TV REVIEWS : ‘Making Things’ Eyes Shifting Economies

“Does Making Things Matter?” is the awkward title of an hourlong survey of manufacturing and economies of the future in Germany, Japan, Mexico and the United States. Where this report was made is almost as important as the title: A production of PBS’ Pittsburgh affiliate, WQED, “Does Making Things Matter?” is itself a by-product of Pittsburgh’s shift to a service and information-based economy.

Pittsburgh used to make primarily steel; now, it makes a lot of things, including television.

The hour is split into four sections, one for each country, with a field report followed by a panel discussion led by journalist Ponchitta Pierce. Everywhere, whether it involves highly paid German workers or Pittsburgh union men adapting to a cooperative worker-management system, there is anxiety. The anxiety spills over to the panel, representing corporate executives, labor, analysts and academics.

The key word here is transition . Just as Germany is witnessing the kind of net loss of manufacturing jobs to low-wage Eastern Europe as the United States is witnessing job flight to Mexico, so the pain of companies trying to learn competitive tricks in the globalized economy is like the pain of workers trying to survive by learning new skills.

Carnegie Mellon University’s Richard Florida notes that the United States has rarely been so productive as it is now, though the things produced are different, with fewer people producing them. He worries, however, about an entire disenfranchised population cut out of the country’s economy, yet offers no clue to a solution.

Whatever the country, the market economy seems to be a juggernaut that knows no borders and plays by a cold, hard rule: Adapt or die. Pittsburgh’s educated workers are flourishing while its underclass is growing. Transition isn’t pretty.

* “Does Making Things Matter?” airs at 9 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.