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				<p>February’s jobs numbers provide even more evidence of the need for fresh ideas to get America out of its economic rut. While non-farm payroll employment increased, the number of unemployed people and the overall unemployment rate of <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm">8.9 percent </a>barely budged.</p>
<p>It’s been at least six months since the last holdouts realized that the Obama administration’s “stimulus package” of nearly $1 trillion failed in its principle task of restoring real economic growth and returning Americans to work. Yet what has changed? Very little, as we continued to pursue old solutions to new problems.</p>
<p>A new book released in January illustrates a big part of this problem. In his book, <a href="http://www.thestreet.com/story/10975053/make-it-in-america-book-excerpt.html"><em>Make It In America: The Case for Re-Inventing the Economy</em></a>, Dow Chemical Company CEO Andrew Liveris calls us to turn back the clock and return to a time when America was defined by the things it built. Restoring America’s manufacturing legacy, he argues, is the key to bringing jobs back and getting the economy on the road to recovery.</p>
<p>The central fallacy of such arguments is that they view the “loss” of American manufacturing jobs to overseas countries as a zero-sum game. One nation must win; another nation must lose. If a company shifts an American job overseas, that’s one less job in America. The reality is something different.</p>
<p>Certain countries are better suited to produce specific products than other countries. The reason many factory jobs are leaving the United States is that generally other nations are more efficient at producing the same product. We might try to keep these jobs in the United States through artificial means, but since manufacturing in the United States is more costly, the overall economy suffers. Our manufacturing costs are simply not competitive due to the many rules, potential lawsuits, high taxes and anti-business environment.</p>
<p>Much more than manufacturing, promoting and encouraging innovation is the key to America’s comeback. But innovation intimidates. By its very definition, innovation undermines the status quo. It can destroy jobs, markets and entire industries.</p>
<p>Think of the news media, particularly the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-shapiro/those-who-cannot-innovate_b_691251.html">newspaper industry</a>. The advent of the Internet has radically upended the newspaper business model. From the loss of subscriptions to classifieds, newspapers simply haven’t figured out how to make a buck from selling news anymore. Entire newspapers have had to shut down or end their “dead tree” service.</p>
<p>Sadly, the newspaper industry – minus the few that have managed to adapt – as we know it is gone. But don’t confuse my sadness for any hesitation that innovation and its twin, change, are healthy for the overall economy. Just as innovation threatens jobs, it also creates them. Few would contend that the demise of the newspaper industry cancels out the wealth-creating and job-producing effects of the Internet.</p>
<p>The decline of Detroit, my second home, tears at the nostalgic corners of my heart as it does anyone who remembers the heyday of the “Big Three.” Fifty years ago, these distinctly American companies were the Microsoft’s, Apple’s and Google’s of the American economy. Although the United States didn’t invent the automobile, this country made it its own – indeed, never in the history of mankind has such an advanced technological achievement been available to so many. But change came and offered new opportunities.</p>
<p>To revive the job market, we don’t need to try to save or get back the jobs that have already been shipped overseas. We need to create the conditions for companies to create new, better jobs. We can facilitate this with a few simple steps:</p>
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<ol><li>Stop penalizing investment in start-ups.</li>
<li>Leave private investors, not government bureaucrats, to determine what start-ups are funded.</li>
<li>Let companies fail.</li>
<li>Block union formation in start-ups and new facilities to encourage companies to consider U.S. manufacturing.</li>
</ol><p>Much of the manufacturing now shipped abroad requires little education or skill – a bad fit for American workers anyway. I have worked in and visited several factories. Highly repetitive factory work is not well-suited for educated bright people. Working on an assembly line is not consistent with President Obama’s goal of making the United States the world’s most educated population.</p>
<p>Instead of highly-skilled Americans working in textile, steel or automotive plants, they’re working in computing, pharmaceutical and nanotechnology plants, where their high-cost knowledge is put to good use. Manufacturing certainly has a role to play in America’s comeback, but if we are to move forward we must be willing to let go of the past.</p>
<p><em>Gary Shapiro is the president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association and the author of the New York Times Best-seller, <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Comeback/Gary-Shapiro/e/9780825305627">“The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream.”</a></em></p>
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							</div></div><p><strong>Read more:</strong> <a class="rssreadon" rel="external" title="Innovation, Not Manufacturing, Will Bring Jobs" href="http://blogs.forbes.com/garyshapiro/2011/03/16/innovation-not-manufacturing-will-bring-jobs/" target="_blank">http://blogs.forbes.com/garyshapiro/2011/03/16/innovation-not-manufacturing-will-bring-jobs/</a></p>