The Deindustrialization Of America

[billt]

The following are 19 facts about the deindustrialization of America that will blow your mind....

#1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. About 75 percent of those factories employed over 500 people when they were still in operation.

#2 Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade.

#3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in November. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost.

#4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide. So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States? Zero.

#5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.

#6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.

#7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.

#8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.

#9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.

#10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford's new "global" manufacturing strategy.

#11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.

#13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th.

#15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products. Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide.

#17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States.

#18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

#19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.

So how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose before we do something about it?

How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands?

How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our economy?

How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting war zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing national economic suicide?

The de-industrialization of America is a national crisis. It needs to be treated like one.

[McGyver]

Welcome to TEOTWAWKI!

"but I feel fine!" LOL!   

[Pathfinder]

I remember 20+ years ago when there was a flurry of articles in various trade pubs etc. about how great the transition to a new "service" economy was going to be - more jobs, higher paying jobs, white collar instead of that yucky get-your-hands-dirty blue collar crap. I didn't buy it back then, although I did profit from the booming white collar economy.

Sad fact is, we're done, we're toast. The schools have not been turned, so they continue to spew out mind-numbed little socialized statists who always look to their "betters" for directions, and mindlessly do as they are told. People who will never know physical labor.

The media is the lapdog of the Soros-types, so that now we have to get even a semblance of truth from Pravda of all places.

Industry has left the building and I doubt seriously it can ever be recouped - certainly not within some of our lifetimes.

The economy has been trashed to a degree never seen before so rebuilding an industrial base - even if we wanted to - is going to be well nigh impossible. Our debtors will suck us dry - literally if you believe the tinfoil hatters about foreigners gaining our water rights.

The gummint won't prosecute egregious crimes, but is willing to label people like uyou and me as domestic terrorists or extremists.

Better we start thinking post-collapse and what we do to survive as a culture. Going back to the Constitution is a good start but in what context? And how? Local economies, local industry sounds good, but where do you get raw materials? And how do you keep an ever acquisitive and abusive gummint off your backs?

[tombogan03884]

You are to pessimistic Path, look at what Germany did between 1945 when there was nothing left but rubble, what we had not bombed to pieces the Soviets loaded onto train cars and hauled off as "reparations". and 1960 when papers were talking about the "economic miracle".
First order of business is the complete restructuring of a much smaller, less intrusive Govt. and a purge of the self destructive socialist elements with in our society.

[McGyver]

You are to pessimistic Path, look at what Germany did between 1945 when there was nothing left but rubble, what we had not bombed to pieces the Soviets loaded onto train cars and hauled off as "reparations". and 1960 when papers were talking about the "economic miracle".
First order of business is the complete restructuring of a much smaller, less intrusive Govt. and a purge of the self destructive socialist elements with in our society.

No Tom, Path isn't being pessimistic, he's being honest. What would Germany have done had it not been for the US rebuilding what we destroyed? From 1945 to 1960 Germany would have CEASED to exist if we didn't rebuild it, just like Japan after the BOMB!
Now we have N Korea and Iran pushing our buttons AGAIN! Obviously they didn't get the message the first time.

[Sponsor]

[cookie62]

Think about what it took in the 40's to get those manufacuring jobs going, WWII. Will it be WWIII that revives the US? I would hate to think that is what it will take, but. 

[crusader rabbit]

Almost every job loss listed can be traced directly to unionization.  Now, SEIU wants to unionize the TSA. 

Wake up, people.  Our very nation is on the line.

[tombogan03884]

No Tom, Path isn't being pessimistic, he's being honest. What would Germany have done had it not been for the US rebuilding what we destroyed? From 1945 to 1960 Germany would have CEASED to exist if we didn't rebuild it, just like Japan after the BOMB!
Now we have N Korea and Iran pushing our buttons AGAIN! Obviously they didn't get the message the first time.

