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The US is building factories at a fast rate

businessinsider.com

21–30 of 309 posts

Re: The US is building factories at a fast rate

#21

Perhaps I'm just bad at economics, but it always seemed to me that the countries making all the stuff would eventually hold all the power (and I say this as someone working in tech who produces nothing tangible). The fact that it costs exorbitant amounts to construct new buildings, railways, etc. in the U.S. and how our cities almost look antiquated or frozen in time compared to Asian cities shows that we missed a ge…

Compared to A Tier cities in some Asian countries?

Does Santa Barbara or NYC really look antiquated compared to Mumbai? Or Da Nang? Or Fukuoka?

Maybe if you're trying to compare Detroit to Shenzhen or Tokyo.

Re: The US is building factories at a fast rate

#22
post #2

> The US has added around 800,000 jobs in manufacturing employment over the last two years, employing around 13 million workers It's too early to know, but if it turns out the solution to decades of economic misery for middle class blue collar workers was 1. 50% tariffs on China, and 2. $100B of subsidies to chip makers and green tech... The reversal of Reaganomics we're living through will become permanent for at le…

3. Fracking. Cheap, abundant energy which is uniquely close both to very educated labour pool and either the most navigable river basin in the world, or the ocean.

Saudi Arabia, Russia and other countries may have more oil than US, but it's too far from there places where it would be usable for manufacturing.

Re: The US is building factories at a fast rate

#23
post #2

> The US has added around 800,000 jobs in manufacturing employment over the last two years, employing around 13 million workers It's too early to know, but if it turns out the solution to decades of economic misery for middle class blue collar workers was 1. 50% tariffs on China, and 2. $100B of subsidies to chip makers and green tech... The reversal of Reaganomics we're living through will become permanent for at le…

>> "The reversal of Reaganomics"

March 28, 1987:

"President Reagan decided Friday to impose punitive 100% tariffs on a wide variety of goods produced by Japanese electronic giants in retaliation for Tokyo’s failure to abide by the semiconductor trade agreement between the two nations"

-- https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-28-mn-698-st...

That Reagan?

50% tariffs are rookie numbers.

Re: The US is building factories at a fast rate

#24
Nice.

China becomes less of a competitor on costs as wages rise there. Once the manufacturing wage differential gets into the 4:1 range, offshoring is less attractive. In the 2:1 range, offshoring starts to be a lose. That happened with Japan two decades ago.

Re: The US is building factories at a fast rate

#25
post #2

> The US has added around 800,000 jobs in manufacturing employment over the last two years, employing around 13 million workers It's too early to know, but if it turns out the solution to decades of economic misery for middle class blue collar workers was 1. 50% tariffs on China, and 2. $100B of subsidies to chip makers and green tech... The reversal of Reaganomics we're living through will become permanent for at le…

Maybe we shouldn’t consider this a success while subsidies are happening? We also gave $535 million to Solyndra to manufacture solar panels in 2009 and they imploded once our tax dollars stopped being funneled (as much) to them: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra The real test will be once they stop taking our taxes and handing it to businessmen if they can stand on their own merits. Until then this is charity…

Charity to one part of the private sector, paid for by all the other parts of the private sector.

Or more realistically, charity to one part of the private sector paid for by all of our great grandchildren.

Re: The US is building factories at a fast rate

#26
post #2

> The US has added around 800,000 jobs in manufacturing employment over the last two years, employing around 13 million workers It's too early to know, but if it turns out the solution to decades of economic misery for middle class blue collar workers was 1. 50% tariffs on China, and 2. $100B of subsidies to chip makers and green tech... The reversal of Reaganomics we're living through will become permanent for at le…

Maybe we shouldn’t consider this a success while subsidies are happening? We also gave $535 million to Solyndra to manufacture solar panels in 2009 and they imploded once our tax dollars stopped being funneled (as much) to them: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra The real test will be once they stop taking our taxes and handing it to businessmen if they can stand on their own merits. Until then this is charity…

Charity is when you get nothing in return. This is called industrial policy and this country was a lot better off when it had one.

Re: The US is building factories at a fast rate

#27

OK, now we need immigration reform to actually get enough people to work on everything.

I want to make sure americans have the first shot at the job but I also want to make sure that the USA does brain drain the rest of the world so that there is absolutely no way to compete with us.

I am all for immigration reform as long as it prioritizes americans heavily. This means no H1B abuse but with congress getting massive subsidies from H1B mills, I don't think this will happen.

Re: The US is building factories at a fast rate

#28
post #2

> The US has added around 800,000 jobs in manufacturing employment over the last two years, employing around 13 million workers It's too early to know, but if it turns out the solution to decades of economic misery for middle class blue collar workers was 1. 50% tariffs on China, and 2. $100B of subsidies to chip makers and green tech... The reversal of Reaganomics we're living through will become permanent for at le…

Maybe we shouldn’t consider this a success while subsidies are happening? We also gave $535 million to Solyndra to manufacture solar panels in 2009 and they imploded once our tax dollars stopped being funneled (as much) to them: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra The real test will be once they stop taking our taxes and handing it to businessmen if they can stand on their own merits. Until then this is charity…

This is the first time I've seen a non-politically motivated accusation that cutting off money had anything at all to do with their failure.

The tech reason was that they had a way to make thin film panels which was super promising for driving down costs due to a silicon shortage. But then Diamond based silicon tech emerged, eliminating the silicon shortage and reducing input materials, which outcompeted thin film on price.

Such is the way of innovation. Looking only at subsidies gives you a false picture.

Re: The US is building factories at a fast rate

#29

Perhaps I'm just bad at economics, but it always seemed to me that the countries making all the stuff would eventually hold all the power (and I say this as someone working in tech who produces nothing tangible). The fact that it costs exorbitant amounts to construct new buildings, railways, etc. in the U.S. and how our cities almost look antiquated or frozen in time compared to Asian cities shows that we missed a ge…

> and how our cities almost look antiquated or frozen in time compared to Asian cities shows that we missed a generation or two and probably need to catch back up now.

It takes 75+ years for a rebar building to reach end of life. The US just built up during earlier decades than many of those Asian cities. In another 30 - 50 years those antiquated buildings should start getting replaced.

Re: The US is building factories at a fast rate

#30
post #2

> The US has added around 800,000 jobs in manufacturing employment over the last two years, employing around 13 million workers It's too early to know, but if it turns out the solution to decades of economic misery for middle class blue collar workers was 1. 50% tariffs on China, and 2. $100B of subsidies to chip makers and green tech... The reversal of Reaganomics we're living through will become permanent for at le…

also Senator Dianne Feinstein's deceased husband Richard Blum, who personally built a fortune in China-> mfg outsourcing..
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