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Making More with Less (manufacturing up but jobs are down)
American Enterprise Institute ^ | October 1, 2015 | Mark J. Perry

Posted on 03/20/2016 2:27:51 PM PDT by FreedomNotSafety

The ability of the US manufacturing sector to produce increasing amounts of output with fewer and fewer workers should be recognized as a sign of economic strength and vitality, not economic weakness. Thanks to advances in technology, the factory floor today is one with modern, advanced, state-of-the-art equipment that requires fewer employees, but with greater skills and training than in the past. The trend in US manufacturing over the last 30 years – more and more output with fewer and fewer workers – is exactly like the transformation that revolutionized US farming over the last 100 years or more. With fewer than 2% of America’s workers, we produce more agricultural output today in the US than when much greater numbers and much higher shares of the nation’s employees were working on farms. And yet when have you ever heard anybody say that “America just doesn’t grow anything anymore”? The fact that we frequently hear that “America just doesn’t manufacture or produce anything anymore” isn’t consistent with the reality that US factories produce more output today than at any time in US history.

(Excerpt) Read more at aei.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: freetrade; globalism; imports; industry; jobs; manufacturing; trade; unemploment
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I couldn't find that this was ever posted. I want American jobs. I want an industrial base. I despise all of the cheap stuff being imported. But the reality is that the US is already a manufacturing powerhouse and its getting better. BUT we are not adding jobs. Why? Just recite the governmental alphabet soup of agencies. laws, and taxes combined with another alphabet for all of the handouts and you will see that employing people in this country is very hard to do.

Making other countries the boogeyman allows the liberals to kill industrial employment while at the very same time also blaming industry for not hiring.

Folks, we cannot even keep hamburger flippers employed and freshly prepared hamburgers do not face foreign imports. Hamburger flipping is getting so costly even the illegals are finding it hard to get to compete against the robots.

1 posted on 03/20/2016 2:27:51 PM PDT by FreedomNotSafety
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To: FreedomNotSafety

Bunk.

This article is a one-sided puff piece.

There is a lot of manufacturing. In China. China now leads America in exports, yet this entire article seems to pretend they’re not even a country.

This article is complete nonsense.


2 posted on 03/20/2016 2:31:13 PM PDT by cba123
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To: FreedomNotSafety
Making other countries the boogeyman allows the liberals to kill industrial employment while at the very same time also blaming industry for not hiring.

That doesn't make sense. Silly sophistry.

How much better would American manufacturing be wig the 55,000 factories closed since 2001 had stayed open?

3 posted on 03/20/2016 2:32:06 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: FreedomNotSafety

wig = if


4 posted on 03/20/2016 2:32:53 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: FreedomNotSafety

Lets import another 10 million refugees, legal and illegals per year. That should fix it.


5 posted on 03/20/2016 2:33:10 PM PDT by headstamp 2 (Fear is the mind killer.)
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To: FreedomNotSafety
The author here is 100% correct. I'd add something else, though ...

And yet when have you ever heard anybody say that "America just doesn’t grow anything anymore"? The fact that we frequently hear that "America just doesn’t manufacture or produce anything anymore" isn't consistent with the reality that US factories produce more output today than at any time in US history.

The difference here is that Americans have been conditioned to believe that employers hiring massive numbers of people to work in factories is the norm, and that we have some kind of God-given right to a job regardless of whether it makes any financial sense at all.

The simple truth is that nobody has a right to a job. If you can't produce enough with your efforts to make your job profitable for your employer, then your employer will figure out how to get things done without you.

6 posted on 03/20/2016 2:33:10 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: cba123
This article is complete nonsense.

Is there anything in this article that is factually incorrect?

7 posted on 03/20/2016 2:34:36 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: FreedomNotSafety

The article doesn’t take into account that 12 million manufacturing jobs were lost since 2001.


8 posted on 03/20/2016 2:35:43 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Alberta's Child
The simple truth is that nobody has a right to a job.

But everyone over 18 has the right to vote. So my guess is that people without jobs tend to vote socialist. GloBULLists are not only traitors they are socialists. Frankly, I would have a hard time not putting you into either category.

9 posted on 03/20/2016 2:38:04 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: cba123
‘Bunk.

This article is a one-sided puff piece.

There is a lot of manufacturing. In China. China now leads America in exports, yet this entire article seems to pretend they’re not even a country.

This article is complete nonsense.’

This is one of the worst examples of disinformation that the Oligarchs have foisted on us yet.
We see factory and factory leaving the US, and this article says,
Don't believe your lying eyes.
TWB

10 posted on 03/20/2016 2:38:12 PM PDT by TWhiteBear (i)
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To: central_va
Right. The whole point of the article is that industrial output has grown considerably even with fewer people working in the manufacturing sector.

How many agricultural jobs were lost since 2001?

11 posted on 03/20/2016 2:38:20 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: cba123

it is largely reiteration of reiteration


12 posted on 03/20/2016 2:38:27 PM PDT by Thibodeaux (leading from behind is following)
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To: Alberta's Child

Dude, those 12 million jobs went overseas. They didn’t just disappear.


13 posted on 03/20/2016 2:39:32 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
But everyone over 18 has the right to vote. So my guess is that people without jobs tend to vote socialist.

Dude -- people with jobs tend to vote socialist, too. I don't see the AFL-CIO and its union affiliates supporting a long list of conservative Republicans, do you?

14 posted on 03/20/2016 2:41:11 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: FreedomNotSafety; stylecouncilor; windcliff

Engineering, with ever increasing specialization.

“The way of the future. The way of the future. The way of the future. The way of the future. The way of the future....” —The Aviator


15 posted on 03/20/2016 2:41:16 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: FreedomNotSafety

Agriculture and manufacturing are not related at all. To mix the two together shows a lack of basic economic understanding and simplistic thinking.


16 posted on 03/20/2016 2:41:20 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Only 10% of the manufacturing work force is unionized. 10%. Many blue collar factory workers are going to vote for Trump. Huge numbers.


17 posted on 03/20/2016 2:42:55 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va
1. Do you have any evidence of that?

2. Why don't you care about the jobs lost in the agricultural sector?

18 posted on 03/20/2016 2:43:18 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: central_va

Great — I look forward to seeing Trump get all that support from union workers.


19 posted on 03/20/2016 2:44:26 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: central_va

wow..... you really get your panties in a wad over stuff you don’t properly understand


20 posted on 03/20/2016 2:44:49 PM PDT by Thibodeaux (leading from behind is following)
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