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One now has to wonder why the liberal governmental policy post-WWII worked so feverishly to destroy that industrial capacity and leave the US so dependent on other nations and “outsourcing” that we can’t even build our own refueling planes but give the order to Airbus, and buy Eurocopters too. Never mind all the bogus computer chips from China that infect our military hardware . . .

Rush Limbaugh is Free Trader so its OK. /sarc

All of the "right" wingers who are "Free Traders" should really re-evaluate their position. The private sector unions are already dead, which is a good thing, participation is 7% and falling. The Free Traders need a new canard.

The ONLY reason US manufacturing was so dominant and prosperous after WWII was the fact that most of the manufacturing capacity in the rest of the developed world was destroyed by the war itself. The US was just about the only source for heavy industry and manufacturing--the last man standing so to speak--the rest of the world had to buy US exports. Once the war was over, and rebuilding of foreign basic infrastructure was well on its' way, it was only a matter of time before international manufacturing was on the mend, and the US lost market share.

IOW, after the war, there was only one way for US manufacturing to go...DOWN. The exact same is true today, as more third world countries evolve and develop their own manufacturing base.

BTW...manufacturing is alive and well in the US now...contrary to conventional wisdom as pushed by populist rhetoric. The US is the number one exporter in the world, manufacturing included.

I see you’re living up to your handle. Are you a union shill, by any chance? No, nobody was talking post-WWII here—but since that has now been brought up, you never heard of the Wirtschaftwunder? How did the US market get flooded with Japanese and German imports so soon after the war, then?

The USA hasn’t been the number-one exporter for a long time; that title’s held by China currently, and it was held by Germany for years before that. We wouldn't have the kind of unemployment, public debt and/or government dependence we currently have if we had the kind of industry we used to have. Trade deficits mean a heck of a lot.

We used to have manufacturing in Manhattan, for crying out loud, and not of the type that would be obsolete nowadays. What made manufacturing leave Manhattan? Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. started instituting all sorts of government programs, including expanding public education. Guess how he intended to pay for it?

PS. Where is the logic in US manufacturing going down when the entire rest of the industrialized world continues to go up in the same regard? The whole thing should go up and down, or at least there should be an equilibrium instead of constant decline on the USA’s part and constant expansion on the part of Asia and Europe et cetera.

“The ONLY reason US manufacturing was so dominant and prosperous after WWII was the fact that most of the manufacturing capacity in the rest of the developed world was destroyed by the war itself”

American manufacturing was already dominant BEFORE WWII.

In 1939, the USA produced over 75% of the world’s oil, 40% of the world’s steel and 52% of the world’s automobiles.