Manufacturing in the US

[eric]

[Spider]

In the near future it seems certain that China will pull ahead, given that there are 6 times more them and they come 6 times cheaper, but US manufacturing will continue to grow nonetheless.

We are going to be a top manufacturer for the foreseeable future. Manufacturing never left. We just stopped making cheap consumer goods, and automated our factories.



This whole misconception becomes more annoying by the day.


As to skills...they could be right about that. We are geared towards sending everyone to college, not towards trade skills.

What they actually mean but aren't saying is that Americans aren't willing to beat each other up for the chance to live in a factory dorm and get paid a pittance to work long assed hours.

[eric]

Yeah I clarified my OP

[Professor]

If we can make it better or cheaper here, then let's do it. If not, then let them do it.

I hated economics as a student. Basically, because I disagree with some of the basic premises. For instance, some say that when manufacturing (or another industry) "leaves" the country, people lose jobs. In the near-term, that is true. But, in the long-term, people simply change to other jobs. Factory automation was brought up. That was supposed to create massive unemployment. And, it did in certain localities and for a certain amount of time. But, those people moved elsewhere and retrained for other jobs.

My point is that we should not base economic decisions on employment or jobs or things like that. The question should be, "Does the market want it? How can we supply it at the best value to them and profit to us?"

[eric]

[Spider]

The people who are turned off by math and science are exactly the type who would find themselves in a manufacturing job. Math and science=college. There is no need for either when it comes to production work. That's why so many of those jobs have left the country. The people apple employs to screw together imacs are not science and math educated college grads. They are low wage labor.

As for the engineering and management side of the manufacturing business, we've got plenty of skill at that level, as we are already manufacturing at more or less the same scale as China.

Its all just BS. They want cheap labor and the people who are desperate enough to take abuse for the chance to do it. All this talk about "skills" or whatever isn't the heart of the issue. Its about the numbers their spreadsheets spit out.

[WizardfromOz]

[Professor]

Made a similar arguement in the education thread. Basically, we need more employees here in America if we want those "traditional" jobs like manufacturing back. Not everyone should go to college. You can make just as much (or more) money by specializing in a skill.

[J.K. Gregg]

Do we want manufacturing back? Aren't they mostly low-skill, low-wage jobs?

[John Galt]