Michael Heseltine Quotes
A job saved in one industry can too easily be a job lost in another.
Michael Heseltine, Presided, British Board of Trade, Speech, Conservative Party Conference, Harrogate, March 5, 1993
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
One of the arguments in favor of machinery and automation has always been that new and better jobs are created for the people who run and maintain the machines. However as Marx observed in 1867 that is of no comfort to the person who is replaced by the machine. Also with the computer and modern robots, the control and operation is often done by another computer. Even much of the computer programming is done by computer.
Although aggregate employment has remained relatively stable as global free trade has become the U. S. policy, there has been major employment disruption with some types of people benefiting and others like blue collar manufacturing workers having their entire careers wiped out. Port cities like Seattle, Baltimore have boomed while Midwestern manufacturing cities have deteriorated greatly.
The nation was divided over the issue of immigration. Many observed that the vast majority of the immigrants—especially the illegal immigrants performed jobs for which American workers could not be hired. Opponents like the congressman, claimed that if better wages were paid Americans would be doing the jobs, and as long as there were immigrants who would work for low wages, there was little reason for employers to pay more.
Technology has always displaced and replaced workers, but most industrial technological breakthroughs, in the long run, have created new jobs and better paid ones. What worried Gompers did not appear to materialize in his lifetime, but actually became and issue on the later years of the 20th century and the early 21st century where the computer the robot, and the sophisticated software began to replace workers at a faster rate than new opportunities were created. Gompers was one of the harbingers of things to come.
The debate in America around jobs during the Great Recession in 2012 may have seemed like a new issue for many Americans. The government wanted to economize, but there was a very high unemployment. Should the government spend money to employ more people or cut back on government jobs. The same issue faced the British in 1848. Most of the politicians and the Parliament wanted to reduce government spending. The Prince (husband of Queen Victoria) and the Queen observed that the economy solution would fall more heavily on the working class. At this time, the British monarchy was far more liberal than most of the politicians.
In the 19th century, most socialists thought that the government was the major creator of jobs. In the 20th century, most socialists acknowledged that jobs could emanate from both the public and private sectors. Here in the 21st century, one of the world’s leading socialists, stated that private companies were necessary for full employment.
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British politician and businessman. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket. Heseltine served as a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001, and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including serving as Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State under the latter.
