What happened to manufacturing and production

[SmarterthanYou]

being the lifeblood of our economy? Back in the day, when people knew how to deal with money and government wasn't all power trippy and controlling, it was all about manufacturing and production. You didn't get new money in to your home unless you produced something......a good, a service, anything substantial that created a positive financial flow.

Now, all we got is this crappy balloon filled credit based economy that isn't worth the air we breathe.

http://paydaypundit.org/2009/02/25/...ow-of-credit-is-the-lifeblood-of-our-economy/

The concern is that if we do not re-start lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins.

You see, the flow of credit is the lifeblood of our economy. The ability to get a loan is how you finance the purchase of everything from a home to a car to a college education; how stores stock their shelves, farms buy equipment, and businesses make payroll.

this is how the economy crumbles and how it will implode. People will not 'buy' stuff if they can't afford to pay their other necessities, yet this is what the democrats and republicans of late have turned our economy in to. A bloated and warped bubble of debt getting ready to pop.

 

[Cancel3]

Other nations watched us and figured out the game. Since their people would work for less, they could produce the same volume for less.

Then the owners of our manufacturing industry saw that things could be produced for less if they moved their plants to other nations. So they packed up their stuff and moved out of the country.

Now they can pay an assembly line worker $6 an hour and he is thrilled.

Its called capitalism. America was always willing to ignore the downside to capitalism. Now that downside has left us with an service economy based on credit.

 

[SmarterthanYou]

Other nations watched us and figured out the game. Since their people would work for less, they could produce the same volume for less.

Then the owners of our manufacturing industry saw that things could be produced for less if they moved their plants to other nations. So they packed up their stuff and moved out of the country.

Now they can pay an assembly line worker $6 an hour and he is thrilled.

Its called capitalism. America was always willing to ignore the downside to capitalism. Now that downside has left us with an service economy based on credit.

I'd say we can certainly blame that on the government then, for giving rise to the theory that our property should be worth more than it actually is.

 

[Cancel3]

I'd say we can certainly blame that on the government then, for giving rise to the theory that our property should be worth more than it actually is.

The gov't didn't do it. Its a natural progression of capitalism.

The USA produced steel, for example. In the beginning our workers were cheap, and glad to have any job. But as they grew beyond subsistance work, they started wanting more. So they got more and more.

After a while, people in other countries realized that they had the raw materials to do what we had done. So they built foundries and started producing steel. Since their workers were still cheap, they could produce the same volume of steel for a much lower price. The infrastructure in these countries was cheaper too. And they paid less in taxes. So they could provide cheaper steel than we could.

And when someone wanted to buy steel, do you think they would pay the extra price for american steel? Of course not. So the steel mills in the USA gradually closed.





Its how capitalism works. Whoever can produce the best product for the lowest price wins the business.

I am not saying anything bad about capitalism, because I think its the best system we have. But it is far from perfect.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

being the lifeblood of our economy? Back in the day, when people knew how to deal with money and government wasn't all power trippy and controlling, it was all about manufacturing and production. You didn't get new money in to your home unless you produced something......a good, a service, anything substantial that created a positive financial flow.

Now, all we got is this crappy balloon filled credit based economy that isn't worth the air we breathe.

http://paydaypundit.org/2009/02/25/...ow-of-credit-is-the-lifeblood-of-our-economy/

The concern is that if we do not re-start lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins.



this is how the economy crumbles and how it will implode. People will not 'buy' stuff if they can't afford to pay their other necessities, yet this is what the democrats and republicans of late have turned our economy in to. A bloated and warped bubble of debt getting ready to pop.

I got news for you. We produce more now then we have at anytime in our history. The difference is that with modern manufacturing methods, automation, robotics, process controls, etc, we can produce more now with fewer plants and less labor.

For example, one integrated mill in East Chicago, Indiana now produces as much steel as 100 steel plants did during WWII. It's an amazing facility. Their blast furnace is staggering in size and scope.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

The gov't didn't do it. Its a natural progression of capitalism.

The USA produced steel, for example. In the beginning our workers were cheap, and glad to have any job. But as they grew beyond subsistance work, they started wanting more. So they got more and more.

After a while, people in other countries realized that they had the raw materials to do what we had done. So they built foundries and started producing steel. Since their workers were still cheap, they could produce the same volume of steel for a much lower price. The infrastructure in these countries was cheaper too. And they paid less in taxes. So they could provide cheaper steel than we could.

And when someone wanted to buy steel, do you think they would pay the extra price for american steel? Of course not. So the steel mills in the USA gradually closed.





Its how capitalism works. Whoever can produce the best product for the lowest price wins the business.

I am not saying anything bad about capitalism, because I think its the best system we have. But it is far from perfect.

That's just really not what happened Sol. Old steel plants were replaced by steel plants that are vastly more efficient. I used to work at a modern minimill that produced 2.5 million tons of steel a year and it's the size of a small assembly plant. Sits on about 10 acres of land. Older steel plants closed down less to foreign competition then advances in domestic competition. A lot of the old integrated mills in towns like Akron, Youngstown, Hamilton and Middletown, Ohio closed down because they just simply could not compete with the new minimills like Nucor steel.

 

[uscitizen]

What do we produce more of ? Gasoline?


Yeah we might produce more than anytime in history esp if it is based on dollar value. But how much more than that increase has our demand gone up? And again what do we make here?

Go shopping and tell me how much made in USA stuff you see to buy.

 

[Kamala Trump]

Comparative Advantage is a fine concept, but even that idea needs to be conducted inside a moral framework. For instance, business should be structure so that having the most oppressive government and the poorest and most desperate workers is not a legitimate comparative advantage. These conditions should not rewarded with fat production contracts which only profitize the mistreatment of humans.

 

[uscitizen]

Comparative Advantage is a fine concept, but even that idea needs to be conducted inside a moral framework. For instance, business should be structure so that having the most oppressive government and the poorest and most desperate workers is not a legitimate comparative advantage. These conditions should not rewarded with fat production contracts which only profitize the mistreatment of humans.

But..but.. It is the American way.

 

[DamnYankee]

being the lifeblood of our economy? Back in the day, when people knew how to deal with money and government wasn't all power trippy and controlling, it was all about manufacturing and production. You didn't get new money in to your home unless you produced something......a good, a service, anything substantial that created a positive financial flow......

When was government not "power trippy and controlling". Ever since FDR, who was way before my time, it certainly has.

I don't think that manufacturing creates wealth any more effectively as the service sector. If China can make widgets cheaper than we can then we should buy them from China and in return sell them our design services or fast food burgers. True capitalism doesn't differentiate and decide which business sector is good, and which is bad.

Having said that it is also important for a nation to maintain a diverse, vertically integrated industry, economically because diversification is more stable, but more importantly for security because a military needs heavy industry, food and petroleum to keep it effective.