Why Are Politicians So Obsessed with
Manufacturing? By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM
Related:
WHY WE PINE FOR MANUFACTURING by Gary
Sernovitz
Sernovitz notes:
“Such emotional, political, and even existential
attachment to manufacturing is strange, however. Manufacturing employs less
than nine per cent of America’s workers, and other American industries are
flourishing, here and abroad. Ask a Chinese amusement-park owner competing
against the new Shanghai Disney Resort, a French taxi driver protesting Uber’s
incursions into Paris, a Saudi prince fighting for market share against Texas
shale, or an Indian scientist dreaming of Harvard, and they will tell you a
story of American entertainment, technology, energy, agribusiness, aerospace,
military, and research in ascendancy. Indeed, since the global financial
crisis, the entire U.S. economy, as slow-growing as it is, has been the envy of
the developed world. But here in the U.S., we seem to ignore these other
sectors in our constant cultural bemoaning of the decline of manufacturing.
Manufacturing is like the Bible’s prodigal son—the wayward child that earns his
father’s enthusiastic embrace even as the good child, seemingly unrecognized,
dutifully succeeds.”
Who Needs Factories Anyway? By Michael
Schuman
“Contrary to popular belief, the “loss” of
manufacturing jobs in the U.S. hasn’t dealt that big of a blow to overall
employment. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of
workers employed in manufacturing has declined by 5.3 million over the past 30
years. That may sound like a lot, until you realize that there are 151 million
people employed in the U.S. at the moment. Even if those 5.3 million positions
were lost today, instead of over three decades, it would affect only 3.5
percent of American workers. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy has done fairly well
at creating other jobs. The number of Americans employed in the private service
sector has increased by 43 million over the same 30-year time period.”
Manufacturing sector employment has been declining
worldwide:
“Manufacturing jobs are on the decline in factories
around the world.
“The observation is uncontroversial,” said Joseph
Stiglitz, the Nobel-winning economist at Columbia University. “Global
employment in manufacturing is going down because productivity increases are
exceeding increases in demand for manufactured products by a significant
amount.””
Premature Deindustrialization:
http://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2015/11/africa-and-premature-deindustrialization.html