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America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

molsonhart.com

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Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#81

Post by itake »

imbusy111 wrote: post #48
mppm wrote: post #34

Jonathan Blow's "Preventing the collapse of civilization" [1] makes a similar point. It is easy to assume that, if we can build EUV machines and space telescopes, then processing stainless steel and manufacturing PCBs is baby stuff, and is just waiting for the proper incentives to spring up again. Unfortunately that is not the case -- reality has a surprising amount of detail [2] and even medium-level technology take…

But the important question is - is it worth it? Should we be doing something more valuable instead?

IMHO, with the Big Tech boom winding down, what is more valuable for us to do? Manufacturing could prepare us for the next wave, whatever that might be.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#82

Post by knowaveragejoe »

lenerdenator wrote: post #51

America? No. The shareholder class underestimates it. A lot of Americans realize that it's going to be hard, which is why we should have made an example out of the first guy to profit off of sending manufacturing off to the shores of a geopolitical rival.

Americans also have more free time and disposable income because of that decision, among others. Why would you want them to struggle more?

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#83

Post by nonethewiser »

csense wrote: post #46

There are plenty of people saying these tariffs will not work. But a person used to be able to graduate high school and get a job that could support a house with a yard, a car, a non-working spouse and children. How we get that level of prosperity back? That's the people really want. Tariffs are simply a means to that end. I wish people would stop writing articles about 100% criticizing tariffs and instead write arti…

I think it's a complicated equation and there may be room for some strategic tariffs, de-regulation, anti-dumping, competing more on manufacturing etc. But the time you're talking about? Almost the entire world's industrial capacity was decimated other than the US.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#84

Post by tokioyoyo »

pjc50 wrote: post #35

> China generates over twice as much electricity per person today as the United States. Why? This appears to be completely wrong? All the stats I can find say that the US has about 4x the per capita electricity generation of China. Other than that it seems to be mostly good points, especially the overall one: you cannot do this overnight. > If you’re building a new factory in the United States, your investment will a…

Once again, want to point out how this is simply American leadership not wanting to accept their loss and move on. For the first time in the history they're not being perceived as the "global leader", and that's not acceptable from their POV. Now it's just freaking out and hoping that some extreme policy changes will change the course. From my personal experience, most people act this way when they're in distress and can't think ahead because of all the externalities.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#86

Post by knowaveragejoe »

digianarchist wrote: post #49
PaulKeeble wrote: post #9

Its the integration and overall combined effect of the entire industrial pipeline that makes China so incredible. It processes all the raw materials and the recycling/reuse of off cuts through every possible way to turn those raw materials into components and then into goods with very little need for import from other countries. Its the complete system for a huge variety of goods. To compete with that the entire pipe…

Absolutely. Canada for example should not be shipping lumber and oil to the United States for further refinement. It should be processed domestically.

Why would that be better? Comparative advantage is real.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#88

Post by abcde777 »

vFunct wrote: post #7

Our economy was designed to NOT have citizens work at factories. We pay thousands of dollars a year in our public schools to teach each of our citizens calculus, literature, world history, and physics, so that they DON'T have to work at a factory, or perform manual labor like picking strawberries or driving trucks or cleaning toilets. Why would anyone want to go back to an economy that can be run by a third worlders?…

The idea that everyone can just do knowledge work is pretty unrealistic, to put it mildly.

Re: America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back

#89

Post by FirmwareBurner »

rkozik1989 wrote: post #63
vishnugupta wrote: post #19

No kidding! Beyond the obvious skilled labor there’s supply chain network, maintenance, townships and supporting system around them. And all of this needs human labor which is taken from somewhere else. How do you incentivize them? Just throwing money at the problem won’t solve it either. Because more often than not it’ll attract charlatans who will promise the sky, take the money and move away.

Americans have a very 1980s idea of manufacturing (and China in general) in that there aren't actually that many humans being used in Chinese factories let alone the American ones some of them want to build here. There's even a concept of, "Dark Factories" in China which are 100% automated factories that operate in the dark. The only jobs that will come from bringing manufacturing back to the states will be in automa…

>The only jobs that will come from bringing manufacturing back to the states will be in automation, robotics, AI, and roles to support those things.

You're saying it like it's a bad thing.

Wouldn't it be better we have automation in the west, instead of sweat shops in the east?

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