The question no one is asking: SHOULD there be manufacturing in the US?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There should be manufacturing, absolutely, but it should be for things critical to the country as evidenced by shortages due to supply chain issues related to COVID and to things where it simply makes economic sense to produce in country. Shoes are not something that requires a skilled workforce and doesn't pay a lot because consumers demand lower prices, and as such, no need to onshore those jobs, for example.

It isn't critical until it is. If a producer starts squeezing us because they have leverage or a war breaks out, of course you want to have some manufacturing stateside.

Do you ever see beyond the end of your nose? Did you see what Russia did to Europe with heating oil and gas sales and what we went thru with the Arab oil embargo of the 70's?

Do you think the lithium and other materials and components for batteries for your EV comes from Detroit or Los Angeles? Well no, it doesn't.

Where the hell do you think the plastic dashboard for your car comes from? Petroleum.

Why does everything have to be "critical" with shortages before you act? Do you take in to consideration the ramp up time to produce once it becomes critical?

People on DCUM are so short-sighted, stupid and long-term self destructive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This might take the crown for dumbest New Topic ever.

Why? I think it's worth considering.

[Anonymous]

How will companies afford to build factories here? Where will the capital come from?

Will there be enough skilled labor here in the U.S.?

What will the work practices be like? There is a huge gap between what is acceptable in the US vs Asian countries like China and Taiwan:

https://www.emsnow.com/tsmc-arizona-struggles-to-overcome-vast-differences-between-taiwanese-and-us-work-culture/

How long will it take for the factories to churn out goods? Doesn’t it take years to build a factory and make it a success?

Where will these factories be located?

Which towns will be willing to absorb the pollution, contamination and any other externalities resulting from factories?

Goods will be more expensive if made in the United States. For goods that aren’t essential, isn’t it likely that American companies that rely on the foreign supply chain will simply go out of business?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There should be manufacturing, absolutely, but it should be for things critical to the country as evidenced by shortages due to supply chain issues related to COVID and to things where it simply makes economic sense to produce in country. Shoes are not something that requires a skilled workforce and doesn't pay a lot because consumers demand lower prices, and as such, no need to onshore those jobs, for example.

Like toilet paper? Heck TP is made in the good old USA and we couldn’t even get that one right! People were using copies of the post just like our great GPs used back in the day.

Leave the manufacturing to the pros.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:self sufficency
quality control
better polution standards in US than overseas
Strengthening the US
Price

Is this question that stupid? Its like you're 18 and have never been in the real world. Producing our goods overseas isnt better than producing goods in the US.

I question the education of people here

We DON'T manufacture. No one wants those jobs. And I grew up in the rust belt where factory work was where all my uneducated (in an academic sense) ancestors worked. Those factories are no longer there and they all transitioned to other jobs.

Further, this is a GLOBAL economy. The idea that any nation can be as isolationist as Trump is being right now is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There should be manufacturing, absolutely, but it should be for things critical to the country as evidenced by shortages due to supply chain issues related to COVID and to things where it simply makes economic sense to produce in country. Shoes are not something that requires a skilled workforce and doesn't pay a lot because consumers demand lower prices, and as such, no need to onshore those jobs, for example.

Like toilet paper? Heck TP is made in the good old USA and we couldn’t even get that one right! People were using copies of the post just like our great GPs used back in the day.

Leave the manufacturing to the pros.

There was never a toilet paper shortage. The toilet paper was boarded and stockpiled in the garages of idiots and (ironically) aholes.

[Anonymous]

I genuinely don't understand what problem we're trying to solve for with bringing manufacturing back to the US.

Middle class jobs. Why can't people pivot to new expanding fields? If it's a problem with education, we can fix that instead.

Supply chain. What was wrong exactly? We made it through covid more or less intact.

Reliance on other countries. Also what's wrong with how things have been going? Do people really look back on the past several decades and think "I wish we were less reliant on every single country?" Can we be more targeted or specific?

