“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.”
Posted on 07/28/2016 5:37:52 AM PDT by expat_panama
Slap a 20% tariff on that junk. We have to pay true market price for imported goods to pay for the social costs. I don't like it but the "displaced" get to vote.
The cost of de industrialization.....
“In fact, in many significant ways, U.S. manufacturing is thriving.”
Not consumer goods, for sure.
Go into the big box stores and try to find something made in the United States. Good luck.
Not too long ago, I bought a steel tape, Stanley, and it has an American flag on it, signaling it was made in the United States. They all do that, put a flag on the product, if manufactured in the United States. Trouble is, you don’t see many flags.
I was looking for some tools at Lowes lately. I could not find any made in the United States (all American companies). I say that to warm the hearts of some posters here. They won’t be satisfied until everything is made overseas.
And able to work as long as they care to. In certain disciplines (like legacy OS coders), they're looking for them to come out of retirement for nice paying contract work.
The problem is that many Americans (including certain politicians) keep claiming they will bring back “traditional” manufacturing jobs that require limited skills, but will pay high wages and offer full benefits.
The sector that is growing is advanced manufacturing; it’s the type of operation described in the article and other posts on this thread. Lean, hyper-efficient operations with extremely skilled workers who have mastered skills ranging from IT and production planning, to trouble-shooting and team management.
It’s not the type of job you can enter directly out of high school—but with 6-18 months of highly specialized training, you can get in on the ground floor. Entry-level technicians with a Siemens Mechatronics certification (Level I) start out at about $50K a year, plus overtime and full benefits. With a Level II credential in the same field, your starting salary moves up to $70K a year, plus a complete benefits package and overtime.
At any given time, there are roughly 500-600,000 advanced manufacturing jobs that are unfilled in this country. Unfortunately, too many people have been taught that manufacturing is an “inferior” career and you must have a four-year degree to be successful. There’s also the matter of our “government” schools. Too many kids graduate and lack the basic skills needed to make it through an advanced manufacturing program. But for the kids with the right educational foundation (and the drive to succeed), they can transition into a solid career while a lot of their classmates—with worthless undergraduate degrees—are ringing up orders at Starbucks.
Right, but many Americans buy foreign cars, tractors, and airplanes made elsewhere. Assembled in US doesn’t mean all parts are made here. Take electronics as another example.
Walmart is actually starting a Made in USA products campaign.
It’s not a requirement to have “(my) own statistics” to disbelieve those that the government puts out, i.e. selectively. And these are specifically executive branch statistics, not those of the whole government.
...the engineers I know are employed....
Sounds like folks that go to school and work hard are able to get rich making things, and them that don't can post their complaints on these threads. Is this a great country our what!
By “developed countries”, is this the UN’s term, which replaced First and Second World? Remember, they still define Red China (formerly “Second World”) as “developing”.
Especially the guy actually behind the pen.
That is correct. It is also the major point of the article. People get very confused about this. Yes, manufacturing jobs are declining. But manufacturing output isn't.
That's life. Employment in other sectors is growing. Buggy whip factories are not doing well. Software factories are. Times change.
Good article and charts that explain things to those who care to see. Manufacturing in the US is mostly a B2B enterprise rather than a B2C enterprise and that’s why people will fall for the line about US Manufacturing falling.
But it helps your argument if you can say, "The government statistics are wrong and this is the evidence that shows it" rather than just saying "The government statistics are wrong because I say so."
Too many kids graduate at an 8th grade level, unable to work at community college 101 levels. Our colleges have remedial classes to bring their primary skills up to 12th grade levels. Thank you pubic school teachers and your NEA for that.
Notice it grew slightly during the depression in the twenties and had a WW2 bump - but by the chart, not much. Manufacturing even grew during the Carter administration.... Wow! And, what about all the factories closing and our trade deficit?
If you want a true picture, overlay charts of our trade deficit and population growth - then list everything they consider industrial production. Answer? It's all about population baby! Millions up millions of new people will move the chart even as our manufacturing jobs are shredded and moved overseas or to Mexico.
Excellent points. Nice post. But don’t expect many to believe you.
For some apparently. Not me. I like up-trends better than down-trends.
I'm voting for Trump. I am for Trump Big Time. But he not going to rebuild the manufacturing sector of the 70's or 80's not matter what he tells us.
We build stuff overseas because they can do it cheaper. That means some Americans lose their jobs. It also means you and me get more stuff. If you want to get those jobs back just add a tax (tariff) on imported goods and it will happen. The jobs will return and you and I will pay for it with a lower standard of living.
You need to read a little more Milton Friedman and a little less Trump to understand this argument.
We also need to “adjust” our education system. Too many kids that have no business on a college campus are allowed to enroll and founder, racking up huge amounts of student loan debt.
Normally, I’m not a fan of anything European (except certain automobiles), but they have the right approach regarding secondary education. Kids who don’t test well enough for college are steered towards the vo-tech track at the end of middle school, and are enrolled in high schools that put them on a pathway to one of the trades or specialized industrial skills. Apprenticeships are very common and represent an important part of the overall pipeline.
I bought my current house through a real estate agent who is a Brit ex-pat. In high school, he was placed into a school that trained him as an industrial maintenance technician. He did well and the program had a provision for top students to go on to college and earn a degree related to the field. So, after 7 years of apprenticeship, work and study, he not only had a marketable credential, he had a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering as well. And like a lot of Brits, he promptly bolted for the states, spent 25 years working for an American company in Chicago before taking early retirement and earning his real estate license.
American students can do the same thing, but the pathway is far less structured. Instead, we have lots of marginally-educated young people enrolled in college degree programs that are worthless, or they can never complete. A trade, apprenticeship or advanced manufacturing pipeline is often a back-up plan—if it is even considered.
There are freepers and there are freepers. Some are like you and me and we work for a living. Others remind me of what goes way back to the time of the founding fathers -
“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.”
The UN is not really a serious reference for anything. It’s just a role-playing fantasy game.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is taken seriously at providing economic definitions and data.
Most economic data is abstracted selectively to serve some political purpose. Probably no one would be much interested in aggregate economic data if there was no political opportunity to be made from it.
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