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Declining manufacturing in U.S. linked to Natiional Security

Industry experts: Less 'made in USA' puts security at risk - CNN.com

No **** Dick Tracy! I could have told you this 20 years ago! My how out of touch our legislators are! At least it's a committee finding and not some million dollar study that states the obvious.


Oh what a quandary the libs have....We need more manufacturing here within our own shores, but what self respecting businessman or group would dare to invest in manufacturing when the government in power now sees them as the evil class, and wants to take all they make to redistribute it?


j-mac
 
So maybe saving GM from liquidation was not really a bad idea after all?

So you think that if GM went into bankruptcy the factories would have gone empty. Pretty simplicitc and not true. When airlines go bankrupt do they start scrapping the planes. Does the company even stop flying, no. The company goes under court protection, works something out with debtholders and re-emergers.

The unions would have lost under this scenario but the company would have continued on.
 
This is why free trade is a bad deal.

Free trade isn't the problem per se. Worsening relative U.S. competitiveness in select industries is. Even if there were robust trade barriers, less competitive U.S. industries would be producing inferior products and that situation, too, would pose a national security risk. In the meantime, U.S. consumer welfare would also be harmed from lack of access to better value.
 
Free trade isn't the problem per se.
If US companies can't stay in business due to the outsourced companies then it is a problem.


Worsening relative U.S. competitiveness in select industries is. Even if there were robust trade barriers, less competitive U.S. industries would be producing inferior products and that situation, too, would pose a national security risk. In the meantime,
There are always industries who make better.Thats why some products are premium brands, some are name brand and some are just generic.

U.S. consumer welfare would also be harmed from lack of access to better value.
Poor people in this country will do what poor people always did in the country. Which is wait until it goes on sale, put it on lay away, rent to own, order from fingerhut catalog(similar to rent to own), buy generic, buy at a second hand store, go to thrift stores and flea markets or buy stuff at yard sales. I grew up poor, so I witnessed my mother doing these things, heck I even still do some of these things.
 
Using the auto industry as an example, people are still buying cars. People are still manufacturing cars. However the climate has been made unfavorable to manufacture those cars in the US. That NEEDS to change. That change has to come through a cooperative effort of corporate management and labor unions. Michigan is a great example of how their refussal to cooperate have left both the leaders of the auto industry and the leaders of the labor unions sitting on and presiding over a kingdom of ****.
 
If US companies can't stay in business due to the outsourced companies then it is a problem.

The companies need to become better at what they do. Whether it is a low-cost, high differentiation, focused, or hybrid strategy, they need to offer some value that is significant, important to consumers, and difficult for competitors to replicate. If they seek to produce relatively standardized products, price becomes a leading driver of success within the industry. They they have little choice to lower their costs so as to be able to compete on the basis of price. They shouldn't seek protections that compel U.S. consumers to pay artificially high prices when lower-priced alternatives would otherwise be available. The companies need to improve and innovate. While that is a tough proposition, it is a necessary one. If they can't cut the muster, that is not the fault of international rivals. It is their own fault.

There are always industries who make better.Thats why some products are premium brands, some are name brand and some are just generic.

Of course. U.S. consumers (business, individuals, and government) should have access to the products/services they believe offer the best value regardless of where they are made. If U.S. companies wish to gain a larger slice of the market, they need to provide the value those consumers desire.

Poor people in this country will do what poor people always did in the country. Which is wait until it goes on sale, put it on lay away, rent to own, order from fingerhut catalog(similar to rent to own), buy generic, buy at a second hand store, go to thrift stores and flea markets or buy stuff at yard sales. I grew up poor, so I witnessed my mother doing these things, heck I even still do some of these things.

Asking lower-income people to wait for a sale strictly because legislation deprives that market segment of access to lower-priced goods is an entirely different matter. That's an artificial and fully avoidable situation.
 
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Grilled by Senate Banking Committee - The Note

"Although there may be some modest disagreement about what to do, I'm increasingly coming to the view that the only person in this room who believes China is not manipulating its currency is you,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said.

"At a time when the U.S. economy is trying to pick itself up off the ground, China's currency manipulation is like a boot to the throat of our recovery. This administration refuses to try and take that boot off our neck," Schumer said. “China's overt and continuous manipulation of its currency to gain trade advantage over its trading partners is about as close to a fact, an economic policy, as you can get.”

hmm, first orszag (who, the instant he escaped, published an op ed for the grey lady calling for extension of bush tax cuts to all americans), then ms romer, followed by yesterday's announcement of the departure of that mean misogynist, lawrence summers

who's next?

party on, polysyllabically
 
Places like California drive businesses out of the State and Country with regulations and Taxes and the Feds do it too.

