patrick.net

Peter Drucker was big on the knowledge worker. So am I...

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/knowledge-workers/

I still value manual labor, some manufacturing is coming to the USA via Amyris, Tesla, Hershey's, etc.

The government helped the process by taxing and regulating American businesses so much they decided to do things offshore.

I think it sucks.

We won't have any manufacturing left if not for our glorious MIC. These are the people who are still able to design AND manufacture pretty awesome stuff. That's why are so hated by leftie fucks and China/Russia shills.

Eric Holder says

We won't have any manufacturing left if not for our glorious MIC. These are the people who are still able to design AND manufacture pretty awesome stuff. That's why are so hated by leftie fucks and China/Russia shills.

Our MIC only designs garage queens that are virtually irreplaceable in long drawn-out conflicts. All that talent is locked up top produce shining death machines. What about something other than stone cold killers can use?

stereotomy says

Our MIC only designs garage queens that are virtually irreplaceable in long drawn-out conflicts.

I disagree. Our weapons are now on full display in Ukraine and they are doing pretty good against Russian stuff. What's so "garage queen" about M777 howitzer, for example? It's ligher that Ruscia's 152mm, is more presize, has more range and has better barrel life.

https://spectatorworld.com/topic/manufacturing-in-the-us-shouldnt-be-so-hard/

Manufacturing in the US shouldn’t be so hard
Tariffs now, more than ever

There’s an automotive parts manufacturer in my hometown. The company has grown over the course of its 19-year life, from around 20 employees two decades ago to 45 full-time employees today. Despite the dirty nature of much of the work, the facility is kept clean, open, airy, and bright. There are no shavings on the floor or fumes in the air. The men who weld, bend, blast, and powder coat the metal parts and send them to the warehouse for packaging and shipment do so energetically. ...

“Our margins are thin, and one false move and we’re breaking even instead of making money,” one of the company’s engineers revealed. “But for 19 years now, [the owner] has made enough money to continue. He lives humbly with occasionally getting something nice for himself — but nothing extravagant. The easy solution would be to go off-shore and buy all of our materials a lot cheaper, or even subcontract the stuff to China. But our boss doesn’t want to do that — he wants to have a business here. If it’s something with two ends welded in it and powder coated, we could absolutely outsource that, have it come next month, and you got a stack of 2,000 of them and make 20 to 30 percent more, but that’s not what [our owner] wants to do.” ...

It’s also not what a lot of serious car drivers want, either.

“You can buy this piece in China, or you can have Walt [our machinist] make it. If Walt makes it, he makes it of US 4140 CrMO Steel, so when you launch your drag car, and the trailing arms pull out of a Chinese one, it’s better to have Walt make it.”

The company distributes to all 50 states and has sent products to about 20 countries. The reason people from all over the world trust their restored classic muscle cars, and their lives, to this little company from backwoods Pennsylvania is because their high-quality products are made with pride by people (an average of seven different workers touch each product) who are treated well and return the favor to their employer by giving their best to their work. ...

Keeping everything in the US takes resolve and courage. But we can’t count on every company to think and act this way, nor should we expect them to. Producing goods in the United States shouldn’t be such a challenge. Why manufacturing in the US has declined is a somewhat complex issue, but there are a handful of obvious steps the government can take to bring industry back home before we forget these skills and end up relying completely on China.

President Biden must keep the Trump-era tariffs, what Pat Buchanan calls “the taxes that made America great,” to boost our domestic economy, provide more rewarding work for Americans, and safeguard our national security. When I asked the engineer whether his company could easily transition to something else in the event of a disaster or war, he didn’t wait one second to say, “Absolutely.” Prior to the Covid pandemic, this company was working on a contract to build luggage racks to military humvees.

Instead of spending $400 billion to “forgive” student loan debt, we should be incentivizing students to pursue technical and trade schools. We also need to cut massive amounts of red tape and lower the cost of doing business across the board.

It’s time to make Made in the USA a top priority, for everyone’s sake.

US factory construction off the charts.

Main Reason: Energy supply & cost advantages
Secondary Reason: Healthier US labor demographics.



European - especially German - manufacturers are moving lock, stock & barrel to the US.

Factory construction announcements continue. For example, just this week, German industrial giant Siemens announced that it will invest $510 million in the US to build factories: $150 million for a factory in Texas to manufacture electrical equipment for data centers; $220 million for a factory in North Carolina to manufacture passenger rail cars and offer overhauls of railcars and locomotives (Siemens diesel-electric locomotives are used by Amtrak, Brightline, and other passenger railroads); and $140 million for factories in Texas and California to manufacture electrical products.

