Carrier Jobs

Lest this blog be all doom and gloom, all nay-saying all the time, let me today post that Donald Trump has achieved a victory very much along the lines of what he promised he'd do for Rust Belt workers: he has saved 1,000 manufacturing jobs from being shipped to Mexico.

Whether he did this out of a heartfelt need to save the American manufacturing worker or simply for political expediency, whether or not it is a one-time gimmick or a success he can replicate again and again, matters not.  2,000 workers were going to have their jobs shipped to Mexico and 1,000 of those people can breathe easy for now.  Sure, manufacturing jobs might not be coming back in the long run (except in small numbers), but that is not the point.  The people working those jobs want help now so that their children can go to college, etc.  And Trump delivered.

In addition to "stand by the President" political pressure, it appears Carrier doesn't want to jeopardize any potential slice of the Pentagon pie - a pie that tends to get larger when a Republican occupies the oval office:

While Carrier will forfeit some $65 million a year in savings the move was supposed to generate, that’s a small price to pay to avoid the public relations damage from moving the jobs as well as a possible threat to United Technologies’ far-larger military contracting business.

Roughly 10 percent of United Technologies’ $56 billion in revenue comes from the federal government; the Pentagon is its single largest customer. With $4 billion in profit last year, the company has the flexibility to find the savings elsewhere.

Members of Congress have been pressing to punish big military contractors if they move jobs outside the United States.

To the 1,000 Carrier works whose jobs are safe for now, it doesn't matter at all why their jobs were saved.  Their jobs are safe for now.  So rather than look for some excuse as to why this is a bad thing, let's congratulate Donald Trump on doing what he promised he would do on the campaign trail, at least this one time.