It has never made sense to me that any of part that go into any of our Military weapon systems are made any where outside our borders there are thousands & thousands of good jobs that have been lost to other countries for just that.

We need to insist that this change and soon.

We have lost much of the steel industry and the scape steel industry and even tooling and those are of the utmost importance in times of National emergency.

We have idiots in charge and that's on both sides of the isle and it didn't start yesterday it goes back 40 years if goes back a day.

Saw it in in 1970 when the aircraft Company i was working for whn I was in school moved thousands of jobs to Mexico under the Maciadora program.
 
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Oh what a quandary the libs have....We need more manufacturing here within our own shores, but what self respecting businessman or group would dare to invest in manufacturing when the government in power now sees them as the evil class, and wants to take all they make to redistribute it?


j-mac

We had a vastly increasing trade deficit before the recession and before the Democrats ever took power.
 
This sounds like schlock. They are making the same protectionist argument that freer trade is a national security issue which is as old as WWI.

“Had the United States not had the capacity to become the 'arsenal of democracy,' the Second World War might well have ended differently."

The potential problem of a weakening sense of loyalty to this country by the managers of hollowed-out American corporations. This is not hidden. CEOs now regularly acknowledge, even boast, that they are global, not American corporations.

Essentially they are arguing to make technology and defense more expensive and local, meaning a greater distribution of the communal wealth to defense. That means more of your taxes. DING DING DING. Get it. This is just ideological heart string pulling.
 
US corporations only care about their bottom line. They will continue to send our businesses overseas to increase their profit margins when they cannot get enough "welfare" to keep businesses here. They create the problem then blame everyone possible. It's all about the Benjamins.
 
Silly people, protectionist countries are more likely to war than countries open to free trade.
Mutual aid usually prevents all sorts of bad things because 2 countries that normally oppose each other, must work towards a solution without the use of weapons.
 
A couple of things.

1. As OC already pointed out, our manufacturing isn't really in decline. Other countries are just improving their own manufacturing sectors.

2. As Harry said, the economic interdependence from increased trade makes a large war with another large country, like China, highly unlikely in our shrinking world. Besides going to war with China in the near future is also like the bank you got a home mortgage from trying to burn down your house.

3. The US already has a massive military-industrial complex. We spend more on our military than almost the rest of the world combined. No other country can provide both the quality and quantity of our military's toys. If another country did begin a massive buildup, I fail to see why our complex couldn't keep up again, just like in the Cold War.

4. Even if we do go to WWIII and it doesn't go nuclear within the first few weeks anyway, how is normal manufacturing going to help? Technology has gotten a lot more complex since 1945. It's not like you can go from manufacturing Fords to Abrams as easily as from Buicks to Shermans. I don't see how helpful more non-military manufacturing would even be.
 
US manufacturing is on the decline?

Since when?

Foreign Trade: Data - Historical Series

This meeting is nothing more then a ploy for corporate welfare. US exports and manufacturing have been rising for years. We are still the biggest manufacturer in the world.

I like what you're saying lately, dick. :2razz:

Robert P. Murphy said:
Consider the worst-case scenario where the U.S. imports all of its steel from foreign countries, and there is a large probability that there will be a major war in one year, and that if this happens every single one of our suppliers will cut off shipment of steel. What will be the market's response? Will steel continue to sell at its usual price, and will people in the steel industry focus merely on tomorrow's stock prices?

Of course not. If the supply of steel should be completely cut off, the market price of steel would skyrocket (assuming the government does not take steps to prevent "gouging" and "profiteering"). Because of this possibility, speculators today will buy and stockpile huge quantities of steel at the current low prices. (After all, even if the war never comes, they can simply resell the steel at its original price, losing only the costs of storage. Steel is not perishable like milk or tomatoes.)

In addition, if the war is expected to drag on for many years, so that at that point a domestic steel industry would be necessary, then it will be presently profitable for entrepreneurs to refit their factories so that a switch to steel production can be effected relatively quickly should war break out. And if, because of this costly refitting, the firms in question can cover their variable costs (though not their total costs) through production of steel, then the possibility of war (and exorbitant steel prices) will spur a domestic steel industry operating at a short-run loss in the hope of making up for its sunk costs once war breaks out.
 
i don't know about cnn, but when the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the secretary of state and the assistant to (temporary) house speaker nancy pelosi speak about "national security," it's not really WAR they're referencing

our national security these days is under severe strain from several sources less blatantly bellicose, sorry to say
 
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i don't know about cnn, but when the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the secretary of state and the assistant to (temporary) house speaker nancy pelosi speak about "national security," it's not really WAR they're referencing

our national security these days is under severe strain from several sources less blatantly bellicose, sorry to say

Care to go further in depth?
 
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