The only thing still made in America is money

[Cyrano]

But it’s only being made by the one percent at the top. The rest of us don’t get to play.

“We The People” have been used, abused, raped and discarded. “We The People” are no longer needed. But Fox “news” addicts, dittoheads, and Tea Baggers don’t know that.

So here’s the question. Are those of us who grasp what’s been done to us going to do something – anything -- about it? My guess is we’ll go to our graves before a revolution, or a new renaissance occurs.

But that’s only my opinion. What’s yours?

[Chimichurri]

1. We do make one other thing. War.

[Cyrano]

4. "We" make war to make money. And of course, there's no "We" about it.

[Atman]

2. And even THAT is now worthless.

:cry:

[Buzz Clik]

3. I make enough money. And they make venetian blinds in town.

And Subarus in the town next door. And there's a furniture manufacturer down to road.

:shrug:

[Cyrano]

8. So does that make you oblivious to what's happening to your fellow citizens?

[Buzz Clik]

11. No, it just makes me annoyed at the hyperbole in the OP.

[Cyrano]

12. It's not hyperbole. It's the world that far too many Americans are

living in, and a world that you have chosen to ignore. I won't argue with your world view since I can't change it. Nor can you change mine.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cyrano]

9. dup -- self deleted

[FSogol]

5. I'm designing an addition for a school. America companies will then construct the building using

mostly American materials.

[Cyrano]

10. Good for you. But what about the millions of Americans who

are looking for work and are not even counted in the unemployment figures anymore.

I'm not being sarcastic. I'm glad you're doing well. But, for the most part, America is doing very poorly. We're in a depression. And you are fortunate enough to be avoiding the worst of the pain.

[pampango]

6. Americans make plenty of money ($47,132 per capita). We just don't distribute it very equitably.

Canadians, Europeans and other people from developed countries don't make as much as Americans (usually 10% to 30% less per capita) but distribute their national income and wealth much more equitably, so they end up with healthier societies.

[hifiguy]

24. You have hit the nail squarely on the head.

A+ and a gold star.

[damntexdem]

7. Hey, c'mon, many more things are made in America:

rightwing spin
fantasies about American history
ridiculous religious claims
attacks on workers, the poor, and the middle class

hey, I could go on and on

[cali]

14. although I largely agree with the point you're making we actually still

produce quite a bit.

[Speck Tater]

15. And Velveeta. We're still the only place that makes it. nt

[Spike89]

16. I get your point, but actually we still make more than anywhere else

The thing too many people will not and cannot seem to get a handle on is that manufacturing continues to become less and less labor intensive all the time. Of course it isn't labor free, but for generations we've been automating. Combine a growing population with a stagnant/decreasing need for skilled labor in manufacturing and you don't even need to point to offshoring for the problems.
For example, more vehicles are made in this country than ever with foreign assembly plants here. Still, there are are fewer people working the assembly lines than in the 50s and 60s. Computers, robotics, and a host of related technologies have significantly lowered the number of skilled people required to put each vehicle together...that means that those skills will become devalued (basic supply and demand). This is a big factor in the success many businesses have had in breaking/weakening unions. Those jobs were not shipped overseas--they simply went away.
I don't know what the next step is, but the U.S. economy is not going to be "fixed" by bringing back the manufacturing jobs we've sent overseas. The crisis is worse than a shift in job location--the jobs are disappearing.

[sammytko]

19. What about the people designing and putting together those robots,

installing them, building the car making factory - you can't build a factory overseas and then somehow set it down here in the USA.

The san antonio Toyota plant is just down the road from me. I took a tour. Scads of people working all over the place. This one company has revitalized the entire southside of San Antonio. New restaurants, shops, homes, even a new university will open its campus in the fall - on land donated by Toyota - just blocks away.

[Spike89]

21. True enough and a good secondary point

One of the reasons we can't seem to face up to the reality is that it isn't constant and homogenous. In other words, there will be blips where say San Antonio becomes a "mecca" of manufacturing jobs for a short time. That does NOT change the trend, which is a net loss of traditional labor jobs without a corresponding increase anywhere else in the job market.
There are some truly new jobs created, primarily technicians and automation programmers. These are of course semi-white collar, but more importantly, there simply don't need to be as many of these people. It isn't just cars, but silly things too. Perhaps some people remember the feel-good story about the toy manufacturer who had off-shored the manufacturing of some cheap extruded foam toy. After a few years in China, they brought the manufacturing back to the US...Yea, U-S-A! Well, except that the reason they were able to bring the plant back was because they'd found a way to run it with 1/2 the employees (and still increase output!) And because unemployment is chronic, they were able to hire those workers cheaper than before. Finally, the new factory got huge tax breaks and credits for building in the US.
We can buy and bribe our "lost" manufacturing base back, but it isn't even close to being worth what it was when it went away, and it isn't going to save our middle and lower-middle classes.

