[Principled]

Thank you for providing the graph. It is not inconsistent with manufacturing declining as a percent of GDP. Of course GDP has grown as everything has.

I would like to see this alongside GDP growth. My question is why has manufacturing failed to grow as quickly as GDP? Indeed the difference is startling. GDP used to be 30% of GDP in 1953. But in 2003 manufacturing is only 13% of GDP.

[groanup]

why has manufacturing failed to grow as quickly as GDP?

Service economy?

[KevinDavis]

Also there are more machines in manufacturing which can do things ten times faster than humans..

[1rudeboy]

I only provided the graph to illustrate that the manufacturing-as-percentage-of-GNP (Incidientally, why not GDP?) figure may not present an accurate picture of the state of our manufacturing sector. Naturally, I don't know if the graph I provided does, either. That's an issue for the experts.

[RFEngineer]

"My question is why has manufacturing failed to grow as quickly as GDP?"

I don't know, but I'm guessing that if you compared ALL manufactured goods consumed by the US whether imported or not, the trend would be similar.

If, over time you make 100 tons of steel with 50% fewer employees and discount the price 25%, you are still contributing the same amount of steel to the economy, but the GDP impact is much less, even though the same steel is being provided to the market.

If you graphed it, you'd see a similar trend. Does it matter if everyone gets the steel they need at a lower price?

It doesn't seem that manufacturing statistics that don't factor in productivity are relevant.