US manufacturing still tops China’s by nearly 46 percent

Post by nostrademons » Mon, Feb 07, 2011, 3:59 AM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #41

nostrademons wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Engineers do fine. It's the line workers in factories and people in service jobs that have gotten screwed. It used to be that you could make a steady middle-class income as a factory worker, airline stewardess, or retail clerk. Not so much now. Tradespeople and professionals have done okay because they have marketable skills that accrue to their person, but people whose only assets are owned by their employers haven'…

It used to be that you could make a steady middle-class income as a factory worker, airline stewardess, or retail clerk. Not so much now. If you truly believe this, can you tell me what good or service the factory worker/retail clerk had back then, but lacks today?

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Feb 07, 2011, 4:06 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #25

rdouble wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tradespeople do fine in areas where the economy is good. They are still highly paid and unionized. My friend welds staircases in the Bay Area and gets paid more than most programmers. Is there really a case where an electrician or pipe fitter today makes a lower wage than they did in 1970? If anyone's salaries in the USA have remained stagnant or dropped, it's the average engineer.

Engineers do fine. It's the line workers in factories and people in service jobs that have gotten screwed. It used to be that you could make a steady middle-class income as a factory worker, airline stewardess, or retail clerk. Not so much now. Tradespeople and professionals have done okay because they have marketable skills that accrue to their person, but people whose only assets are owned by their employers haven'…

Post by gscott » Mon, Feb 07, 2011, 4:09 AM UTC

uytrhyujkujhy wrote: post #28

gscott wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And many of those components going into these products come from elsewhere. A manufacturing company I worked with bought parts from all over the world and had few US parts. When I tried to increase the number of parts they were using from the US they said good luck and I failed because nothing was available and no one wanted to make what I wanted (for example I wanted 1,000 metal tubes bent, to make them into legs...…

From a macro economic point of view it doesn't matter If your stealth bomber uses $100 parts made in the USA or $10 parts from china with the difference going in the CEOs bonus - doesn't make any difference when the taxpayer is billed $1000

Post by yummyfajitas » Mon, Feb 07, 2011, 4:23 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #42

yummyfajitas wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It used to be that you could make a steady middle-class income as a factory worker, airline stewardess, or retail clerk. Not so much now. If you truly believe this, can you tell me what good or service the factory worker/retail clerk had back then, but lacks today?

Health insurance.

Post by jacques_chester » Mon, Feb 07, 2011, 4:37 AM UTC

hartror wrote: post #12

3pt14159 wrote: post #6

While it is true that North America still manufactures great quantities of luxury and high tech stuff, that isn't what is pissing off the populists. They couldn't care less if our manufacturing doubled in terms of dollars of output. What they really want is a return to the highly paid, unionized, tradesperson. To them robots making Chevy trucks matters just as much to their lives as nerds writing software. As product…

It depends on the economy, Australian tradespeople make the same if not more than good coders right now. We're growing so fast the demand for those skills is high and shows no signs of dropping off.