Believe it or not, but we need more investment still. In order to achieve decent supply chain security, total US manufacturing capacity has to double what it is now.

https://wolfstreet.com/2023/11/04/not-sure-how-long-itll-last-but-spending-on-factory-construction-does-a-historic-spike-after-years-of-going-nowhere/

PumpingRedheads says

Factory construction announcements continue.

How much of this funding is coming from the federal government like Biden's programs ?

On a similar note, about 1/3 of new jobs added in October was with the government.

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ad says

How much of this funding is coming from the federal government like Biden's programs ?

On a similar note, about 1/3 of new jobs added in October was with the government.

Some. But this started to kick in before that. Even before the Ukey War.

Also, the EV part is starting to pull back.

https://www.theverge.com/23934889/electric-vehicle-ev-transition-sales-delays-politics

how are you going to stop the people from loading up their shopping carts at walmart with chinese made products? That would be a good start.

PumpingRedheads says

Factory construction announcements continue. For example, just this week, German industrial giant Siemens announced that it will invest $510 million in the US to build factories: $150 million for a factory in Texas to manufacture electrical equipment for data centers; $220 million for a factory in North Carolina to manufacture passenger rail cars and offer overhauls of railcars and locomotives (Siemens diesel-electric locomotives are used by Amtrak, Brightline, and other passenger railroads); and $140 million for factories in Texas and California to manufacture electrical products.

That's chump change considering that biden will send 60x that much money to israel this week

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-four-wars/

China’s grand strategy to take its turn at dominance over the global scene depends on bogging down the USA in four wars at once. How’s it working so far? Pretty darn well. Amazingly, China hardly had to lift a finger to make it happen — though it did write some bank checks to the soulless old grifter sitting in the White House. Our country has arranged its collapse and downfall masterfully on its own. ...

We emerge from this catastrophe a nearly medievalized society with a steeply-reduced population, unable to resist China’s attempt to colonize us. Pretty scary, huh? Just let’s keep doing what we’re doing.

Patrick says

China’s grand strategy to take its turn at dominance over the global scene depends on bogging down the USA in four wars at once. How’s it working so far? Pretty darn well.
...
We emerge from this catastrophe a nearly medievalized society with a steeply-reduced population

Except the USA is "bogged" in exactly 0 wars at this moment. And how exactly sending some old surplus to our allies fighting against aggressive Chyna proxies "steeply reduces" our population? Inquring minds want to know.

And, since we are on topic of US manufacturing, replacing these surplus items will restore US manufacturing capabilities and create/restore good paying US jobs. And increase our defense capabilities to boot.

Eric Holder says

And, since we are on topic of US manufacturing, replacing these surplus items will restore US manufacturing capabilities and create/restore good paying US jobs. And increase our defense capabilities to boot.

why are they called surplus? Can't they still blow up shit and kill people? So why give them away? And your idea that it will restore jobs, it's the BROKEN WINDOW FALLACY.
Why do we need more defensive capabilities when we are always on the offensive?

.... and yet false "conservatives" crying foul when manufacturing gets solid boost from orders by our military and our allies. They say they'd rather govenment "helped Americans" (whatever the fuck that means - some "stimulus checks"?)

RWSGFY says

and yet false "conservatives" crying foul when manufacturing gets solid boost from orders by our military and our allies.

Because many conservatives do not want to encourage and sustain wars just so industry can profit.

komputodo says

Why do we need more defensive capabilities when we are always on the offensive?

Yep.

USCG no longer installs or trains ASW equipment. The first thing Chicoms/Russians will do is interdict US bound shipping or position to fire missiles at vital coastal facilities.

Which brings me to #2

Minimal Air Patrols, few if any SAMs deployed near major US infrastructure from Newark to Galveston, Seattle to San Diego. Our refineries, container ports, etc. are minimally to utterly unguarded from missile or air attack.

We better hope there's no fair balls getting bunted and bouncing between 2nd and 3rd or it's a free home run for our rivals. All our players are positioned well back.

If we have to mobilize like WW2, I hope it's not with China, or we'll be out of many things for a loooong time. Pencils, drill bits, tarps, welding tools, fans for exhaust and temporary barracks/offices, etc.

Nevermind the difficulty of ramping up domestic production, we'll have a hard time building facilities for the draftees and expanding production facilities. All the ultra high tech sits on mass produced boards themselves made by machines we largely no longer have. Taiwan isn't going to be loading freighters and 100s of cargo planes with Chinese missiles, shitty or better than expected, landing all over the place over there.

Basic, not just high tech, manufacturing is key to being the arsenal of Democracy and not the foreign market for the Chinese Plutocracy.

The real key is to get China to count as a DEVELOPING COUNTRY and not as an UNDEVELOPED Country at the International Postal Union. That will kill a massive global subsidy for Chinese Air Freight, they pay pennies on the dollar for what they should be paying.

