re: #340 Naso Tang

Partly true.

No, it’s absolutely true. We have a greater manufacturing capacity and a greater income from manufacturing than at any point before. The share of the economy provided by manufacturing has shrunk, but that’s mainly because of the explosion of software and financials.

However, can you tell me why it is impossible to buy a “high tech” manufactured coffee cup, home appliance, TV or PC that wasn’t made in China or elsewhere?

Because full automation of those things is very hard, and so labor costs are more of an issue.

Japan, for instance is not a low wage country, but one reason we had a slow economy recently is that we rely on many basic materials and sub components from them that were stopped for a while after the tsunami.

If the West Coast got hit by a big Tsumani, then Japan’s economy would slow because they depend on us for a lot of stuff as well.

And Japan is a low-wage country when you factor in CEO and other officer compensation. T hey don’t have our obscene salaries for CEOs, so that keeps their costs low. In the US, we use cheap Chinese labor and pay officers high salaries.

The problem with manufacturing in this country is not that we lack it, but that it doesn’t produce that many jobs.