Does the U.S. need factories to be an economic power? (Take two)

[soulcougher73]

Wall street mentality is what's bringing this country down along with their bought and paid for politicians with the what have you done for me lately attitude not caring about this country past the next quarter stock report or election cycle.

This, all day every day.

 

[soulcougher73]

Does the U.S. need factories to be an economic power?

In a word: YES!

Now go tell Obama and the Liberal/Democrats. They need to know this.

Funny since Dems are usually pro union and unions usually work for manufacturing. Odd indeed. Oh wait..its you. NM troll away with your misinformation.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Everyone in the US can just go to college and become an executive, lawyer, or investor; you know the jobs that matter. That or they should be making 3 dollars an hour working at Wal-mart (damn that minimum wage for ruining our economy!)

 

[soulcougher73]

Everyone in the US can just go to college and become an executive, lawyer, or investor; you know the jobs that matter. That or they should be making 3 dollars an hour working at Wal-mart (damn that minimum wage for ruining our economy!)

Yeah lets flood the market with 100 million lawyers and executives. That will make everything better. Or is Starbucks finding it hard to hire qualified people?

 

[piasabird]

It is a good argument that the USA needs a manufacturing base. What happens during war when we are attacked and there is no way shipping of goods can be successful from our foreign suppliers. Also what happens when foreign suppliers cut us off during time of war?

The answer is we are on our own.

The USA should broaden its suppliers so we buy less from China, and more from south America and asia.

So what happens if some country blocks access to taiwan and China and no one can get computer parts? What if terrorists attack computer manufacturer/suppliers?

 

[dmcowen674]

Does the U.S. need factories to be an economic power? (Take two)
In previous days I've argued that having a strong industrial/manufacturing base isn’t as important to a nation as it once was. But lately I’ve wondered if a loss of that base has greater implications than we think.

I’m not a Jacobs devotee like many urban-minded Torontonians are, but I did think that this summation of her theory of “import replacement” is a very good explanation for why we may want manufacturing to stick around. A lot of her theories are very debatable and weak in evidence, but I think if nothing else it's a good starting point for discussion.

The Millions – Fifty Years On: Jane Jacobs and the Rebirth of New York

Back around 2000 to 2002 I said a country that doesn't make it's own stuff is no longer a country, that it is an island.

You guys said I was nuts and that is not going to happen here.

I may be nuts but it has certainly happened here thanks to Republicans and their CEO supporters

 

[werepossum]

No, we have moved beyond such primitive relics of the industrial era (error)...

Factories serve only to be modern slave fields that serve our corporate overlords. Not only do they look so ugly, like wind turbines, they also pollute the air and poison the water.

If we did not have these large sarcophagi on our shores, we could finally reduce our carbon footprint and return to a balance.

Think of it, large communal farms, every community growing what they consume locally with no need to put more poison in the air. With the proper organic farming techniques, these large communal farms would have minimal impact upon nature.

Once we ban For-Profit universities, we can use the money freed from federal student loans to send those who are unable to farm to college, so they can develop the next generation of green energy so that we might one day return to some of the "luxuries" that people enjoy that are unsustainable, such as air-conditioning.

Now if you excuse me, I must leave my middle-class accommodations for the day, and remove myself from my vast array of electronics for a while, put on my designer clothing and go protest about how bad life is and how "the man" is keeping me down.

LOL

IF we generated sufficient intellectual property and IF the rest of the world consumed (and paid for) this IP and IF we adopted a lifestyle where we didn't consume any more manufactured goods than were absolutely necessary, then theoretically we could survive without manufacturing. But in the real world, design ability follows manufacturing ability. It's no coincidence that China began manufacturing cheap motherboards and now designs virtually all of them, that's almost inevitable.

 

[werepossum]

fixed for you. The Republicans and the Democrats are equally bad in this regard.

I usually come down with the Republicans, but I think this is one issue where the Democrats are, well, less worse. Often significantly less worse. Sometimes undeniably better. If it's to keep the union donations flowing, well, the effect is still the same.