A commenter in the original article said it better than anyone: "We don't get to qualify as a manufacturing giant just because the defense department gets sucke

A commenter in the original article said it better than anyone: "We don't get to qualify as a manufacturing giant just because the defense department gets suckered into paying billions of dollars for a fancy piece of equipment that is built by a small number of folks in a few isolated pockets of the country." Then again, the numbers (that seem to be incorrect, go check the commments in the original) are however about the money it is made from the manufacturing. Then this is even more worrisome for USA, because that would mean that China has been growing steadily at 9-10 per cent each year, while USA makes MORE money from manufacturing but all it does is barely grow, and produce the biggest debt the world has ever seen.