[FSogol]

20. Completely right: "the U.S. economy is not going to be "fixed" by bringing back the manufacturing

jobs we've sent overseas."

Our economy will expand when we start innovating and developing new technologies. We need to put more resources into research and development and less resources into moving money around.

[DianeK]

17. I just bought my friend a pair of pink flamingos

for her birthday...Made in America!! Yeah....

It's true there is a lot of bad news out there but there are also so promising stories..I choose to look at the glass as half full...let's build on the successes...

[sammytko]

18. We also make Al-Clad pots and pans

Pricy, but love them.

[hifiguy]

23. Agreed

Wish I'd have gone All-Clad when I bought my Calphalon anodized ten years ago.

[hifiguy]

22. A few areas where the US still makes the finest products in the world

High end home audio equipment: Wilson Audio, Thiel and Magnepan speakers, Audio Research, VTL, Balanced Audio Technology, Ayre, Pass Labs, Lamm Industries, and Aesthetix electronics, SOTA and VPI turntables, Graham and Triplanar tonearms, Wadia digital players, Nordost, Transparent and Shunyata wiring and I am naming only stuff that came immediately to mind.

Guitars of all sorts: acoustic, electric and electric bass: Martin, Taylor, Paul Reed Smith, Gibson (at least sometimes - Gibson ain't what it used to be consistency-wise), real Fenders, Alembic, Fodera, Sadowsky. American amplifier builders are also amongst the very best in the world.

All of these things are quite literally world standards of excellence and all are American made. Unfortunately they range from the moderately expensive (a nice American Standard Fender instrument is in the $1000-1200 range, Magnepan 1.7 speakers are, IIRC, $2000) to the insanely expensive (Wilson Audio speakers range from $12,500 to $169,500 per pair - yes you read that right, and Alembic Series II bass guitars, which START at $19,500 with options extra).

The only reason I know about these remarkable products is because I am an audio writer and a bass guitarist. When it comes to the ordinary stuff we all buy or use every day, what is left?

[Spike89]

25. Funny, but lots of us can list things in a category we know well

It really does throw many people for a loop to hear that the US is still the overall world leader in manufacturing. We'll probably get passed by China sometime soon in the overall category, but not in the per capita figures.

Obviously we do very well in automobiles, the "domestics" and more and more "foreign" plants are here. It can be quite the confusing discussion trying to determine if a Ford built in Mexico with some US-made parts is "more American" than a Toyota or Honda built in the U.S. with mostly inported parts. The entire union vs. non-union aspects also make it a very contentious subject. However, the OP was about things made in America...so I'd say both count.

We do make a lot of gadgets, we tend to still make the cutting edge electronic components, things like CPUs (which get farmed out overseas as they become commodity CPUs). We also produce an awful lot of software (which brings up an interesting question...is a software product that has a team of 50 U.S.-based coders, testers, designers, etc. working for months to create a program that is printed and packaged overseas "made in the US?"

I'd say yes, mostly and overwhelmingly so when you break down the wages paid and the actual labor involved. What about a computer designed here? What about those Mexican Fords? Can we really take credit for all those train engines throughout the world that are built in the US, but assembled into locomotives in Japan, France, China, etc? BTW, ironically, the U.S. is easily the dominant manufacturer of high-speed rail engine compomnents in the world. When it comes to licenced designs, we are even farther ahead.

I guess the point is that much manufacturing is actually distributed and strictly looking at "where was it made" can be very deceiving. That Mexican Ford really might be more Red, White, and Blue than the Tennessee Toyota. The all American Apple, might be much more foreign than a fortune cookie.

[Cyrano]

26. My guess is that the U.S. is number one in license plate manufacturing.

After all, we've got more people in prison than any other country in the world. (I wonder if those prisoners making license plates are counted among those employed?)

[Brickbat]

27. Throwing up your hands about American manufacturing does a huge disservice to those companies that

still manufacture here. It's hard, but it's not impossible. It may mean making infrequent expensive purchases instead of lots of impulse cheap purchases, but in the long run, the quality is generally better.