Nation's corporate structure must be overhauled
SATISH MOHAN Amherst Supervisor
American factories are closing every day, and thousands of union and nonunion workers are being laid off. Most of the manufacturing job losses can be attributed to increases in imports of foreign goods.

In 2007, we had a trade deficit of $847 billion, five times more than we had 10 years ago. The real 2007 gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, dropped by 0.5 percent.

During the last 10 years, employment in manufacturing dropped from 17.5 million in 1998 to 13.8 million, a decrease of 3.7 million, or 21 percent. This decline has been steady since 1998. In our town's commerce parks, we see vacant buildings.

All of this is unacceptable. Our federal government, the manufacturing companies and the employees should take on the following actions:

The federal government should provide every legal resident of the country with appropriate basic medical and preventive health care. The money could be raised by dedicated income tax and/or by special health care tax on some products such as tobacco and alcohol. This will substantially reduce the cost of labor to manufacturing. People may then buy supplemental insurance for catastrophic illnesses and specialist care on top of the basic health care provided by the federal government.

The EPA should establish a commission to examine the cost of each regulation, then decide on a cost-effective level of each of the regulations without compromising the quality of our environment and the health of the workers.

We should fix the value of the U.S. dollar with competing currencies in such a way that our products are competitive. We will have to devalue our dollar, and that will not affect the U.S. population in their daily living expenses. We must create a level playing field for U.S. industries to survive. There are differing environmental protection regulations, labor laws and salary levels among the competing countries. To survive, we have to impose tariffs on foreign goods.

Several professional corporations offer their employees a partnership in their companies after two to three years of satisfactorily working. In that system, the employees are given a base pay and a bonus and/or stock option at year's end in proportion to the profits earned. A similar model will have to be applied to manufacturing workers.

Today's corporate structure and operations have concentrated the wealth in the hands of a few. Let us redefine our corporate structure to include workers as working partners. Let us revive our declining manufacturing base on this definition. To effectuate this definition, workers should be on a profit sharing plan in which:

1. Every worker, three years after joining a company, will be given the opportunity to join the company as a partner or shareholder for as long as he is in the employ of the company.

2. Every worker will be given a reasonable salary, fixed such that the labor component stays competitive globally. Each worker will then also get company shares and/or a bonus at year's end in proportion to the profits of the company.

Manufacturing is the life blood for economic growth and drives research and technological advancements. We must revive 100 percent of our manufacturing; otherwise, our living standards will go down, and we will no longer be an industrialized society. Time is running out.