The article is hypocritical. On the one hand, it said that weaponizing environmental laws was bad. Yet later on in the article, it celebrates weaponizing the laws when it has the effect of stopping projects the authors were against, namely highways and the Keystone project. So typical of the times we live in and so not self aware.
America is a victim of its own success. The market is so primed with sales, management and arbitrage opportunities that young minds are hard pressed to take on those roles instead of building. Notable exceptions are high tech enterprises, where proven paths to scale are commonplace and provide attractive returns for many.
The typical builder class is better off importing, subcontracting or outsourcing key value add operations. This creates several vacumms: local talent, cheap infrastructure (since decreased consumers increase prices) and, finally, weaker supplier networks.
Over time, these loops combine and grow, making it harder and harder for companies to compete. Incumbents exit the market unless governments step in and provide incentives that either offset externalities or reduce operations costs for corporations. As an example please check this article about the Mac Pro production in America: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/23/tech/apple-mac-pro-united-sta...
Or at least, we did a few months ago. We seem to be hitting a recession this year specifically but our GDP from manufacturing is better today than from the 2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, etc etc.
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While other counties struggled to get COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing, US companies mass produced highly effective next-generation MRNA vaccines thanks to a combination of supercomputer analysis, genetic analysis/sequencing, and high end health care testing in record time.
Then the formula was mass produced, largely in USA (though requiring lots of supplies from Europe).
We are making things, we are making new useful better things, etc etc. It's less gloom and more hope if you actually look at the numbers.
I believe Boeing alone accounts for something like 10% of manufacturing GDP (no link handy, but at one point Boeing was reported to account for 1% of total GDP).
In any event, the reason people are convinced that we don't build anything is partly a consequence of the fact that so few Americans participate in the manufacturing economy; and of course partly a consequence of the fact that so many durable goods used in daily life are imported.
[1] I can't actually dispute "more things" as I'm not sure what we're measuring. I suppose it's possible some industries have become super efficient at pumping out some cheap products (e.g. paper cups) and could pad the numbers if we counted number of individual items made or exported, but that doesn't seem to be in the spirit of things. I believe the U.S. does have a brisk trade in specialty parts, though. Lots of boutique firms doing light manufacturing, AFAIU, helping to buoy employment in some places.
A country where the people who by necessity must work to survive, draws from a much wider percentage of the populace those who have the ability to engender an entrepreneur culture... It's very easy in the USA to live off free government dole and so that enormous portion of the populace is effectively unmotivated to work at anything.... and I quote : "The only way anyone can have a right to something that has to be produced is to force someone else to produce it for him. The more things are provided as rights, the less the recipients have to work and the more others have to carry their load."
I had some co-workers quit because they did just fine without working (eg free housing). Some families are sticking with 1 income or 1.5 income earners after COVID19; they want to raise their own kids. Also, teens don't work at fast food joints & small companies like they used to to save up for collage or get their 1st car.
Unemployment rate only looks at those 'looking for work'. Those who 'drop out of the labor force' are hard to account for.
The thinking that somewhat intact nature is "undeveloped wilderness" is what is wrong with some of us. This wilderness really needs some development, a golf course for example...
I have long thought that western countries won't get serious about the developing multifactor environmental/natural resource crisis (that climate change makes worse) until the 2030s.
We'll know they're serious when Eminent Domain/Public Works laws have been strengthened and are routinely used to forestall dissent.
19 comments
[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 53.3 ms ] threadThe typical builder class is better off importing, subcontracting or outsourcing key value add operations. This creates several vacumms: local talent, cheap infrastructure (since decreased consumers increase prices) and, finally, weaker supplier networks.
Over time, these loops combine and grow, making it harder and harder for companies to compete. Incumbents exit the market unless governments step in and provide incentives that either offset externalities or reduce operations costs for corporations. As an example please check this article about the Mac Pro production in America: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/23/tech/apple-mac-pro-united-sta...
Or at least, we did a few months ago. We seem to be hitting a recession this year specifically but our GDP from manufacturing is better today than from the 2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, etc etc.
------
While other counties struggled to get COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing, US companies mass produced highly effective next-generation MRNA vaccines thanks to a combination of supercomputer analysis, genetic analysis/sequencing, and high end health care testing in record time.
Then the formula was mass produced, largely in USA (though requiring lots of supplies from Europe).
We are making things, we are making new useful better things, etc etc. It's less gloom and more hope if you actually look at the numbers.
Higher valuation != "more things".[1] Our manufacturing has shifted toward high-value products, which is typical for advanced economies. Manufacturing's share of GDP has remained roughly steady: https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2017/april/us-manu... But the share of manufacturing employment has dropped from 1/3 (33% circa 1950) of the population to about 10% (circa 2019). See earlier link as well as https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-9/forty-years-of-falling...
I believe Boeing alone accounts for something like 10% of manufacturing GDP (no link handy, but at one point Boeing was reported to account for 1% of total GDP). In any event, the reason people are convinced that we don't build anything is partly a consequence of the fact that so few Americans participate in the manufacturing economy; and of course partly a consequence of the fact that so many durable goods used in daily life are imported.
[1] I can't actually dispute "more things" as I'm not sure what we're measuring. I suppose it's possible some industries have become super efficient at pumping out some cheap products (e.g. paper cups) and could pad the numbers if we counted number of individual items made or exported, but that doesn't seem to be in the spirit of things. I believe the U.S. does have a brisk trade in specialty parts, though. Lots of boutique firms doing light manufacturing, AFAIU, helping to buoy employment in some places.
Thomas Sowell
What percentage?
Unemployment rate only looks at those 'looking for work'. Those who 'drop out of the labor force' are hard to account for.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/100615/4-cou...
It's tough to compare a pound of rice to a pound of corn in how useful they are. But by price we're #3, and on a per-capita basis, likely #1.
I know farming isn't "building things", but lets not pretend it doesn't count as producing something. We're also the #3 exporter of oil worldwide.
Other exports: Mineral fuels including oil: US$239.8 billion (13.7% of total exports) Machinery including computers: $209.3 billion (11.9%) Electrical machinery, equipment: $185.4 billion (10.6%) Vehicles: $122.2 billion (7%) Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $91.7 billion (5.2%) Aircraft, spacecraft: $89.1 billion (5.1%) Gems, precious metals: $82.3 billion (4.7%) Pharmaceuticals: $78 billion (4.4%) Plastics, plastic articles: $74.3 billion (4.2%) Organic chemicals: $42.9 billion (2.4%)
We'll know they're serious when Eminent Domain/Public Works laws have been strengthened and are routinely used to forestall dissent.