I'm all for manufacturing jobs coming back but do we have adequate environment protection to safely facilitate that kind of change? Part of the reason the air is so clean in the US is partially due to offshoring (for better or for worse).
It's in dollars, which is very misleading and forms an incomplete picture of the ecosystem required to have true manufacturing ability. We do final assembly on an automobile and that gets registered as big $$$. But it's actually pretty easy to assemble a bunch of already-made parts. Much more difficult (and quite a lot of skill, built up over decades) to make the fuel pump from raw inputs! We lack completely the lower three-quarters of the pyramid.
By this same logic, I did $500 in manufacturing this quarter because I assembled two Billy bookcase... nah.
You don't know anyone because... we don't do a lot of manufacturing. The pre-made imported parts come into a handful of Toyota factories, and a whole bunch of very expensive SUVs come out. That's how you can get such a high $$$ number and not know anyone who works manufacturing.
You probably don't know anyone who works in manufacturing because you're in the demographic that reads hackernews. Using the automotive industry as an example is a big tell, you know, because a whole lot more than cars is manufactured in the US. Manufacturing is not a huge percentage of US employment, but it is much, much bigger than you think in raw numbers. Go look it up - 67,000 does not move the needle, though it's a big percentage of new jobs.
It’s not real manufacturing. All the real components from screws to relays to sheet metal and injection molded plastic parts are made somewhere other than the US.
But yeah, if you export 300 787’s and A320’s each year, you’ll get the false impression the US is a manufacturing “powerhouse.”
And automotive and aerospace are not the two biggest sectors of US manufacturing. (Boeing was the largest exporter for years though, probably still is). Look it up.
The truth of the matter is the bulk of the components that matter in those products are made somewhere other than the US. The hard work is done elsewhere.
I just replaced a capacitor in my 2009 Maytag washing machine. Original capacitor was made in Mexico. The replacement was from Taiwan. The motor was made in China. Every product "made" in the US is a hodgepodge of imported components.
> You can look up that final assembly is manufacturing
I don't dispute that that's how it gets measured in official statistics, but I'm telling you it's a misrepresentation of what's actually occurring in industry.
I work for an OEM aerospace manufacturer. Fuselages get made in Mexico. Wings get made in Japan. Engines get made in Europe and most parts for them are sourced from Russia, which is causing major shortages right now. Landing gear are forged in Brazil. We used to do it all here in the US, now we have a paint booth and a service center. But hey, final assembly is manufacturing! The US is an industrial powerhouse!
Seriously, go look around your house. Show me a piece of furniture or appliance that was made in the US. You can't. You'd be lucky to have one that was assembled in the US. Shoot, your phone and computer probably weren't even made here. And if they were, again, the important parts that took all the work were probably made in Asia.
Believe me, I wish I were wrong. I would love to be wrong. But you saying I'm wrong doesn't change reality. Stop believing statistics that are built on lies and start believing what you can clearly see before your very eyes.
Most of the furniture in my house was made in the US, because I'm not poor. Furniture is one of the easiest things to buy American. Good furniture is not cheap but it's not out of reach for the middle class either.
The materials your house was constructed from were mostly made in the US: lumber doesn't come directly from the earth nor does sheetrock or siding etc. These materials are manufactured.
Most of the books in my house were printed and bound in the US from paper made in US papermills.
Most of my appliances were, as you are careful to point out, assembled in the US. All of the large appliances were.
Almost all of the food in my pantry, refrigerator, and freezer that is in boxes, cans, or jars was processed and packaged in the US: that is manufacturing. If you don't think that's hard work, you should try it.
If you have any medications in your house, they were very probably made in the US. The gas in your car was almost certainly refined in the US. Your shampoo and deodorant and other personal care items, unless you deliberately buy imported, were made in the USA.
The important part that makes my computer work was made in the US, and yours probably was too. Some other bits also. That is very high tech, capital intensive manufacturing, high value-add, and while Taiwan is basically caught up, the US is still very competitive.
Sorry about your employer's poorly implemented global supply chain fiasco, which pretty much identifies it even to people outside your industry. But it's not the whole story of US industry.
Manufacturing where there are environmental regulations will push improvements in efficiency and waste management too, making the process more efficient in the long run.
It's not such a big planet.