U.S. Economy "De-evolving": An Industrialist's Plan to Revive American Manufacturing

[DJ13]

Posted Feb 02, 2010 11:01am EST

U.S. Manufacturing grew in January at its fastest pace in more than five years. Yet, manufacturing makes up only 12% of the U.S. economy - down from its post World War II peak of 28% percent in 1953.

That lack of an industrial base has put the American economy and worker in jeopardy, says distressed investor Lynn Tilton, CEO of Patriarch Partners. "The reality is, in recent times, every great empire has been built on a manufacturing economy," notes Tilton. "The fall of every empire has been the failure to remember that one fundamental fact."

Tilton's point is simple: the country cannot thrive as simply a service-based economy. As Tilton explains to Aaron and Henry in the accompanying clip, there isn't enough demand for services and those related jobs to keep the U.S. competitive on a global scale. We should also not over look the fact some people are better at building and making things then working on spreadsheets in a cubicle.

Tilton speaks from hands-on experience, not theory. Her firm either lends to or has controlling interest in more than 70 companies with assets of over $7 billion, including Heritage Aviation, MD Helicopters, Global Automotive Systems, Vulcan Engineering and Amweld Building Products.

A little more here-
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/u.s.-economy-"de-evolving"-an-industrialist's-plan-to-revive-american-manufacturing-416990.html?tickers=tlt,uup,TM,xli,F,^DJI,^GSPC&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=

(Sorry, full link not pasting.)

[Warpy]

1. The lack of several key industries has put the country as a whole

in grave danger. We no longer make cloth. We no longer make a lot of electronics components. We no longer make shoes.

We don't even need another big war to find out what a liability that is. All we need is the rest of the world becoming alarmed enough at American imperialism to declare a trade embargo.

Since we sold off the machinery used in these key industries as scrap decades ago, we'd be desperate pretty quickly.

[cliffordu]

2. Exactly right.

[Vincardog]

3. But the "masters of the world" are just now beginning to figure it out

[madrchsod]

6. we`d wander around in the dark---

there`s one factory left that makes lightbulbs. those light bulbs are tungsten filament.

[jwirr]

4. We should take an inventory that would show us exactly what things

we need to produce if the rest of the world just up and disappeared and concentrate on rebuilding the means to manufacture those items at home. Oil depletion would be an example of this type of disappearance. At the top of my list is medicines and food. Clothing and shoes are next. These are national security issues as well as survival issues.

We don't have to worry about guns - that is one area we are still producing!!

[apnu]

5. I've been saying that for years to anybody who'd listen.

You can't pass the same buck around and expect it to retain its value or condition, eventually it will wear out, no matter how many times you tape the thing.

In order to have a successful "consumption" based economy, cash has to flow in one way or another. Bush's response to keeping the cash flowing was to unleash a torrent of credit on the citizenry. People weren't making more money (or producing) but using a ton of tape to keep that dollar in circulation. Now credit is tapped out and here he are. Since we don't produce that much any more, we can't make and put new dollars in circulation. So now the credit's tapped out, and we have no way, right now, to produce anything.

Oddly, we produce a disgusting amount of food, half of which is dumped on the world market, crushing other countries agriculture bases with super cheap products -- so cheap that its better to import American corn than it is to grow it themselves. On top of that, almost every year we leave tons of corn, soybeans and wheat to rot at the grain elevator unsold. This is the left over stuff that America and the world can't consume. So we do produce something in vast quantities but thanks to how retarded the system is (see Earl Butz, Nixon's Dept. of Ag. Secretary) in terms of subsidies and whatnot, that production amounts to very little economic production for the US because we produce something in such vast quantities that its nearly worthless.

I blame Bush for teaching Americans, for 8 years, to live way beyond their means. Not only did he give people the rope to hang themselves, but he told them it was a good thing to stick their heads in the noose. Responsible adults would never do that, but then Bush was never responsible for anything (or so he says).

[cutlassmama]

7. he was on vacation for 8 years.