Not correct.
Look at Haiti, We have been pouring money into that sh!thole for 200 years. (since they threw out Napoleon's forces ) and it is still a barely functional, dependent state.
Another thing not commonly known is that the Marshall plan did not spend one penny of American money in Europe. What it did was forgive the huge debts incurred by France and Britain for "Lend Lease" material in exchange for investing in Germany and other devastated countries .
But with out the industry and optimism of the German and Japanese people, and a stable and predictable political climate they would have remained helpless like Haiti and Somalia.
Look at East Germany, even with out out side assistance they rose to the highest standards of living and production quality in the entire Warsaw pact, and they did not with Soviet assistance, but in spite of Soviet interference.
As to the future, while Iran may pose a regional threat and possibly even interfere with Arabian oil supplies that is the most they are capable of, the Persians will never again threaten Europe with invasion as they did in the days of the Empire. Although they do present a menace as nuclear terrorists, the fact remains that if they ever do play that card they will cease to exist as a habitable portion of the planet.
N Korea is a joke . Their saber rattling has no bearing on their foreign policy which amounts to "I'll rent you my sister for food and oil",
Both of which they are dependent on SK charity to merely maintain life. They should really be of little interest to us since South Korea and Japan are more than capable of handling them. That does not take into account that their former Patron, China, realizes that their best interests are not served by military conflict in the region, it's bad for business. Southern China is already being flooded with masses of starving Korean refugees that they don't want, conflict would only make the problem worse, Should such a conflict go nuclear, 1) China does not want the fall out the prevailing winds would dump on them, 2) it would defeat the aims of the NK leadership. The only practical purpose for an invasion of the South would be to seize the industrial and financial assets of the South, if they glow in the dark there is no value in them, it is simply millions more mouths to feed with out the help of the nations that would turn against them.
The ones to watch are China and Russia, While we will most likely never face a military threat from them, They will exert their strength on the new battlefield of commerce. We should realize that from the huge influx of Chinese made goods in our stores.
As for Russia Their opposition to us is primarily behind the scenes, such as supplying Saddam Hussein,, and opposing us in the UN.
Their motive is power in the form of oil. Their opposition to our involvement in Afghanistan stems from the fact that we acquired rights to the huge oil reserves in Azerbaijan on the Caspian sea, the current plan is to pipe it to Turkey for distribution in Europe which would cut Europe's dependence on Russian oil, A few years ago they cut off oil deliveries to Georgia and Ukraine in the middle of winter just to remind them who was the boss, and to let Europe know, play ball or more than half your fuel supplies could disappear over night.

[SwoopSJ]

The fiscal demise of this country begins, in my opinion, with free trade agreements.  Granted, it's basic economics that each country offer the product they can produce the most efficiently on the trade market.  The problem is, we , currently, don't produce anything efficiently besides debt.  It is MUCH cheaper for companies to manufacture their products in other countries where they have lower taxes, regulations, and labor costs.  Basically, we need to make it fiscally unsound to produce most products outside of the U.S.  We can accomplish this by either sweetening the pot domestically for companies, increasing tax / tariffs on imports, or a combination of the two.  These are not popular ideas and they have their caveats and downfalls, but I see no other solution.  The government screams education is the answer, well how many pencil pushers can the economy support?  We're already seeing the answer to that question, since degrees are now almost as valuable as toilet paper.  I realize there is a bigger picture and that these actions would have an effect on the world economy, but these are the bare bones of my view of the problem and possible solutions.  When it comes right down to it, at least to a certain degree, we are going to have to start looking at our own economic welfare as priority number 1.

Swoop


 

[tombogan03884]

Think about what it took in the 40's to get those manufacuring jobs going, WWII. Will it be WWIII that revives the US? I would hate to think that is what it will take, but.  

A major war will no longer stimulate manufacturing in that manner. By the time we retooled our remaining factories to produce the high tech equipment such as aircraft and missiles the war would be long over.

Almost every job loss listed can be traced directly to unionization.  Now, SEIU wants to unionize the TSA.  

Wake up, people.  Our very nation is on the line.

Darn good point ! What happens if some natural or diplomatic disaster should lead to the cut off of our imports ?
Many areas of this country now lack the physical infrastructure to return to a manufacturing economy.
In my own work I see the loss of skilled labor, in my current job at a machine shop I am the youngest guy there who knows how to do these jobs on a manual machine, and I'll be 51 soon.  The younger guys are all "button pushers", they turn out good parts, and write their own programs, but what happens if they don't have the Asian made CNC machinery ? (Which, I will point out, was based on stolen US research )