Mothballed
One of the big refrains you hear come from the Democrat candidates is how Bush's economic policies have resulted in manufacturing job losses. Or that globalization is causing our manufacturing jobs to go overseas (implying a net gain of manufacturing jobs in places such as Mexico and China). What is interesting, and not mentioned by any of these critics, is that manufacturing jobs are declining worldwide. For perspective, between 1995 and 2002 China lost 16 million manufacturing jobs (15% decline) while the US lost 2 million manufacturing jobs (11% decline) in the same period. Important to note, global output rose 30 percent. Its not tax cuts, or Texas cronyism, or whatever charge these candidates pounce on to explain why this is happening. Its just the way the evolution of work is going in the 21st century, as more technology and automation is employed in the process of making things.

Update: Whoops. Maybe I should have checked Kreblog before I posted. He repeats the same information. Damn that well dressed man!