Posted on 02/07/2015 5:52:17 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In the last decade, we’ve lost millions of manufacturing jobs to outsourcing. According to U.S. News and World Report, there are now 5.1 million fewer American manufacturing jobs than in 2001. The lure of low wages, tax advantages, and other cost savings has made for a seemingly straightforward calculus, and manufacturer after manufacturer, supported by intricate spreadsheets, has abandoned ship, until offshoring has become the emerging mantra of the new millennium. U.S. companies that still manufactured locally have slowly become outliers.
Interestingly, this dynamic now seems to be changing, as we’re beginning to see more manufacturing in the U.S. Total output from American manufacturing relative to gross domestic product is back to pre-recession levels, with more than half a million new jobs. According to the Reshoring Initiative, 15% of this job growth results from reshoring alone. There are many reasons for this shift back to the U.S.
More bang for the buck.
The first has to do with cost. It used to be cheaper to manufacture outside the U.S.; now the costs are now converging. In the manufacturing sector, the U.S. is still among the most productive economies in the world in terms of dollar output per worker. To be more specific, a worker in the U.S. is associated with 10 to 12 times the output of a Chinese worker. That’s not a statement about intrinsic abilities; it merely reflects the superior infrastructure of the United States, with its higher investments in automation, information technology, transportation networks, education, and so on....
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
“America needs to rebuild America.”
Far easier said than done, unfortunately. We have steadily relinquished our “core competencies” in manufacturing in pursuit of developing “lean manufacturing.” We no longer have the need for the people with skill sets required, in many cases, to produce quality manufactured goods.
Not through want or desire but through the steady growth of technology-oriented solutions for manufacturing that are bound to replace the sheer numbers of engineering functions that would be filled in past decades by working people.
Without a knowledge base and skilled craftsmen, we would literally need a re-education program that would..yep, you guessed it...approximate a total top to bottom revamp of our processes. Which would probably require...yep, you guessed it...massive government intervention.
Just like the greatest generation who is rapidly dying out, many of our craftsmen and mechanically sophisticated workforce has been left behind. Design, mechanical design fabrication and tooling and fixture through the manufacturing process to end product assemblers are almost no longer existant. 3D robotics, for a simple correlation, can replace almost all of them, for even fairly simple operations. The legions of talented draftsmen, design engineers and metalworkers and operators to assembly are already gone.
Gone, like people who can accurately give you change of a dollar. Not that we will need them soon, when we are all issued our spending cards. And when the next technologically driven generations realize someone needs to do it, they may find that they don’t know how and there will not be enough mentoring to show them.
Manufactures require workers ...not privileged citizens they are told to hire and can’t fire without political fallout/payoffs etc.
Very concise post. I expected nothing less.
Happy New Year to You Patriot!
The dynamic has changed for one reason and that’s fuel cost. It began during the spike in fuel cost immediately after the crash because container shipping got expensive to the point that the challenges of offshoring to China became a questionable trade off. With the advent of the fracking revolution and the associated cheap natural gas, there came a cost advantage to domestic manufacturing. That’s the long and the short of it. If that goes away, then it’s down to labor cost plus transport and China still wins there, not as advantageous as it once was but the numbers still favor.
Union membership in the private economy is very low these days, around 7% IIRC.
It’s not going to equate to jobs though. It’ll be automation.
Weren’t you one of the people that was on here ridiculing others for warning folks about the instability of the financial system and markets before the ‘crash’ in 2008? There were several of you. Don’t hear much from them anymore. You may be the only one left actually. lol
It looks that way. The politicians are all talk about manufacturing in America, but they do squat about removing restrictions and regulations, jack up taxes that hurt companies here, and favor overseas bidders. The damn politicians are all about helping foreigners including illegals, and turn a blind eye when it comes to USA citizens needs. Damn politicians.
Remove restrictive policies and regulations, lower taxes, and demand that government build with USA products. Quite a few big-buck transportation projects funded by taxes use foreign companies, products and labor - sickening.
This might be interesting. I lost 20% in the market but gained 400% in gold.
Todd will spin this as best he knows.
(Yes, I was heavily involved in large CAP funds AFTER the bubble)
Right now cheap energy is a huge factor in creating American Mfg. jobs. Mfg. creates wealth.
I've always ridiculed idiocy.
If you have some post where I was wrong about a prediction about the future, feel free to bring it up and we can see how I did, compared to the other folks.
Good luck!
>>>With new technologies we can make stuff cheaper and faster than China if we wanted to<<<
2015 ford taurus with 102 cubic feet of interior volume. cheapest model msrp $27,055. 2015 Hyundai Sonata 106 cubic feet of interior volume, cheapest model msrp $21,150.
I guess it all depends on who is doing the manufacturing.
Is the Federal Reserve capable of idiocy, Toddster? And, if so, provide specific examples, thank you so very much for your candor. /s
Yes, I understand there are hundreds of thousands of manufacturing robots looking for work.
Absolutely! Just as Freepers are capable of idiocy, when they discuss the Federal Reserve.
And, if so, provide specific examples,
During the Great Depression, the Fed allowed the money supply to shrink by 30%. If they had opened the monetary spigots, the Depression would have been shorter and less severe.
thank you so very much for your candor. /s
Happy to help you learn.
Oh, OK. We’re dredging up historical error?
Can we manage an example within the last decade or two perhaps, lol?
Shill.
They don’t mention the fact that China is highly regulated and in some cities you can only certain typed of manufacturing operations in designated zones. This means to manufacture something in China, you may need up to 6 buildings and will have to have the product moved back and forth to create a product. That’s a lot of trucking before even shipping it to the United States with an 8 week lead time.
Dredging up future error would be a neat trick!
Can we manage an example within the last decade or two perhaps, lol?
Maybe Greenspan was a little loose for Y2K and after?
Idjit.
Tiresome little apologist, you are.
I would never apologize for your idiocy.
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