Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Apr 19, 2008, at 7:24 PM, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

> Keep that in mind, that even if you get a percent of the economy  
> that is
> still supposed to be manufacturing, very-very-very little of it  
> involves applying
> tools and machines to material to produce tangible goods.

I think many reports are confusing for that reason, the method of  
counting has changed. Employment figures, production figures, family  
income figures, all have source data that has changed. The federal  
budget and spending have become essentially incomprehensible.
> The manufacturing sector lost more than three million jobs  
> between1998 and
> 2003, with 2.7 million lost since the immediate pre-recessionyear of  
> 2000."

You found the same thing I found: there are few sources that are dated  
last year or this year. In one you cited, things got better in the  
next paragraph.

> By the bye, the code phrase "higher productivity" most often means  
> this.  We
> used to make everything here from native materials with native  
> labor.   Now
> much of the work is farmed out overseas and only finished here.   If  
> you have
> the socket, base, fittings, and switch of a light fixture  
> manufactured in China,
> buy it from China for $10, add a $2 cover or shade made in the USA,  
> and sell
> it as a wholesale item for $15, it counts as a $15 item made in the  
> USA ....
> only made "more efficiently" than making al the parts here and  
> employing many
> more people.

Quite so. Our automotive manufacturing is still very large in spite of  
many problems, but many parts and pieces are made in Canada and sent  
here for assembly.

Considering the prices of the various metals I would expect that our  
mining sector is still strong. Hard to send that function overseas.  
Lots of coal coming out of the ground and being used. We may not find  
steel production figures; The US Steel Industry Outlook (2007) is 60  
pages and costs $900.00. One item: amongst the Columbia trade  
agreement debate I learned that we manufacture and sell a lot of home  
appliances there. I know of only one company, in South Korea, that  
sells a lot of refrigerators and washers and dryers here. Name escapes  
me right now.

I'm beginning to feel that it is impossible to decipher the truth. And  
what truth do we want? What's most important? Jobs? Income? GDP?  
Balance of trade? Debt? I have read many articles stating that average  
income per capita has declined as many people are now doing service  
work who were once production workers.

Looks like in many regards we have priced ourselves out of  
competitiveness.