Cost. Um, clearly this isn't going to lower costs for anyone on anything.

Quality control. Not understanding this argument either. Don't buy cheap crap from China if you don't want things breaking. You can pay more for higher quality now. You'll be forced to pay more in the future with tariffs (and I have little faith that quality will be better).

What else is there?

[Anonymous]

We should probably have more manufacturing in the US than we do right now. But some stuff - no way. The garment industry chief among them. It’s difficult, creates a lot of pollution, dangerous, and pays poorly.

And of the manufacturing we do have, like the auto industry … well, the final product is assembled at a plant in the US, but the individual pieces of the car come from all over. Even if we bought a clothing factory or 5 to the US from Bangladesh or Vietnam or what have you, where is the fabric made? Where is the cotton grown and processed? Everything is inter connected in the worldwide supply chain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I genuinely don't understand what problem we're trying to solve for with bringing manufacturing back to the US.

Middle class jobs. Why can't people pivot to new expanding fields? If it's a problem with education, we can fix that instead.

Supply chain. What was wrong exactly? We made it through covid more or less intact.

Reliance on other countries. Also what's wrong with how things have been going? Do people really look back on the past several decades and think "I wish we were less reliant on every single country?" Can we be more targeted or specific?

Cost. Um, clearly this isn't going to lower costs for anyone on anything.

Quality control. Not understanding this argument either. Don't buy cheap crap from China if you don't want things breaking. You can pay more for higher quality now. You'll be forced to pay more in the future with tariffs (and I have little faith that quality will be better).

What else is there?

I would disagree that COVID did not raise some important issues about the supply chain and reliance on other countries. I would agree with others that pharmaceuticals need to be made here, and PPE for hospitals needs to be made here and be plentiful if it's needed.

In addition, there is the matter of intellectual property protection. We need to be much more careful about who has access to our intellectual property. Offshoring has resulted in WAY too many of our critical technology designs and processes ending up in countries like China, and they've been able to duplicate them and sell them to others. Even items like pizza ovens include critical technologies that, if in the wrong hands, could help our rivals, either economic or strategic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:self sufficency
quality control
better polution standards in US than overseas
Strengthening the US
Price

Is this question that stupid? Its like you're 18 and have never been in the real world. Producing our goods overseas isnt better than producing goods in the US.

I question the education of people here

We DON'T manufacture. No one wants those jobs. And I grew up in the rust belt where factory work was where all my uneducated (in an academic sense) ancestors worked. Those factories are no longer there and they all transitioned to other jobs.

Further, this is a GLOBAL economy. The idea that any nation can be as isolationist as Trump is being right now is ridiculous.

He really seems stuck in 1987 or so, when Japan was buying up U.S. real estate and flooding the U.S. market with its products. The economy is completely different now.

[Anonymous]

Without a living wage, no one is going to be doing any of these manufacturing jobs. I doubt any of these companies are going to offer a pension and I doubt a family of four will not be able to live off of a line worker's income like they did in the '50s. No matter how badly you want it, America will not be back in the '50s. I would love to be able to vacation and have a single family home in a suburb and our children in a great school and me stay home all day with just my husband's job as a line worker working 40 hours a week. But honey that ain't going to happen

[Anonymous]

Well, we got rid of cancer research just in time for corporations in manufacturers to start building huge plants that pollute the groundwater the soil and the air!!! I am so glad we are great again

[Anonymous]

IMO bigger question I have is what SHOULD urbanites do to make themselves useful.

I know the US is particularly good at producing food. It only takes like two percent of the population to make way more than we need. However, what are the rest of the economy supposed to be doing? I really don't see it. Finance? iPhones or EV, we can get those from China.

[Anonymous]

economic security is national security.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This might take the crown for dumbest New Topic ever.

Yes. Do you work in a factory? Do your kids work or plan to work in a factory?

NP- Is your point that you think if someone doesn't personally want to do a job, then they should be against the job existing in the US?