U.S. Must Revive Manufacturing
According to The Buffalo News:
An advanced nation means an industrialized nation, and an industrialized nation implies a nation that manufactures goods, possesses the highest technology and therefore has a highly skilled and industrious work force.
We have been known as the most advanced nation. To be true to this status, we must produce almost all consumer goods, including sophisticated machinery. We should be ahead of the times in manufacturing technology, and our work force should be the envy of all other advanced and advancing societies. All this was true a decade or so ago — but no more.
Now U. S. factories are closing every day and thousands of union and non-union workers are being laid off. We import most machinery from Canada, China, Japan, Mexico and Germany. In 2007, we had a trade deficit of $847 billion, eight times more than we had 10 years ago. In 1997, our trade deficit was $102 billion.
In March, total employment fell by 80,000, the most in five years. The unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 5.5 percent by year’s end. This means a loss of 1.1 million jobs in 10 months.
The real 2007 Gross Domestic Product, adjusted for inflation, dropped by half a percent. The 2007 GDP, at $13.8 trillion, grew at the rate of 2.2 percent against the 2007 inflation rate of 2.7 percent. At the same time, the GDPs of China and India have grown in the range of 10 percent...click to continue.
