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To: DustyMoment
Here's a stat that should give you pause for concern - at the end of WWII, we had 60% of the world's manufacturing capacity. Today, we have less than 20% and an unemployment rate in excess of 9% (which probably means that the REAL number is closer to 20%!).

That first statistic doesn't concern me at all. This is mainly because it is predicated on the notion that having 60% of the world's manufacturing capacity somehow represents a normal, healthy state of affairs. In fact, the opposite is true and the 60% figure you cite is nothing more than a historical anomaly tied to the fact that the U.S. was the only industrial power to emerge from World War II with our infrastructure and industrial assets unscathed.

The 300 million people in this country represent less than 5% of the world's population. Even having 20% of the world's manufacturing capacity means we are very much "over-weighted" in that figure. We have a lot of things going for us here, but it's no accident that we are losing ground to other countries that are simply larger than us, growing faster than us, and working harder than us. You might even call it a natural turn of events, when you think about it.

43 posted on 01/25/2012 6:53:54 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested.")
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To: Alberta's Child

I think you missed the point of the statistic. Consider fighting a major war today. We have cut and crippled our military in the intervening years since WWII as well as shipping our manufacturing jobs offshore.

Most of the advanced weapons system in use today employ state-of-the-art electronics which use integrated circuits purchased from Taiwan, China, Japan or Indonesia. We produce practically no ICs in the US. In addition, the steel used to build ships, heavy armor, guns, and aircraft is imported from China or Japan and our uniforms are all made in China.

So, we have very long supply lines, small inventories and technology that has been distributed to potential enemies or countries who may be unable to supply our materiels in the event that they are interdicted by a hostile force.

So, not only are we dependent on foreign countries for our materials, the jobs (and, thus, the ability to improve our financial position) that come with those manufacturing plants are non-existant.

You might want to re-evaluate your “over-weighted” observation in light of the fact that we are beholden to China for virtually everything we buy as well as the debt we currently owe. Historically, America has been largely self-sufficient and has not had to depend on others for our needs.

With a population of 300 miliion (as you noted) and growing, the jobs we are creating are mostly low level service sector jobs. The middle class has been squeezed and is being eliminated by political elites who want to create an environment in which there are the political elites (our version of royalty), the very wealthy (who run the corporations and prop the political elites up), and the peons. This is NOT how America became the country we were and it is NOT the America that most of us want in the future. But, it is going to be our future if we don’t end it in a hurry.

a little story before I put my soapbox away and end my rant. In the 1980s, I was in Argentina, just prior to the outbreak of the Falklands War. Argentina had such a bad economy that they had to make jobs in order to keep people working. At one point, I went into a shop to buy a couple of tubes of toothpaste. I spoke to one clerk to tell them what I wanted (I couldn’t just get the toothpaste off the shelf and take it to the cashier). That clerk told another clerk what I wanted and that clerk pulled the toothpaste off the shelf. I then had to go to another clerk to write up a sales slip for the 2 tubes of toothpaste and, finally, I went to a 4th clerk to ring up my purchase and complete the sale. If we do not pull these jobs back, this is where we are headed.


44 posted on 01/25/2012 10:30:53 AM PST by DustyMoment (Congress - Another name for white collar criminals!!)
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