The Myth Of Manufacturing’s Decline

Investors Business Daily ^ | JUNE 3, 2016 | Editorial

[expat_panama]

For the last two years, we’ve listened as presidential candidates promised repeatedly to “bring back manufacturing jobs.” But they really didn’t go anywhere. As the data show, manufacturing output is near its all-time high. Since 1980, factory output has grown 114%, while the number of factory jobs has shrunk by 36%, or nearly 7 million jobs total. It was technology and productivity, not China or any other nation, that “took” factory jobs.

[expat_panama]

This excerpt is copy/pasted from the print edition so the link probably won't work unless you're a subscriber.  No problem, the big part was the graphic based on numbers that are all public record:

Somehow this whole idea of jobs being shipped to China has never made any sense to me.  Like, "employment" is when someone pays someone else to do work.  You can't put 'doing something' in a box and ship it, and when a Chinese guy gets paid to work it doesn't stop some American guy from hiring anyone here.

At any rate, the ISM index says we got more people working now in the manufacturing sector than we did in 1980 (not sure where IBD got their decline), and output's almost twice the 1980 level (close enough to IBD's number).   This is the original graphic but be sure to buy the paper first.

[kabar]

So what are we manufacturing?

[Nachum]

Yeah, look at all the US Steel production going on...

Ooops. Not in the US any more.

[Regulator]

So all that stuff in the stores that say “Hecho en Chine” is a mirage?

Who knew!

[JPJones]

“So what are we manufacturing?”

T-Bills and EBT cards.

[dennisw]

So what are we manufacturing?

I believe making potato chips, Cheetos and other processed foods is counted under manufacturing these days. One of the free traitors might know.

[Grampa Dave]

IBD is trending into a WSJ.

I have zero need for either one, their editorials or articles like this in their backing of open borders and minimizing the importance of America as a stable country.

[freedumb2003]

>>Like, “employment” is when someone pays someone else to do work. You can’t put ‘doing something’ in a box and ship it, and when a Chinese guy gets paid to work it doesn’t stop some American guy from hiring anyone here.<<

Not true. You have a system that requires 10 programmers, who get $25/hour. You then lay them all off and have 10 programmers in China do the work for $5/hour.

Those jobs are gone. Forever.

[buckalfa]

"So what are we manufacturing?"

Widgets of course, widgets. The dollar value of goods manufactured or assembled in America may be high, but the number of people needed to do the job is at an all time low. I fear that type of employment will dwindle further due to AI and other automations. Throw in outsourcing and you have ---.

[zzwhale]

its SLAVE LABOR that too the jobs
and NWO politicians

[zzwhale]

its SLAVE LABOR that too the jobs
and NWO politicians

[dennisw]

Somehow this whole idea of jobs being shipped to China has never made any sense to me. 

We import hundreds of billions of manufactured items from China/Asia/Mexico that we should be making here. This makes for out of control trade deficits but free traders don't care about this.

So manufacturing is up a whopping 14% from 1980 while we import hundreds of billions more

[Sans-Culotte]

Somehow this whole idea of jobs being shipped to China has never made any sense to me. Like, "employment" is when someone pays someone else to do work. You can't put 'doing something' in a box and ship it, and when a Chinese guy gets paid to work it doesn't stop some American guy from hiring anyone here.

Then why is everything being made in China? Are you and the author suggesting that the manufacturing jobs in China are being done by machines?

[JPJones]

“But they really didn’t go anywhere.”

LOL, seriously?

Oh, yeah and unemployment is at 4.7%

It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

[cassiusking]

Would you like me to manufacture fries with that?

[Pelham]

No manufacturing decline?

Surely that must explain why the BNSF railroad spent a billion dollars to triple track their once single mainline headed east from the Ports of LA and Long Beach.

Because there’s nothing that’s being shipped in versus what used to travel around the USA from the Rust Belt.

Yes, I’m certainly convinced that where things are now manufactured has nothing to do with huge investments like the BNSF RR, not to mention port expansions as well.

It’s all just a coincidence. Ask the wizards at IBD.

[Jack Hydrazine]

So what they are trying to say in this article is that all of those manufacturing industries such as watch making, shoe making, textiles and the like never really left the USA, but instead are making prducts so efficiently these days that machines are doing all the work.

Or maybe manufacturers are in stealth mode, making everything here, shipping it all to China, and shipping it back thus making it look like the tags that say “made in china” are true so they can receive a tax write off of some kind.

Yeah, that’s the ticket!

[NTHockey]

No refineries built since the 1970’s. Same for nuclear power plants. New coal mines - zip. Despite a $30 BILLION/yr. budget, DOE has not produced one BTU of energy since 1976, outside of the hot air they generate.

[Pelham]

Are you really going to believe your lying eyes instead of the wisdom of the IBD writers?

Next you’re going to tell us that the industrial heartland of the Midwest is no longer filled with small manufacturing.

[expat_panama]

all that stuff in the stores that say “Hecho en Chine”

Hey it's all stuff from U.S. facturies.  Most are here---

---but a lot of them are there too: