Posted on 10/10/2007 1:56:21 PM PDT by bs9021
There are the “Jeremiahs,” the prophets of doom, who assert that the manufacturing industry in the United States of America is declining, but panelists Bill Lane, Lloyd Wood, Robert Scott, and Dan Ikenson argued at the Cato Institute on Tuesday, September 25, 2007, that the manufacturing industry is, indeed, “thriving,” as “the revenues, profits, profit rates, return on investments , and exports and imports are all on the rise.”
It was Daniel Ikenson who, in his informative paper “Thriving in a Global Economy: The Truth About United States Manufacturing and Trade,” pointed out that “reports of the death of U.S. manufacturing have been greatly exaggerated,” as “the U.S. remains the world’s most prolific manufacturer producing two and a half times more output than the vaunted Chinese factories in 2006.”
According to former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, “last year, China’s economy grew by 10%, and by 140% over the last ten years, tripling the growth in the United States. Not only are we shipping factories, technology, equipment, and jobs to China, we are exporting our future to China.”
However, Daniel Ikenson was able to explain to the listening audience that “as the world’s largest manufacturer, the United States would have difficulty growing at the same pace as a rapidly expanding developing country’s manufacturing sector, where base year outputs are much smaller. Smaller economies experience higher rates of growth for each incremental increase in output relative to larger economies because their bases are smaller.
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...
I'll bet very few people even know this startling (and inconvenient, for protectionists like Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan) little fact.
The U.S. is still the world's largest manufacturer -- and by a wide margin, too. This has been the case for decades.
hhhm? thats interesting. i used to work in plastic manufacturing. (we made pizza stands for delivery boxes). the chi-coms could produce and ship said product to clients in the U.S. more inexpensively than we could purchase materials. go figure.
Hundreds of words about manufacturing and not one example of what we manufacture, or the growth in manufacturing industries, or a discussion of if these industries are at risk from foreign countries.
Obviously we still manufacture some things, but I have to wonder if most of it is for the government, such as planes and tanks and bridges. Otherwise, Boeing is here. The domestic car makers haven’t quiet died yet, of course the flip side of a dead dollar is that foreign car makers build lots of stuff here.
Are they including houses in “manufacturing”. I wouldn’t doubt for a minute if they did. But there is NO DISCUSSION of examples in the article, therefore, it is a completely worthless article. There is no information here. If they wanted to educated me, they should educate me, not say “we build lots of stuff...” with no supporting examples of any kind.
Now how about a discussion of the rate we are losing manufacturing and the rate the developing world is gaining it. This article spins as if manufacturing is the dominant portion of our economy, while the FIRE economy takes a back seat. We may still make a lot here, but it is a LOT LOT less of our GDP than it was, probably less than it ever has been as % of GDP and probably still shrinking as a % of GDP. But hey, since the article really didn’t attempt to educate me in any way, I don’t know for sure.
CAT (nuff sed)
Pyrex dishes (who doesn’t have a few?)
Some of the best steel knives - kitchen and field
Precision measure instruments
Surgical tools
Xray machines
Dental equipment (drill stands etc)
GUNS! - and ammo. (no, I don’t have near enough of either)
One reason I like to watch “Made in America” on the cable is the wonderful array of items still made in the USA by Craftsmen (and women). I am willing to pay for quality. Which tends to leave out ertain famous name box stores.
“It is true, according to Ikenson, that the number of workers employed in U.S. manufacturing industries declined by about three million between 2000 and 2003. It is also true that the real growth in manufacturing has been anemic since the manufacturing recession earlier in the decade, and it is even correct to say that the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP is shrinking.”
It is beyond a doubt that employment in the manufacturing sector has now stabilized, as between 2003 and 2006 there has been a loss of only about 300,000 workers. In other words, there has been a tremendous recovery in the manufacturing sector. One needs to consider too, that with greater rates of labor productivity, fewer workers are needed on the production line.”
Nirmala Punnusami is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.”
This article is written by an intern journalist and reads like it. It just doesn’t make the points it’s aiming for. It’s stated that 3 million mfg. job were lost from 2000 - 2003, but Only 300,000 from 2003 to 2006, and that represents a “tremendous recovery.” Most would consider a recovery getting back to the starting point, but we’re still 3.3 million jobs down from 2000 - 2006. All that can be said is that the rate of loss of manufacturing jobs has slowed significantly - hardly a “tremendous recovery.”
And these huge losses in jobs can hardly be explained by around 3% growth in productivity each year for six years. This journalist intern needs more economics education.
I’m with you. I search out products I learn about on Made in America. One of my next purchases will be Fiesta Ware dishes.
I work for the Federal Government. Part of my job is to purchase material. Preferences are given for items made in America and you cannot purchase items made in certain other countries, e.g. China. The more complex the item, the more likely it is made in America. The more generic the item the more likely it is made in China. For instance, it is very hard to find nails that are not made in China, but it is very easy to find variable water pumps made in America.
Your points are excellent. I think you are right. I also think I would be shocked and dismayed if I really knew the truth about who passes for a “journalist” today. It might explain a great deal about why today’s news and entertainment is so banal.
My Mom, in her 80s, is still using her FiestaWare - the Red/Orange plates are displayed the wall tho....
They still use a 30 yo vaacum (Made in USA) and Dad is still using tools his dad used from the 20 and 30s.
Once more, I am willing to pay for quality - trouble is, quality American made goods are getting more and more difficult to find.
The bigger and more expensive something is, the more likely it is to be produced in the U.S.
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