19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Make You Weep

http://www.businessinsider.com/deindustrialization-factory-closing-2010-9#the-united-states-has-lost-a-whopping-32-percent-of-its-manufacturing-jobs-since-the-year-2000-13#ixzz1ipWCcyGf ^

[chessplayer]

The United States is rapidly becoming the very first "post-industrial" nation on the globe. All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing. It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution.

The United States has become a nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly little.

[chessplayer]

Our number one export is trash. Fitting for a country headed for the trash heap of history.

[ClearCase_guy]

We tried to build a society in which everyone had a nice house, everyone went to college, everyone had health care, everyone had a sweet retirement package, and no one really had to work hard.

A life of pleasure, ease, and nothing unpleasant.

I guess that didn't work.

[FlingWingFlyer]

A lot of America's best have 'gone Galt'. It's only going to get worse.

On the lighter side of the news, gas is headed towards 4 bucks a gallon in 2012.

How 'bout that "hope and change".

[Clintonfatigued]

Outsourcing, Open Borders, and Free Trade didn’t work out very well.

[jmacusa]

“This was a Pizza Hut/Now it’s all covered with flowers’’/ you got it.. you got it..’’

[unkus]

We were given a great gift and it is dying.

[SFC Chromey]

This is why I say Cain was almost on it with his 9-9-9 tax plan. Instead of 9% fed tax rate though, it should be 9% Excise Tax for all imported goods.

Attempting free trade with unequal trading partners has done nothing to spur manufacturing growth here and that was what made up the greatest portion of high paying blue collar jobs.

[null and void]

"Somehow we have to figure
out how to boost the price of
gasoline to the [$8-$10/gal]
levels in Europe." - Barrack Obama's
Energy Secretary Steve Chu. Had enough yet???

[posterchild]

Making stuff is sooo 1980’s. We don’t need that now, we have government largess.

[Clintonfatigued]

I see one hopeful sign- the other nations of the world often make even worse decisions than we do.

[afraidfortherepublic]

As the owner of a small company still engaged in electronics manufacturing in the US, this is all true and makes me very upset and fearful. But, we carry on because we must carry on. We’ve morphed our business more into the manufacture of sensors for the oil exloration industry and the wastewater treatment industry. There is still an electronic component, but there is no margin in just populating boards any more.

We noticed the first decline after 9/11. 9/11 just brought our business to a halt. We were just recovering when Katrina took out 3 of our biggest customers.

[PGR88]

I live in NY State and no one in their right mind would open a factory here. Gov’t regulation, environment, OSHA, taxes, tort lawyers, insurance - will kill you unless you are in the highest levels of manufacturing.

[GenXteacher]

“Free trade” really sucks when the other nations are practicing mercantilism at the time.

[unkus]

Very true. Thanks for that encouragement.

[unixfox]

Gov’t regulation, environment, OSHA, taxes, tort lawyers, insurance - will kill you unless you are in the highest levels of manufacturing.

Or if you know which govt. officials palms you need to grease.

[One Name]

I am amazed at the rate at which this occurred. I got married, had some kids, was distracted for 20 years and I woke up too late.

Fortunately, I fell asleep in rural Red State America; where we still fix things and keep old stuff going.

Rev 3:2 “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.”

[goat granny]

When you can buy steel overseas and pay to ship it back here and possibly pay tariffs? I'd say unions are one of the big problems....There were several steel plants in Detroit when I was a kid...went on strike every year, got more money and finally the owners closed down , the union won and everyone was out of work. The auto industry put out cars that we use to laugh at the built in obsolesce every 3 years they broke down and ford stood for "frequently off road dead".

It took real competition from outside of the US before they started building cars that lasted more than 3 years, but ooops unions again and every year they picked a different manufacturer to strike and the others just followed along...Part of the blame also belongs to the manufactures they just said yep and kicked the money can down the road and raised the price of the car...

[iowamark]

A small point, but I really dislike these web essays that require 20 clicks to read the entire thing.

[Migraine]

What happened to our industrial base:

1 Big Labor
2 Big Labor
3 Big Labor
4 Big Labor
5 Big Labor
6 Big Labor
7 Big Labor
8 Big Labor
9 Big Labor
10 Big Labor
11 Big Labor
12 Big Labor
13 Big Labor
14 Big Labor
15 Big Labor
16 Big Labor
17 Big Labor
18 Big Labor
19 Big Labor

That about does it. There are probably a few others; but you get the idea.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

In times past (2001 - 2006 or so) the "free trader" argument was that the jobs exported are "buggy whip" jobs that no one wants -- new jobs are aplenty one should have prepared for them. So it's the American worker's fault for not being prepared.

The ones who expect the government to do something are the "protectionists." (Hint: protectionist is a pejorative word.)

Actually we "protectionists" were asking that the government to stop doing something.. encouraging off shoring through tax breaks, using the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corp to guarantee corporations' adventures overseas, and many other ways I am sure.