7th Dec 2010, 09:51
First of all, I'm already proud of our country. No need for me to feel that we should have to suddenly start making bathroom scales, vacuum cleaners and toilet scrub brushes in order for me to feel otherwise.
Secondly, this whole conversation seems overly simplistic. Sure - the US at one time was basically the equivalent of China: We were the world's factory. The reason that we were in that position was because we had an almost inexhaustible supply of cheap immigrant labor flooding in from Europe and other countries. The country was also about 75% rural, thus there was also a vast supply of cheap labor coming in from those areas as well. As of today 80% of the US population reside in metro areas, and of these, the vast bulk of the major metros are costly places to live and do business. So in other words, the environment for competitive global manufacturing is not nearly as ideal as it is in other lower cost areas around the world. The only reason the US is still able to compete in some areas of manufacturing is due to our still-competent expertise in areas such as aeronautics, commercial equipment, and high tech. That and perhaps more than anything else a high reliance on heavy automation. Take a look at most any factory in the US, and lo and behold, the number of actual humans working in those plants is sometimes very minimal.
As far as the US ever returning to an era where we made absolutely everything, well I'd say that is highly unlikely, simply because as stated - we cannot compete economically with cheaper labor overseas. The US will need to transition from manufacturing cheap goods to more upper end goods, as happens in Germany where they tend to focus on more upscale products like BMWs, fancy cutlery, manufacturing machines, medical equipment, and shipbuilding.
In the past, many US manufacturing companies focused on the bottom line. I'm only in my mid-30's, and it wasn't that long ago when if you went into most any big box stores the cheapest shoddiest things there tended to be cheaply stamped together American made products. In an effort to stay competitive, a lot of US companies made their products cheaper and cheaper, only to be outdone by China, which made those cheap products even more cheaply. Had those same US companies gone the other way, and instead insisted on competing with higher quality versus lower quality and lower cost, perhaps more US companies would still be around today, giving consumers more options. As it is, now you really have to spend some serious time trying to find anything that's actually made here anymore.
But in any regard, we have transitioned out of a manufacturing based economy to a consumer/service sector economy. It is what it is. Not a single person I know actually works in a factory or makes things. They all do as most Americans do - they work at an office or some other building doing service work of some sort. We all make money, pay for mortgages, pay taxes, and basically keep the US economy humming. Just because I don't sit at an assembly line screwing screws into the same holes all day long, doesn't mean that my job isn't just as important.
6th Dec 2010, 12:49
By waking up you must mean that people are accepting that their American fronted companies are pushing Chinese goods, right? That is what is going on, and there is no arguing against it. No one has duped the American public into thinking anything American is inferior. There is nothing left that is made here anymore! And we do live in a global economy. Even our domestic car companies have product all over the world, and some of the supposed American cars are imports like the Chevy Aveo.
Don't get too excited about the increase of American car sales. They have been inflated by heavy discounts and rebates, and the overblown Toyota recall fiasco, which will soon be a distant memory, just like every other recall in every other car line has been. Besides, the more and more they outsource their labor, the less and less "American" they become. It is good that you like to support Canadians and Mexicans and their families and communities, but buying American cars doesn't do as much for American workers and communities as people think it does. There are many places that have been left to rot, like Detroit, and the auto companies all but left them for dead to look for cheap labor.
Americans will surely support American companies when they are actually American again. This means bringing back manufacturing and returning to the way things were 30 or more years ago. It may happen sooner than you think, as China is now getting smarter and charging us more for the labor we are getting from them. Big changes ahead for sure... whether it is a good thing or a bad thing is still out for debate!