Guardian: The US 'manufacturing renaissance' doesn't exist, says new report

[nationalize the fed]

Despite all the much-heralded talk of the rebirth of manufacturing, a new report suggests that the trend may be vastly overstated

Suzanne McGee Guardian.co.uk 12 January 2015



Have we been letting a good story get in the way of the facts?

The “manufacturing renaissance” has been the central point in the return of America’s industrial power. It even has its own national council.

Yet here are the facts: the United States may have added only about one new manufacturing job in the last few years for every five that were lost during the financial crisis and the recession that followed.

That’s according to a new report from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a non-partisan and nonprofit think tank based in Washington DC. The report was released early this morning.

“We have stretched six cool examples [of the rebirth of manufacturing] into a whole news trend,” says Adams Nager, economic research industry at the foundation and, together with its president, Robert Atkinson, the co-author of the report...
Complete article: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/12/the-us-manufacturing-renaissance-doesnt-exist-says-new-report

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The Myth of America’s Manufacturing Renaissance: The Real State of U.S. Manufacturing
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
January 12, 2015

To listen to most pundits and commentators, U.S. manufacturing has turned a corner and is roaring back after the precipitous decline during the 2000s. Long gone are the dismal days when manufacturing jobs and output were lost due to foreign competition. Higher foreign labor costs, cheap oil and gas here at home and automation are combining to make America the new global manufacturing hub: at least according the now dominant narrative. Indeed, the term “manufacturing renaissance” is used to describe this new state of affairs...

...Myth: Global shipping costs are unusually high, making it easier for the United States to produce more for U.S. and European markets.

Fact: Undersupply led to skyrocketing global shipping costs in 2008. However, today shipping costs are back to normal after falling by 93 percent in a six month period in 2009.

...Myth: The Shale Gas boom gives U.S. manufacturing a substantial advantage

Fact: Reduced costs for shale energy has had an impact only on energy intensive industries, and then only a minor one. For 90 percent of the manufacturing sector, energy costs are lower than 5 percent of shipment value. The benefits are largely restricted to the petrochemical sector and drilling operations...

MORE: http://www.itif.org/publications/myth-america-s-manufacturing-renaissance-real-state-us-manufacturing

Download report: (PDF) http://www2.itif.org/2015-myth-american-manufacturing-renaissance.pdf

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A prophetic interview with Sir James Goldsmith in 1994 Pt1

Must See-Sir James vs. Laura D'Andrea Tyson


The TPP will put the last nails in the US Manufacturing Coffin.
A nation that can't make shoes is hardly a "Superpower".

But the US can make Drones and give $5 BILLION DOLLARS to Ukraine!

[Recursion]

1. Why would a renaissance mean more manufacturing jobs?

Our agricultural renaissance meant that people left the farms. We're seeing in industry what happened in agriculture about a century ago.

By outputs, this is the high point of American manufacturing so far. By labor inputs, it's not. We consider the parallel fact about agriculture a good thing.

[Boreal]

2. We consider the parallel fact about agriculture a good thing

Who is we? What's good about the loss of family farms, the takeover by big ag, bankrupt families, destruction of rural communities, GMOs, Monsatan, and on and on?

As for manufacturing, what's good about lower priced imported consumer products on the backs of people so miserable that nets have to be strung for when they try to their deaths during their horrendous work shifts? What's good about the loss of the ability of one family member/one income being able to support the entire family? What's good about the loss of self sufficiency as a nation?

Things change, technology improves, farming methods improve, how people work is adjusted accordingly, but none that means a country has to destroy itself. Globalization is nothing but the East India Company model on steroids.

[hobbit709]

3. But when they left the farms there were factories in the cities.

Here in Austin-which was once hailed as Silicon Valley II-there is nothing now.
TI, IBM, Motorola, Radian, IBM, MCC all are gone. There's a couple of research facilities that hire a few dozen engineers and a few workers but nothing is actually produced here
Dell only runs a call center in Round Rock-no computers built there anymore.
The last place I worked, Solectron, was running 24/7 when the layoffs hit in 2001. They went to a 8 hr shift 5 days a week. They were bought out by Flextronics in 2007. Out of 25 job listings here in their Austin location, 8 required engineering degrees, 16 were either management or sales, 1 was for a technician with an associates degree like mine-and they were only offering $1/hr more than what I was making in 2001.

[pampango]

4. Manufacturing jobs increased under Carter, Clinton and Obama (since 2010) though

these have been the only bright spots since the 1970's. Manufacturing jobs declined under Reagan, Bush I and Bush II.



Even in Germany, which is a manufacturing powerhouse with a trade surplus, manufacturing employment has decreased from 40% to 20% of total employees since 1970.

[nationalize the fed]

5. ^