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Old 11-01-2010, 07:44 PM
 
11,135 posts, read 14,187,237 times
Reputation: 3696

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Quote:
Originally Posted by TKramar View Post
Why is bin Laden still alive?

Because the government needs its boogeymen.
Personally, I think the guy is dead and has been, it is only his tapes that live but thats another matter, because the end result is the same. It serves its purpose.


Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJon3475 View Post
Well I was kind of getting at, what does the US export that it manufactures or adds value to. The concept that our biggest exports are things like natural resources or even things like wheat, rye, oats, corn, etc... doesn't warm the cockles of my heart.

I suppose what gets to me about the decline in manufacturing, isn't so much that we aren't making coffee pots that last 50 years, but that we aren't manufacturing large scale high technology items either.

Its graphs like this from Bloomberg business week for instance.

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thre...4_image001.gif

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8rpY5fQK-U...00/manu545.png
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Old 11-01-2010, 07:54 PM
 
29,939 posts, read 39,447,879 times
Reputation: 4799
We certainly need to find something that adds value, no doubt. I think it is a big problem, and one the comes with technological advancements -- especially what we've gone through in the past 30 years. The problem seems to be, at least IMO, that the more advanced you become the more specific the focus of individuals in their careers.

Basically when we were going through our advancements with semiconductors and such, we had sort of a monopoly on that technology. As we shared that with the rest of the world we had to find more specialized fields just to stay a head of the game.

How many specialized fields can you have that will sustain a society, and its growth of population? How much of an impact will each of those have?

While I don't agree with our inevitable decline, we don't seem to have anyone pointing that out and making it the 600 lb gorilla in the room.
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Old 11-01-2010, 08:08 PM
 
11,135 posts, read 14,187,237 times
Reputation: 3696
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJon3475 View Post
We certainly need to find something that adds value, no doubt. I think it is a big problem, and one the comes with technological advancements -- especially what we've gone through in the past 30 years. The problem seems to be, at least IMO, that the more advanced you become the more specific the focus of individuals in their careers.

Basically when we were going through our advancements with semiconductors and such, we had sort of a monopoly on that technology. As we shared that with the rest of the world we had to find more specialized fields just to stay a head of the game.

How many specialized fields can you have that will sustain a society, and its growth of population? How much of an impact will each of those have?

While I don't agree with our inevitable decline, we don't seem to have anyone pointing that out and making it the 600 lb gorilla in the room.
I think you may enjoy this short video clip called "Shift Happens". There have been several versions but I enjoyed the music and themes of this particular one.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emx92kBKads
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Old 11-01-2010, 08:17 PM
 
41,813 posts, read 51,019,001 times
Reputation: 17864
Quote:
Originally Posted by TnHilltopper View Post

Well I was kind of getting at, what does the US export that it manufactures or adds value to. The concept that our biggest exports are things like natural resources or even things like wheat, rye, oats, corn, etc... doesn't warm the cockles of my heart.
Knowing the US has a 2 century supply of coal, a trillion barrels of oil locked away in the Green River Formation and can easily feed an expanding population certainly makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. The natural resources and the agriculture within our borders is our greatest resource and will be vital many years from now as the worlds population expands and these resources become scarce in other countries.
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Old 11-01-2010, 08:45 PM
 
41,813 posts, read 51,019,001 times
Reputation: 17864
One thing we still make is heavy equipment, especially really heavy equipment. This type of stuff is actually exported. Might take years to build one machine, in this video they disassembling one to be sent to Australia:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV8RU...eature=related

They are built on site and that is usually their first and last location.
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Old 11-01-2010, 09:00 PM
 
Location: Missouri
4,272 posts, read 3,785,831 times
Reputation: 1937
What does America make?

For one, it made my Nissan truck!
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Old 11-01-2010, 09:08 PM
 
9,408 posts, read 11,925,299 times
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America's top 4 exports:

Misery
War
Money
Jobs
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Old 11-01-2010, 09:58 PM
 
2,095 posts, read 2,580,420 times
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Just wanted to say that many great examples of "stuff" that America still manufactures have been brought up.

More proof that the people who keep crying that the US doesn't make anything anymore are absolutely wrong.
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