Political Quotes

“I think you raise a very important point. Of the things I think we have seen, unfortunately, is the way that we have approached manufacturing in this country the last couple of decades where we have actually sent messages to young people that they should think of something other than manufacturing, that it's sort of a dead- end career and manufacturing doesn't exist here anymore. We're going to be a service economy. And you hear it in the language of guidance counselors and sometimes in parents. I would say if kids came home and said, Mom, Dad, I want be to a manufacturer, their parents would say, Really? That doesn't have a bright future. I think what we have to really do is support both in career and technical academies manufacturing tracks to be sure people see this as a career path and to remind people that manufacturing jobs pay, on average, above nonmanufacturing jobs. So these are good-paying jobs. And that it requires a different skill set today--a more advanced skill set. But when you look particularly at what's happening with innovation and design and 3-D printing and all the intersections of making things with this new technology, it's a career path that has tremendous opportunities. But I agree with you very much that we have to stop saying to young people, Your life is only a success if you go to college.…”