American Manufacturing

Imo, manufacturing was murdered via tort laws, liability insurance, suffocating enviromental compliance via cost vs negligible benefit. These along with onerous OSHA, sucked the productivity and margin out of building anything. No one wants a smokestack in their town and good riddance to the ones that are leaving.

What is left of the manu business has horrendous health and pension liabilities along with unions that can't fire anyone.

Ahh, the good old days, when a steel man owned a steel business, now an insurance company owns a steel business. Go figure.
 
Quote from bkveen3:

I believe people are looking at the wrong statistics when trying to find out manufacturing growth. Politicians quote manufacturing jobs lost. This does not give an accurate view of current conditions because the manufacturing industry is constantly upgrading technology. This in turn requires less workers. I'm not saying that developing countries aren't getting producing more than they were a decade ago. I'm just trying to show that it has been extremely exaggerated. We produce 21% of the worlds goods. Does anyone know what peak production of world goods was? If someone does please post it for me. A chart through time would be best. Single years was the best i can find.

http://www.dol.gov/asp/media/reports/chartbook/2007-06/chart5_8.htm

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/12/manufacturing_c.html
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The goods are manufactured under US brand name. It does not mean they are manufactured in the US.

Just like Prada tries to say their bags are made in Europe when maybe 5% of the actual work may be done in Europe just to stick on the label.
 
Quote from Hydroblunt:

The goods are manufactured under US brand name. It does not mean they are manufactured in the US.

Just like Prada tries to say their bags are made in Europe when maybe 5% of the actual work may be done in Europe just to stick on the label.
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I'm not saying your wrong but could you supply a link to show how that number is calculated? Without a source of how you believe it to be calculated your statement doesn't tell me much. I have no reason to assume that the statistic isn't referring to things manufactured in the United States.
 
Quote from bkveen3:

I'm not saying your wrong but could you supply a link to show how that number is calculated? Without a source of how you believe it to be calculated your statement doesn't tell me much. I have no reason to assume that the statistic isn't referring to things manufactured in the United States.
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That's become a normal practice anymore. They buy the subassemblies offshore and do the final assembly, labeling, and packaging here so it can be "Made in the USA". You'll find some of them also say "Components made in X". I'm not sure where the line is drawn because the companies i worked for were German with plants here doing final assembly. They eventually moved even that to Brazil and China, and only the offices and repair/service are left here.
 
if whatever you do can be shipped down a T1 line to Bangladesh, consider yourself expendable.

if you take Auto Part A and bolt it to Auto Part B, you are also history.
 
Quote from thriftybob:

We are exporting scrap metal and grains. Ok, add CAT, Deere and Boeing, but the reality is our manufacturing base is disappearing very quickly.
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Yes and no. This link

http://www.businessweek.com/magazin...55.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_top+story

points out that "in areas where the U.S. is at the forefront of innovation—renewable energy, nano materials, solid-state lighting—the U.S. must compete with Asian and European nations willing to lavish entrepreneurs with start-up capital, cash grants, and cheap loans. Similar help may be needed to persuade U.S. companies to build capacity".

In other words, we have our areas where we are doing well (but the competition is fierce of course).

This link also gives a much more realistic appraisal and states that rising fuel/shipping costs coupled with a "weak" dollar are bringing significant manufacturing back to the US. Many companies, even foreign, want to build factories over here now, but the infrastructure and technical personnel is missing.

But we needn't worry imo: the dollar will continue to fall over time and over time oil prices will rise which will make US exports even more competitive and, just as important, will make factories stateside increasingly desireable.

Btw, the link also points out that wages are rising in China as well putting additional downstream pressure as well.

Imo it's just a matter of time before we actually become respected as an exporting nation...
 
Quote from poyayan:

That's not going to work..:) Those are secondary industries. They made money off local people. Without anyone getting foreign currency, sooner or later you can't get any foreign product or service.
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Gibber.
 
Quote from nutmeg:

Imo, manufacturing was murdered via tort laws, liability insurance, suffocating enviromental compliance via cost vs negligible benefit. These along with onerous OSHA, sucked the productivity and margin out of building anything. No one wants a smokestack in their town and good riddance to the ones that are leaving.

What is left of the manu business has horrendous health and pension liabilities along with unions that can't fire anyone.

Ahh, the good old days, when a steel man owned a steel business, now an insurance company owns a steel business. Go figure.
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Good point.
I also believe that the fiscal policy of a country can do a great deal for attracting or driving away businesses. Politicians have to understand that nowadays more and more companies can relocate somewhere else in a very short time, something that just 20 years ago was unthinkable.
 
Politicians have to understand that nowadays more and more companies can relocate somewhere else in a very short time, something that just 20 years ago was unthinkable.
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Hillary and Haliburton come to mind. Hope she's happy.
 
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