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This is a common myth. US is still the largest manufacturer in the world. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/the-myth-of-us-industrys-

This is a common myth. US is still the largest manufacturer in the world. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/the-myth-of-us-industrys-demise.aspx http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/...

anigbrowl 17y ago
By volume, yes, but perhaps that's not the best metric. See http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15641021 http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?sto... for a more meaningful comparison, although I agree that rumors of the manufacturing sector's demise have been greatly exaggerated.
- enjo 17y ago
  I'm having trouble finding the chart, but we're also the largest in terms of percentage of GDP. That's a measurement I strongly prefer.
  - mpf62 17y ago
    According to CIA World Factbook, you're not the largest in terms of percentage of GDP. At least Germany, Japan, Italy and even Switzerland rank better in that metric. All of these single-metric comparisons are flawed. E.g. the world largest manufacturer? In comparison to what? Germany, a country with a labor force that is over 3 times smaller than the labor force in the US? https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
potatolicious 17y ago
It is, but for how much longer? When I was in the auto industry it certainly looked very bleak - I've since lost touch with most of the people from that time, but I doubt it's looking up now either. One of our chief problems when I was working in the auto supplier industry was relentless cost cutting on the part of the major manufacturers (GM was especially bad in this department) - and from what we knew GM certainly wasn't pocketing the difference, all of the cost cutting went directly into hyper-competitive consumer pricing. As a result our cars are dirt, dirt cheap, unsustainably so, especially if your goal is to keep manufacturing jobs on this side of the ocean. But it's not as if people know this - especially the type like the author of the article, who like to play the victim constantly by making vague straw-man references to the greedy corporation. I cannot count the number of times I've heard people make the point that some product "probably costs nothing to make anyways" - and it bothers me greatly. For just about everything except the high fashion industry, manufacturing costs are not that far divorced from their retail cost... but consumers who believe this hogwash are also liable to believe that outsourcing is due to rampant greed, as opposed to their unquenchable desire for cheap crap.
robryan 17y ago
A lot of the manual labor is taken out though, if my factory is pushing out same 10,000 units of something a day with 25 employees mostly keeping a close eye on the equipment, the other 200 assemblers I would have hired before advances in technology are still out in the cold.

anigbrowl 17y ago

By volume, yes, but perhaps that's not the best metric. See http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15641021 http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?sto... for a more meaningful comparison, although I agree that rumors of the manufacturing sector's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

enjo 17y ago
I'm having trouble finding the chart, but we're also the largest in terms of percentage of GDP. That's a measurement I strongly prefer.
- mpf62 17y ago
  According to CIA World Factbook, you're not the largest in terms of percentage of GDP. At least Germany, Japan, Italy and even Switzerland rank better in that metric. All of these single-metric comparisons are flawed. E.g. the world largest manufacturer? In comparison to what? Germany, a country with a labor force that is over 3 times smaller than the labor force in the US? https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

potatolicious 17y ago

It is, but for how much longer? When I was in the auto industry it certainly looked very bleak - I've since lost touch with most of the people from that time, but I doubt it's looking up now either. One of our chief problems when I was working in the auto supplier industry was relentless cost cutting on the part of the major manufacturers (GM was especially bad in this department) - and from what we knew GM certainly wasn't pocketing the difference, all of the cost cutting went directly into hyper-competitive consumer pricing. As a result our cars are dirt, dirt cheap, unsustainably so, especially if your goal is to keep manufacturing jobs on this side of the ocean. But it's not as if people know this - especially the type like the author of the article, who like to play the victim constantly by making vague straw-man references to the greedy corporation. I cannot count the number of times I've heard people make the point that some product "probably costs nothing to make anyways" - and it bothers me greatly. For just about everything except the high fashion industry, manufacturing costs are not that far divorced from their retail cost... but consumers who believe this hogwash are also liable to believe that outsourcing is due to rampant greed, as opposed to their unquenchable desire for cheap crap.

robryan 17y ago

A lot of the manual labor is taken out though, if my factory is pushing out same 10,000 units of something a day with 25 employees mostly keeping a close eye on the equipment, the other 200 assemblers I would have hired before advances in technology are still out in the cold.