AmericanKulak says

USCG no longer installs or trains ASW equipment.

Yeah that was back in the Yost guard days (late 1980s) for the Coast Guard with cutters being armed with missiles, torpedos, etc.

Now the newest cutters being built and the national security cutter have space to install Navy weapon systems.

You are correct as our infrastructure here like refineries and power plants are sitting ducks. They may have security guards, but they are not armed with Patriot missiles, etc.

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ad says

You are correct as our infrastructure here like refineries and power plants are sitting ducks. They may have security guards, but they are not armed with Patriot missiles, etc.

I doubt air attack is the main threat. More likely infrastructure would be taken out by sleepers with weapons like mortars. Sleepers that Bien allowed in with that erased southern border.

HeadSet says

ad says

You are correct as our infrastructure here like refineries and power plants are sitting ducks. They may have security guards, but they are not armed with Patriot missiles, etc.

I doubt air attack is the main threat. More likely infrastructure would be taken out by sleepers with weapons like mortars. Sleepers that Bien allowed in with that erased southern border.

Yes as I was replying to American Kulak as far as him mentioning air and missile strike on our infrastructure. And I agree as far as sleeper attacks such as use of explosives and sniper rifles as well.

Need to harden our infrastructure and especially the electric grid for sleeper attacks.

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ad says

Now the newest cutters being built and the national security cutter have space to install Navy weapon systems.

Space, but the funding and training is lacking. The Navy is already behind on recruiting, so the USCG can't pull excess trained personnel from the Navy.

Chicom and Russian subs can fire Sub launched cruise (not ballistic) missiles. Hitting an unguarded refinery is easier than a sneak attack on a ship.

https://x.com/BackTheBunny/status/1899396600038064513

If global trade were driven by comparative advantage, what free-trade types will tell you is the case, persistent major trade imbalances would not exist, because your exporting success necessarily sows the seeds of your future exporting disadvantage.

There would be a natural equilibrating force that manifests between currency strength and exports that results in something approximating mid-to-long-term trade parity between nations. This is not occurring. ...

How did China become so darn "competitive"?

It’s often the case that chronic surpluses are accomplished via varying tactics of domestic wage suppression. A tactic that subverts the natural equilibrating forces of balanced trade.

Germany and China are particular culprits, who coincidentally just so happen to have the two biggest trade surpluses.

China is not “more competitive” due to some Ricardian “free trade” advantage. It has taken the perverse approach of depriving its middle class of its share of GDP, which is a fancy way to say structurally diminishing wages.

The popular human-readable narrative is that China's trade success comes from superior efficiency and work ethic. They're extra busy bees over there!

The reality is something different: through its industrial policies (which manifest as de facto trade policies) it's systematically underpaid workers.

When you pay workers less than their productivity warrants, you're not being "more competitive", you're just shifting money from workers' pockets to exporters' profits. This isn't free trade; it's wage suppression dressed up as economic efficiency.

If your labor input is cheaper because you subvert the wages of labor, it’s not all that surprising where your “advantage” comes from. ...

A global race to the bottom ensues on account of a cancerous globalism wage assault, and the middle class bears the brunt of it. As the only way to compete in this shitty worldwide competition is to continually undermine wages.

To "compete" with this on its own terms is to overtly vitiate labor and hold your middle class in disregard, seeing them as little GDP variables and nothing more. Americans have no desire to "compete" with this, nor should they. Nor should anyone.

I hope this elucidates why certain types love the US H1B program so much, as well as the obsession politicians have with allowing in infinity immigrants.

They present it as “inclusion” “refugees” “diversity” and all walks of warm-and-fuzzy platitudes. This is a lie. It’s a wage-suppression technique.

What else keeps wages down? Labor supply. What increases supply? More warm bodies. Your wages can’t rise if we’re importing a bunch of guys that will work for half the price.

No more.

Don’t worry “free traders”, what you have here is not free trade anyways. You have mercantilist subversions that you have allowed to happen at your expense, because you prefer simple soundbites like “tariffs are tax” rather than root-level, distal-cause analysis.

Industrial policies are de facto trade policies. China can say it has "free trade", but that's a lie. Because it manipulates both its currency and domestic labor, which is every bit a functional trade policy as tariffs are, just with optics that deceive people.

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https://www.visualcapitalist.com/u-s-manufacturing-by-state-who-gains-most-from-made-in-america/

Florida is ranked near bottom at number 42 for manufacturing jobs as a percentage of total jobs

It's mostly healthcare and hospitality jobs, followed by residential construction

.

True, per 100K people, Florida has only 1859.5 jobs.

The top states for manufacturing per 100K people are:

Wisconsin 7763.8
Indiana 7557.5

Gotta hand it to the builders, they know things are bad and offering incentives, but they aren't stopping.

