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The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

fortune.com

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Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#51

Post by bandrami »

reallydontask wrote: post #48
bandrami wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did it not happen? Even poor people today have objectively much better living standards than rich people 100 years ago.

Please explain what you mean by: poor people today, rich people 100 years ago, living standards. hard to argue with your statement, one way or another, if those aren't clearly defined.

Since I'm not interested in arguing about it I'm not particularly motivated to define it clearly. But good examples are life expectancy, physical pain relief, availability of the entire sum of human knowledge through a small glass and metal rectangle that fits in your pocket, likelihood of living in a democratic country, likelihood of avoiding a violent death, etc.

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#52

Post by brightball »

hacknat wrote: post #38
throwaway2016a wrote: post #7

I haven't been myself but my wife is a process engineer and had to go to China to install and train people on a new machine so this is only second hand... But one of the reasons China is so good at manufacturing is because everything is in one place (or at least clusters)... need 10,000 of an Integrated Circuit? The company that makes it is literally down the street. Need some raw materials? That's down the other str…

> Although I hope it is true. I don't know if being a manufacturing powerhouse is actually all that exciting anymore. There aren't really that many jobs in manufacturing anymore. Some of Toyota's modern car plants employ a meager 1500 people which is about and order of magnitude decrease from what car plants used to employ. This las election was frustrating for this very reason everybody assumes getting manufacturing…

One of the big perks to manufacturing is that it draws the entire supply chain around it naturally. Even if the manufacturing job itself isn't as abundant, the peripheral jobs that comes with it from shipping materials, producing materials, distribution, sales agreements, logistics, building construction and maintenance...they all provide benefits.

With the manufacturing hub overseas all of that's overseas too, which is why China is more vertically integrated.

If I recall, one of the major reasons that Dell took off years ago was that they consolidated the entire supply chain for production and significantly increased profit margins.

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#53

Post by maxerickson »

ams6110 wrote: post #50
maxerickson wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people buy vehicles that depreciate like mad because they believe the total value of the purchase exceeds the total cost. I'm not necessarily saying that prices should have significant downward trajectory. Of course desirable locations will command a premium over time and so on. But as a society we probably shouldn't be excited that housing sometimes goes up substantially, even as the stock deteriorates.

Vehicles are a consumable, not an investment. Land is generally not, because most uses increase its value.

Yes, but I'm talking about housing rather than land.

Most housing suffers from use and age.

(Note where I conceded the point about some land having value due to location or such)

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#54

Post by brightball »

scottm84 wrote: post #24
throwaway2016a wrote: post #7

I haven't been myself but my wife is a process engineer and had to go to China to install and train people on a new machine so this is only second hand... But one of the reasons China is so good at manufacturing is because everything is in one place (or at least clusters)... need 10,000 of an Integrated Circuit? The company that makes it is literally down the street. Need some raw materials? That's down the other str…

Seattle is this way. Washington state has an airplane factory in the woods and a car fiber (BMW) plant out in the desert. In the city you can find businesses to build anything.

That's interesting to hear. In South Carolina we've got BMW in the Greenville area and Boeing in Charleston. The Greenville area itself virtually imploded 30 years ago with the textile industry and BMW has largely driven the recovery. Now it's one of the best places to live in the state.

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#56

Post by SEJeff »

throwaway2016a wrote: post #7

I haven't been myself but my wife is a process engineer and had to go to China to install and train people on a new machine so this is only second hand... But one of the reasons China is so good at manufacturing is because everything is in one place (or at least clusters)... need 10,000 of an Integrated Circuit? The company that makes it is literally down the street. Need some raw materials? That's down the other str…

Well see "Musk Enterprises" (aka SpaceX and Tesla) for the new American idea of vertical integration. He's trying to literally own the entire supply chain from the bottom to the distribution of the finished goods at the top.

Re: The U.S. Will Surpass China as the No. 1 Country for Manufacturing by 2020

#60

Post by mistermann »

bandrami wrote: post #49
losteric wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a well founded myth based on an extremely high percentage of consumer goods produced overseas. I can't find hard data on this, but anecdotally it's very hard to find things made in the US unless it's a high end store. Chinese manufacturing filled the burst in consumer demand for budget-level products...

True, but that's a relatively small part of the economy to begin with. We make most of the heavy plant in the world, so we're essentially building the factories China uses to make the plastic crap we buy.

How might one know the truth about this, what could I read?
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