By Mike Drummond
Full story appears in Inventors Digest, June 2011 print edition.

The former Cheers star and veteran voice of Pixar films is on a mission to revitalize U.S. manufacturing.

“The reason the world is free is because of American strength,” he says. “And America’s strength is based on manufacturing. And manufacturing is based on invention.

“Every single industry, and there’s no exception to this rule, started with one person inventing one thing. And every single one of those people started off as a child tinkering.”

In his estimation, there’s not nearly enough tinkering going on these days, which he fears will have dire long-term consequences.

America, he says, has lost its manufacturing mojo. There aren’t enough students entering vocational schools or the industrial trades, he says. With a dearth of wrench-savvy workers, there aren’t enough people to repair the nation’s crumbling bridges, buildings and water systems, let alone operate the gears of America’s mighty military machinery.

The 64-year-old Ratzenberger, who once was a carpenter and is the son of a factory worker and truck driver, says the nation is facing an economic “tragedy of epic proportion” stemming from a decline in U.S. manufacturing and the men and women who know how to run, make and fix things.

“We may never recover if we lose our manufacturing edge to other countries,” he says. “The pervasive impact of this crisis has the potential to turn America into a second-rate economy.”

The work owes its origins to the John Ratzenberger’s Made in America, which aired on the Travel Channel between 2004 and 2008 and honored American inventors, factory workers and the like.

That show also inspired the book he co-authored, We’ve Got it Made in America, A Common Man’s Salute to an Uncommon Country, as well as the genre of blue-collar reality shows, including Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, among others.

There’s little reason to doubt Ratzenberger’s latest media project won’t succeed.

“You know there are 137 cities in the United States with water systems that are failing, where the water pipes are over 100 years old,” he says. “There are 250,000 bridges in disrepair and not enough people to fix them.

“The reason Third World countries are Third World,” he says, “is because nothing works. Basically, that’s where we’re headed.”

Full story can be found at http://www.inventorsdigest.com/archives/6646

Global Toy News, October 27, 2010

by John Ratzenberger

Making and fixing things with your hands is a dying art in America, as I see it.  Based on lessons I learned from creative play as a child, I’ve made “be creative and work with your hands” into a national campaign to save the American skilled workforce.

As a child, I tinkered with toys, boats and radios.  I learned at the feet of my parents and neighbors in Bridgeport, Connecticut, one of the nation’s manufacturing hubs.  My curiosity and old-fashioned work ethic taught by my family and neighbors turned into a career as a carpenter, innovator and entrepreneur, never losing my love of hands-on productive play.

[More]

Atlanta Business Chronicle, August 20, 2010

by John Ratzenberger

A cultural shift has taken place in America that’s tragically made the skilled worker a thing of the past. Our media has glorified celebrity at the expense of our basic needs, and America will reap the whirlwind within the next two decades. At stake is nothing less than our long-term economic vitality and national security.

Let’s start with infrastructure. America is dangerously close to failures that will result in loss of life and are already resulting in loss of economic competitiveness. In many cases, currently funded infrastructure projects cannot move forward due to lack of skilled workers.

By 2012, there will be a 3 million skilled worker shortfall in our nation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In Georgia, top companies cannot find adequate skilled workers to fill positions. The bulk of our existing skilled worker base will retire in the next decade.

In interviews across the nation, I hear the same story. Business owners are desperate for skilled workers. Despite the offer of good pay and benefits, the noble skills that involve working with your hands and mind do not hold the same appeal they did in decades past. From aviation to energy, our national security is at risk. In order to maintain the world’s most sophisticated military, we must produce systems, parts and hardware in America.

The lens through which I view the world is simple: the manual arts always take precedence over the fine arts.  Remembers, someone had to build the ceiling before Michelangelo could go to work.

Negative media images of skilled workers – what I call “essential workers” – pervade our culture.  The truth is, high-profile athletes and entertainers are non-essential.  If all the celebrities like me disappeared overnight, it would be sad, but the world would continue with little disruption.  If, however, plumbers, electricians, welders, carpenters, lathe operators, truck drivers, and other “essentials” disappeared, our country would grind to a halt.

We must mobilize the public to restore the dignity of essential skilled workers.  We must restore industrial arts programs in American schools to provide opportunities for young people to build careers building the things Americans need.  Reaching the next generation of young people is the key to a sustainable Great American Recovery.

Ratzenberger is an actor, producer, inventor and entrepreneur whose cable television series, “John Ratzenberger’s ‘Made in America’” and his in-production documentary “Industrial Tsunami” showed him first-hand how the shortage of essential skilled workers threatens America’s future.