Free Republic

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of SHRM. It has been well-documented that manufacturing has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in recent years. But what is the biggest misconception about the industry right now? The biggest misconception is that the United States no longer makes anything. But the fact is that the United States remains the largest manufacturing economy in the world by a healthy margin. As recently as 2008, the U.S. accounted for more than a fifth (21%) of worldwide manufacturing output, far ahead of the next two leading...

Charlotte, N.C. - One thing the financial crisis shows is that the United States is in trouble because Americans have stopped making stuff. It used to be that we made a lot of stuff: televisions, clothes, washing machines, radios, typewriters, shoes, telephones, and furniture. And we also used to make the stuff out of which stuff was made: steel, aluminum, plastic, rubber, glass, and electrical components. Today that's largely made overseas. They send us their stuff and we send them our money. It also used to be that Americans liked to make stuff. Think of all the things Thomas Edison...