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We manufacture more than we ever have.

For some reason they don't carry many of these goods in Walmart or anywhere else I shop. I have a hard time figuring out just what these American manufactured goods might be. If we make so much how come it is almost impossible to find anything American made to buy?

For some reason they don't carry many of these goods in Walmart or anywhere else I shop.

Most of the items you buy on a day-to-day basis are cheap and low-tech. The American manufacturing sector has mostly advanced beyond Nike t-shirts and kid's toys. Instead, American workers are building high-tech, high value-added items such as BMW's, 747's and medical devices.

What kind of manufacturing industry do you want in this county, one that makes plastic knick-knacks or one that makes intercontinental jets?

If we make so much how come it is almost impossible to find anything American made to buy?

You're making a common mistake, I think. You look at the total number of items you buy versus the total value of such items. The average American buys many more Chinese made t-shirts every year than they do Ford trucks made in Kentucky. Yet, the Ford truck is worth many times more than the Chinese-made goods they bought.

The majority of the value of the goods I bought last year were made in the US.

We manufacture more than we ever have.

For some reason they don't carry many of these goods in Walmart or anywhere else I shop

Big difference between low value items and large value items. Cheap stuff at Walmart, but factories that make the big stuff rely on our manufacturing base. If you worked in a business that used machines to make things, you would see a lot of made in USA.

The manufacturing base in the US is fairly steady as a part of GNP, but everyone likes to note that it has gone down during a recession. But so has everything else. Few point out that it is back up after a recession.