Stealth F35
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If we don’t make it, few, if any, countries do.
It seems as if the country that used to make everything is on the brink of making nothing. In January, 207,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished in the largest one-month drop since October 1982. U.S. factory activity is hovering at a 28-year low.
But manufacturing in the United States is not dead or even dying. It is moving upscale, following the biggest profits and becoming more efficient, just as Henry Ford did when he created the assembly line to make the Model T car.
The United States remains by far the world’s leading manufacturer by value of goods produced. It hit a record $1.6 trillion in 2007 – nearly double the $811 billion of 1987. For every $1 of value produced in China factories, the United States generates $2.50.
The United States makes things that other countries cannot. Today, “Made in U.S.A.” is more likely to be stamped on heavy equipment or the circuits that go inside other products than the televisions, toys, clothes and other items found on store shelves.
U.S. factories still provide much of the processed food that U.S. households consume, everything from frozen fish sticks to cans of beer. And U.S. companies make a considerable share of the personal hygiene products like soap and shampoo, cleaning supplies and prescription drugs that are sold in pharmacies. But many other consumer goods now come from outside the United States.
It’s apparent that high tech boosts manufacturing but cuts jobs. This trend will certainly continue as robots assist more and more manufacturing steps, even as profits grow.
Hello Paddy-O, and here’s me thinking you may not make silly posts any more.
OF COURSE I don’t know anyone that uses a PC, i’m typing this post right now on a waffle…..You fool, most of my friends are in the tech game and they DON’T use American made products because 99% of the time they claim American products are made from SH1T materials and are of low quality build.
# 21 jimbo said, OF COURSE I don’t know anyone that uses a PC, i’m typing this post right now on a waffle…..You fool, most of my friends are in the tech game and they DON’T use American made products because 99% of the time they claim American products are made from SH1T”
Then, you and your friends better yank those CPUs from your computers now…
LOL!
P.S. I don’t expect to see you posting anymore…
It’s simple economics: Asian labor is super cheap (10c/hour) plus humongous cargo ships make ocean transport cheap. It’ll take many decades for Asian labor rates to equal ours, creating a level playing field. Read http://www.ideas4ourfuture.com for a solution to this problem. It’s our only chance to retain our high standard of living.
paddy-o,
Nice reply to the idiot about AMerican ICs. I guess even a broke clock is right twice a day.
America does make some of the best electronic components in the world. TI, Analog Devices, Natioinal Semiconductor, Micrel, Silicon Labs, Atmel, Tektronix, Vicor, Freescale, National Instruments, the list goes on.
The problem is too many suits can’t see beyond the quarter, and farm out jobs to satisfy short-term numbers instead of customer service, proprietary technology development, and building the business.
#18,
Damn, you had to go there didn’t you???
I was just talking about things that I have noticed recently. I am sure those goods you mentioned might be made in America but I guess I have not done a good enough job of scrutinizing every little thing I use or buy to see where it comes from.
I forgot one though… I think my Dixon Ticonderoga #2 pencils are US made. I love those pencils.
Bombing, invading, threatening, killing third world countries is solely MADE IN THE USA.
# 26 zorkor said, “Bombing, invading, threatening, killing third world countries is solely MADE IN THE USA.”
Someone has to get rid of the riff-raff.
BTW – You never told my what the lies were on that thread about the Muslim guy in NY beheading his wife…
changing the topic eh Paddy-O?
# 28 zorkor said, “changing the topic eh Paddy-O?”
Nope. I answered your accusation, as you can see if you can read.
Now, answer the question you ran from like a coward last time…
changing the topic and calling others cowards, another thing MADE IN THE USA…
# 30 zorkor said, “changing the topic and calling others cowards, another thing MADE IN THE USA…”
Coward.
The wealthy, and their stupid sycophants will always have justification to screw the workers and consumers. This will continue until the first CEO is replaced by a robot, or offshored to save money.
