that.

Maybe it's the quality of the job. Good blue-collar factory jobs.

You know, the kind of jobs that let a single-income family afford a middle-class lifestyle.

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