How America Lost Its Industrial Edge

I'm going to be frank - I don't care about having a discussion with you - I don't care about wanting to change your mind - I don't care what you believe. You don't even care to look into what i've said, but continue with the same nonsense. What is more interesting is that you now infer that trade barriers do indeed have a negative effect on our economy by pointing to British and French tariffs. I suggest you get your story straight.

Clearly foreign trade barriers are detrimental to our economy and clearly Adam Smith considered retaliation and cracking open markets to be legitimate reasons for tariffs as he defined Free Trade. I am only concerned with clearing up your lies. I really do not believe I can change your mins as you are unwilling to look at history or facts only to present some misinterpretations of history that have nothing to do with reality and thereby try and get the USA continuing the detructive policies implemented under the Clinton administration.

Have a nice life, and next time, if you wish to have a civil discussion with someone, try to understand their views before judging them and don't be so rude. You don't understand half of what i'm talking about because you make too many assumptions about me.

I totally understand your views. You brought up the Smoot hawley tariff as a cause of the Stock Market Crash of 1929 when the new tariff bill that was in retaliation for British and French tariffs had not even been drafted. I actually do believe in no tariff barriers on either side of most bilateral trade agreements. But it must be either side and when you choose to answer a challenge and get arrogant about your ignorance and put forth misrepresentations I can only conclude you are participating in a forum to mislead and push a propaganda point.

People who qoute Bastiat or Karl Marx or Lenin to make a point about a universal truth have clearly staked out their position.

As Fingleton puts it: "The United States trails no fewer than eight other nations, all of which devote a larger share of their labor force to manufacturing."

Fascinating topic.
I only wish these tantalizing statements were followed up by explanatory facts.

"Which eight other nations?" the intellectually curious should shout.

A: It is absolutely gone. The U.S. started losing its edge about 30 to 40 years ago. By the early eighties, America was already in serious trouble.

Wow.
In the early sixties I used to commute with an unabashedly communist/socialist type, and we were able to have many discussions/arguments about the nature of society and benefits/weaknesses of each of them, politically and economically.
Back then it was clearly apparent that postwar, after getting fat dumb and happy enjoying the benefits of a robust war-created industrial and manufacturing base, we began to drift into a "service" economy.

As a young engineer this was appaling to me, as the logical conclusion of such a drift was obvious: dependence on other countries and other markets for not only the comforts of a modern life, but for the essentials of defense and existence itself.
This was indeed in the middle sixties, 40 years ago.

The trend became an avalanche.
Steel and exotic metals production, smokestack industries of all kinds, mining, power generation, automobile manufacturing, appliances, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and TV, the complete spectrum of necessities eventually became "imports"

That scares the bejeesis out of me.
Imagine a sudden need for strategic materials and weapons, and Japan suddenly deciding they no longer wish to provide us. Or Malaysia (can you say "muslim"?) of Thailand or China or Mexico...
Let's not even talk about old Europe...

This article should be setting off alarm bells big time, but all I can hear all around me is deafening silence.
Is it that hard a concept to understand?

The "global economy" will eventually inevitably lead to the to American helplessness and ultimate collapse. It's only a matter of "when".

Nothing quite insures continuing predominance like complete self-reliance.
The alternative leads inevitably to war.
Just ask the Japanese.

Got anything to back that up?

Of course not.
This legend in his own mind is another of those who thinks the universe, history and economics began right after he was potty trained.

For whatever it's worth, I know for a fact that anyone wishing to go to college in the mid-50s did so. Most of my high school mates did.

Poor over-paid Japanese CEOs (just like the American CEOs, but the American managers did not have all of the Japanese management voodoo). I guess the management theories only work so long, or is it the fact that they never really worked, but the anticipation of the expected results kept the bubble growing until they ran out of excuses!!!!!!

Who do they have next to blame for the fact that they can't really manage (and most don't try too hard). Schmoozing and joint back-slapikng only gets you so far for so long!!

I seem to remember that years after the American Revolution ended, Lafayette and Washington exchanged gifts.

Lafayette's gift was the key to the Bastille.

Washington sent a pair of shoe buckles to Lafayette.

Now here's the interesting part: Washington chose the buckles because they were manufactured in the United States; Washington was proud that America was developing its own manufacturing industries--and those shoe buckles, being among the first things produced--Washington selected as symbols of America's commercial independence.