ATL Bear said:
Low skill manufacturing isn't coming back. And even if it did it would be low wage work and serve no economic purpose other than higher prices and increased worker risk for low pay. That was the preponderance of the oft sighted 60,000 - 90,000 factory loss (heck of a range there BTW).
Bringing manufacturing back is a capital not labor exercise, and the type of manufacturing we need is not only skilled labor, but highly skilled labor which is not only in short supply, but requires a reorientation of our education and training matrix domestically to address the short and long term lack of resources. That's before we even address the scale required to mass produce like our global competitors, the deregulation required to even contemplate it, and the supply chains necessary to execute.
Manufacturing employment beyond engineering, IT, and specialty technicians is on the bullet train of obsolescence. Why we would go to war with the world economically to try and protect it is beyond me. Don't protect, create and innovate. That's what always made us better.
Questions:
1) for people whose basic skill set aligns with manufacturing work and not "create & innovate", what exactly are they to do for employment?
2) if the USA can cost effectively run automotive assembly plants, why can't it also run automotive component manufacturing? HVAC manufacturing [easily brought back]? Similar?
3) is the USA's national defense better by destroying the manufacturing base?
4) why did the USA create an economic environment that lead to offshoring tech manufacturing?
5) how many items do you own that are created by basic manufacturing skills? Cars, HVAC, appliances, etc.?
6) how many items do you that utilize tech manufacturing? Phones, cars, computers, pads, etc.
7) how often do you make phones calls, utilize the internet, etc.?
Throwing shade on manufacturing as part of a balanced economy is very 1990s.