Machines replacing workers? Oh, the horrors. Nothing new here.
Go look up the origin of Sabotage. This has happened before. People adapt.
Well at least when global society crumbles, the US will still have tidy sales in bombs, guns and ammo.
I was at a ceremony at Vicor where they gave out $40,000 to a couple of workers who had created methods to save money for the company. One of the winners not only saved money, he saved jobs here in the USA. He redesigned their heat-sink manufacturing process, enabling Vicor to make them here with 4 employees instead of farming thte work out to an offshore fab. The Sigma was up, too.
BTW, they make these devices in “Taxachusetts”.
#33, to add to your comments if you don’t mind
Old copies of Popular Mechanics posed the same questions and concerns way back then. I wouldn’t worry too much about the issue. AI is FAR off, robotics are still not very advance to simulate human movements and such, and so forth.
#35, I wish regular companies would give prizes like that. I be rich if they did. That’s part of what I do as a Mfg Engineer hahaha These guys are probably contractors? And yes they do get pay well for cost reduction.
I’d be surprised if it takes more than another twenty to twenty-five years to perfect machine vision, which is really the big obstacle to general purpose robots and stuff like self driving cars. And in another twenty years it’s going be as common as personal computers are now. And there won’t be any jobs that aren’t creative, technical or both. There won’t be any customers either, since most everyone will be unemployed. I can honestly say, it’ll be good to be dead. Which I will be , by then.
Lets have a look how it was some 30-50 years ago:
US had supremacy for technologies *AND* almost everything was Made in USA.
Apparently it is NOT technology’s fault that the “jobs” went overseas.
The machine used to make plastic toys in China costs the same money in USA. Materials used in manufacturing processes cost the same. Almost everything cost the same (thanks to “global market”).
The only differences between one country and another are the local LAWS and local WAGES.
I emphasize *LAWS*. It is not only the workers wages that drove many manufacturers to China and India. With few mob-ruled exceptions (aka “unionized environments” like US car makers) the average US workers’ cost isn’t that high.
Its the other costs that become simply too high in USA.
There is more real socialism or communism in USA today than there ever was in China or Soviet Union, hence US economy is falling down same as it did in Soviet Union and Mao’s China (China of today is more capitalist than USA).
If you decide to read the full article, skip the impactlab.com site (which didn’t even bother to carry both pages of the story) and go straight to the original at the International Herald Tribune:
http://iht.com/articles/2009/02/20/business/wbmake.php
To all of you touting our made-in-USA chips: I decided to look at one and grabbed the closest one to hand. It turns out to be an old Pentium microprocessor, on which, after the various model numbers, etc., I see: MALAY in big letters.
Okay, maybe 300 or 400 engineers and designers in the US, Ireland, Israel and maybe Costa Rica worked on designing the chip, and perhaps 10 000 to 15 000 workers in Malaysia, South Korea, the Philippines and two locations in China worked to actually make them.
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When I was younger, I used to occasionally travel through St. Louis. Back then, for me travel meant taking the train or the bus, and I looked forward to the layovers so I could walk around the downtown and explore. There were many large, fancy buildings and even more quirky neighborhoods with quirky little shops.
Then the trains went away and the bus station moved from the large beautiful terminal to a little sheet metal building a few blocks away. The downtown became block after block of boarded up buildings peopled only by vagabonds and beggars.
I miss shoes that fit (I don’t think the Chinese really understand, even after all this time, just how big American feet are), comfortable underwear, shirts (and many other things) that last more than a year or two and managers and planners that can see farther ahead than 90 days.
On a good day, I have to try on an average of 4 to 5 pairs of shoes (same make, model and size) before finding one pair that _both_ fit. On an average day, I decide to keep wearing the shoes I came in with. On a bad day I end up with a pair that are too tight or too loose (or one of each) that mostly just become dust-gatherers in my closet.
At least I’ve still got a closet.
So far.