3 ms·
And it repeats this trope about the US manufacturing industry being "decimated." The US is manufacturing more stuff than ever before. His evidence is that US
by danielweber 12y ago
And it repeats this trope about the US manufacturing industry being "decimated." The US is manufacturing more stuff than ever before.
His evidence is that US manufacturing is only 13% of GDP, where it is 21% of GDP in Germany.
Well, percent-of-GDP is, by definition, a zero-sum game. There are only 100 percentage points to go around. What other industry has been "decimated" in Germany by those 8 percentage points going into manufacturing?
This is HBR's "blog network." Can any Harvard Business student make an equivalent entry, or is there some kind of editorial control here?
- netcan 12y agoDan Breznitz holds the Munk Chair of Innovation Studies and is a codirector of the Innovation Policy Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. That's why this soft headedness is infuriating.
- darkmighty 12y agoYou're picking a strange point. Relative decline, in %GDP, does mean a decline in importance in manufacturing. It's well known that US manufacturing is down for the last few decades and Germany is indeed an outlier among western countries in that manufacturing has retained relative economical importance.
- michael_h 12y agoIt's well known that US manufacturing is down manufacturing employment is down.
- danielweber 12y agoI don't know about "importance," since it seems like a value judgement, or an equivocation to use the word in two different senses at the same time. Agriculture is less than 2% of American GDP but no one starves for lack of food. The US doesn't need to pour more resources into making food more "important." The US really is manufacturing more stuff than ever. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OyF5jxwDPa4/T7b90wKmj5I/AAAAAAAARnI/mJhmTS_Ckw0/s1600/mfg2.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OyF5jxwDPa4/T7b90wKmj5I/AAAAAAAARn... Manufacturing is high-beta relative to GDP, so trying to increase its percentage of GDP would increase overall volatility.