We CAN attract and keep manufacturing here. Not all of it, but much of it.

Of course we CAN.  If manufacturing  becomes more competitive and can give the manufacturers the same advantages they have when they take their manufactiring overseas. (They don't do it just to screw the American workers.)

But the advantages of manufacturing overseas are so great that it won't be easy to overcome.

American workers should learn more sophisticated ways of making a living.  Manufacturing can be  done by less developped  economies. Even the Chinese are now farming out some manufacturing to Vietnam and other  less developped economies.

  After the war, the Japanese were making cheap toys and other trinkets.  They became more educated and  skillful  and now they have the toys done overseas by people willing to work for less.

Apr 23, 2012 -- 10:28AM, Erey wrote:

But yes, like how in generations past young men were glad to shuck off the farms in favor of the factories.  The young of today want to shuck off the factories in favor of the service economy.  Would you rather weld large equipment or work in an office as a LAN administrator?

I was a suit for a few years after college but I couldn't stand it and went back to the machinist trade my father taught me.  So yes, I'll take the welding job anytime.

The fact is that manufacturing is coming on strong in this country but because of automated systems, manufacturing employment has probably already peaked, just as with agriculture in the 19th century.

 Those factory jobs that were lost in the recession aren't ever coming back.

Apr 23, 2012 -- 11:03AM, SecondSonOfDavid wrote:

As others have observed, not all manufacturing is a good thing.  Textiles and assembly-line factories work best in countries with low-cost labor and a second-wave economy (cf Toffler).  First-world nations do best creating strategic products (like advanced particle-fiber ceramics for aircraft wings or super-conducting materials), and coordinating competitive advantage with resource strengths.  The United States, for example, should export Natural Gas and build refineries to take advantage of domestic petroleum fields.

The media and government are frankly useless in any discussion of national; strategic goals, as historically new technology is driven by demand and practicality, two factors commonly ignored by the news and Congress.

New technology is is driven by technical knowlege--not even superficially grasped by most of the suits who run government and the media.

Here is another article on the subject you guys should find interesting

www.economist.com/node/21553017

This is titled "The Third Industrial Revolution"

It talks about why labor costs are not nearly as important as they used to be for many industries.

 Some carmakers already produce twice as many vehicles per employee as they did only a decade or so ago. Most jobs will not be on the factory floor but in the offices nearby, which will be full of designers, engineers, IT specialists, logistics experts, marketing staff and other professionals. The manufacturing jobs of the future will require more skills. Many dull, repetitive tasks will become obsolete: you no longer need riveters when a product has no rivets.

The revolution will affect not only how things are made, but where. Factories used to move to low-wage countries to curb labour costs. But labour costs are growing less and less important: a $499 first-generation iPad included only about $33 of manufacturing labour, of which the final assembly in China accounted for just $8. Offshore production is increasingly moving back to rich countries not because Chinese wages are rising, but because companies now want to be closer to their customers so that they can respond more quickly to changes in demand. And some products are so sophisticated that it helps to have the people who design them and the people who make them in the same place. The Boston Consulting Group reckons that in areas such as transport, computers, fabricated metals and machinery, 10-30% of the goods that America now imports from China could be made at home by 2020, boosting American output by $20 billion-55 billion a year.

Apr 24, 2012 -- 11:32AM, SecondSonOfDavid wrote:

Let's keep Say's Law in mind.  That is, there seem to be people who still believe in Say's Law, that if someone manufactures in the U.S., there wil be demand for the product.

To survive, any business has to have one of three advantages:  It must offer the lowest price, the best quality, or have attractive features no one else offers.  It's sadly amazing how many business owners seem to think they can succeed just by puttting out a product. 

good observation