Homeloaners are just starting to embrace reality, though. As usual retail is months behind and they better cut big to keep up.

MolotovCocktail says

yep

https://pressroom.geappliances.com/news/ge-appliances-doubles-down-on-u-s-manufacturing-with-490-million-laundry-plant-investment-at-its-global-headquarters-in-louisville-kentucky

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https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/no-more-monarchs-wednesday-october

Remember when I recently wrote about how badly the left has lied for decades about how China took over manufacturing? How liberals swore it was just because China has cheaper labor, all those rice farmers willing to work for slave wages? Well … see, I told you so. Yesterday, the UK Telegraph ran an illuminating story headlined, “Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified.” If you guessed that what terrified Western executives were legions of cheap Chinese workers, think again:




In my prior post about the Sharpie factory, I suggested that the only real advantage China ever had was just that its factories were newer than ours. The Chinese invested in state-of-the-art, and we didn’t. Instead of paying for 21st-century retooling, I argued, our manufacturers just let the Chinese take over building stuff in their fresher factories.

Well, this Telegraph article should seal the deal.

“It’s the most humbling thing I’ve ever seen,” Ford’s CEO Jim Farley said after his recent trip touring Chinese manufacturing plants. It wasn’t the slave-labor conditions. It was the robots. “You’re walking alongside this conveyor, and after about 800, 900 meters, a truck drives out. There are no people – everything is robotic,” said Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest, who took a similar tour.

Other executives described vast “dark factories,” where robots do so much of the work that they don’t even leave the lights on for humans. The Telegraph reported that just in the last year China installed 295,000 new industrial robots, compared to only 27,000 in Germany, 34,000 in the US, and a pitiful 2,500 in the UK. (These aren’t necessarily humanoid-style robots, but rather computer-powered assembly machines of various kinds.)

Those numbers pretty much tell you everything you need to know to understand the global manufacturing problem. Who’s investing more? Obviously China.

Worse, the robots are making better and cheaper cars than humans. “Their cost and the quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West,” Farley warned.

Now, I’m not accusing Democrats of working for China by covering up China’s massive investment in manufacturing technology by lying about the causes. I’ll let you decide that one for yourself. But that lie —the lie of cheap labor— was so strong that our CEOs didn’t even go over there to find out for themselves until now. What changed?

Tariffs. Trump’s tariffs changed the calculus, spurring a generation of executives to try to figure out how to build stuff cheaper here. Tariffs are now the only answer, since China is ten or twenty years ahead in factory buildouts. Had someone stood up twenty years ago and said, “the reason production is moving to Asia is only because they have newer, more efficient factories,” then all this might have been avoided.

We have a lot of catching up to do. But that’s also what we’re good at, once we know the goal. And some companies are doing it: Tesla, for example, claims up to 95% of its production is automated (its welding workshop is 100% robotic). Ford and GM are catching up, but they have a long way to go. Tesla’s line can reportedly produce a new Model Y every thirty seconds— which is literally impossible to imagine.

Now we just need to do that for our other manufacturing industries.

I think China's advantage was unlimited cheap labor. Will be interesting to see how the CCP deals with displacing all those workers by robots.

Patrick says

I think China's advantage was unlimited slave labor. Will be interesting to see how the CCP deals with displacing all those workers by robots.

Fixed it for ya.

Back in the day.

Patrick says

Bill is coming due but not for them.

Automation killed more jobs than shipping to China from what I understand.

clambo says

The government helped the process by taxing and regulating American businesses so much they decided to do things offshore.

I think it sucks.

iPhones aren’t regulated any different here. But cost of producing it by slave labor is cheaper. That’s why it’s done in China. Apple lecturing me on human rights is dark hypocrisy.

Every business wants to sell to “well paid”, but doesn’t want to hire people at rates that they could afford to buy such things. Henry Ford was the only one who believed in paying people well. Everyone else is just self serving money worshipping jerks. At this point future for America looks shitty, we make nothing, we are going to make nothing but print dollars and inflate hollow corpse of economy with pretend and various federal reserve acronyms.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/11/29/buy-american-manufacturers-household-goods-tariffs-imports/86935613007/

The number of U.S. manufacturing workers has plummeted from a peak of 19.6 million in 1979 to 12.7 million in September 2025. As a share of all nonfarm jobs, manufacturing has slid from 29% in 1960 to 8% today.

Notice the big dropoff in manufacturing jobs in the USA during Clinton's second term after he signed off on NAFTA and free trade with Communist China.

AD says

Notice the big dropoff in manufacturing jobs in the USA during Clinton's second term after he signed off on NAFTA and free trade with Communist China.

It bottomed at the beginning of Trump's 1st term.