Within 20 years, we will probably be at the end state of U.S. Mfg.: goods consumed within the US. will be manufactured in the U.S. by robots with little/no human wage component hurting the bottom line. We may still make some goods for export but most foreign goods will be made in the country where the goods are consumed or in some regional factory. Human wages have always driven mfg. to re-locate in a chase thru countries with poverty level wages. The fight has always been to teach unskilled people to make acceptable goods at an acceptable wage.
Good lord,I can’t believe that Zippo is still around-——lots of memories with Zippos.
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https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/OUTMS
USA Manufacturing Output set an all time record high in 2007.
It then crashed by 17% in 2008-2009, during the Great Recession.
In 2017, USA output was just a fraction below the 2007 record.
In January 2018, USA manufacturing employment was 12.6 million.
That’s about 1.1 million less workers than January 2008.
There has been a productivity increase of about 1% per year for the last ten years.
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES3000000001
Speed to market, rapid hands on prototyping or sampling, lower MOQ and “decomplexified” communications due to language barriers and time zones mean a tighter, more resilient supply chain that can react to market changes in a far healthier manner than being offshore dependent. No paying air freight for infill production.
I’m not sure if robots could build fibreglass boats better than humans. Hand laid is the best way of fibreglass boatbuilding.
One thing not mentioned is concerning the imported manufactured goods.
If a foreign supplier is heavily subsidized by their national government, which also heavily restricts US made products from being sold in that country, then I believe they have no right to sell their goods here.
For the US, getting rid of some of the highest corporate taxes was step one. When foreigner’s goods are not taxed like ours it only encourages our manufacturers to set up shop overseas. But foreign governments can’t block our stuff while massively pushing their products on us. This is the level playing filed Trump is on about.
Seems the low cost of energy in the U.S. is taken for granted.