Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
When you look around your home, what products were actually made in America? What is the ratio of things made in America compared to things made everywhere else? While I have found some good information on US exports, I haven't found a great deal on manufactured US exports.
A really quick summary on just exports, note the fastest growth and decline categories. We seem to be moving away from a number of high tech items and increasing our exports of things like agricultural products, which struck me as rather surprising.
Top American Exports in 2007: Leading USA Products Include Semiconductors and Civilian Aircraft (http://www.suite101.com/content/top-american-exports-in-2007-a62000 - broken link)
During a rather interesting program which will re-air on CNN with Fareed Zakaria called Restoring the American Dream he was interviewing the following people, Former IBM chairman and CEO Lou Gerstner, Google, Inc. chairman/CEO Eric Schmidt, Coca Cola Company chairman/CEO Muhtar Kent, and Alcoa, Inc. chairman/CEO Klaus Kleinfeld. During part of an interview with I believe Lou Gerstner, Gerstner pointed out that while US businesses grew, the US worker wasn't competing well in skill sets and this he eluded to was one of the reasons for offshoring jobs.
He (Gerstner) also pointed out that since Americans were falling behind in competing for high and new technology jobs, and combined with tightening production quota in which labor is squeezed for every ounce of production in order to just keep up, that Americans are now competing more with jobs that are being done by China, India, Czechoslovakia, and other similar nations. In these types of labor markets, Americans are finding declining wages, longer hours and over time a lower standard of living.
Since America seems to be struggling with higher end skill sets and we are struggling with competing with the labor markets of China and India, then I have to wonder, will this economy ever recover to what it once was?
So back to the original question, what exactly does America make anymore and what industries will we remain competitive in future if we cannot produce better equipped workers for the evolving market?
Any links or information on manufactured exports would be appreciated.
one for Hollywood and one for the defense industry. I did notice in the link I provided that one of America's fastest declining industries is military aircraft.
What america has always prduced is much more technocal than what countries such as thrid world coutnries produce. Innovation is outrr strong poinht. But technology and our workforce as not keep pace especailly in the last deacdes. We in fact are importing more and more of the skills that drive our econmy and the government is actaully investing more in entitlements and less in innovation promotion.We seem to promote a college degree with less thought about what degrees. In a world where the emerging econmies have the facil;ities to produce what we did in the 20th century ;if we want to sell we have to innovate as always and produce goods and service they can't.Companies have to be much leaner on things like basic labor to control cost and technology like robots are the key to supporting other jobs in the production process:IMO.In other words we don't need a hundred bookkeepers to do what a few can do with computers that make cost of the prodcut too costly to compete at our labor cost for bookeepers.
one for Hollywood and one for the defense industry. I did notice in the link I provided that one of America's fastest declining industries is military aircraft.
On the other hand if you click the link to Brazil one of their fastest growing imports from the US is artillery, guns, missiles, and tanks along with parts for military type goods.
Food and other agricultural products are also large exports.
Hollywood movies are also a huge export. This is a good thing to because people all over the world are being influenced by American culture and values by watching our movies.
What america has always prduced is much more technocal than what countries such as thrid world coutnries produce. Innovation is outrr strong poinht. But technology and our workforce as not keep pace especailly in the last deacdes. We in fact are importing more and more of the skills that drive our econmy and the government is actaully investing more in entitlements and less in innovation promotion.We seem to promote a college degree with less thought about what degrees. In a world where the emerging econmies have the facil;ities to produce what we did in the 20th century ;if we want to sell we have to innovate as always and produce goods and service they can't.Companies have to be much leaner on things like basic labor to control cost and technology like robots are the key to supporting other jobs in the production process:IMO.In other words we don't need a hundred bookkeepers to do what a few can do with computers that make cost of the prodcut too costly to compete at our labor cost for bookeepers.
Texdav, it seems a bit troubling to me, as I'm looking around trying to find what we actually make, physical, tangible things in which US labor adds value to a natural resource, produces something some widget and then sells to other folks. Were certainly not at the bottom of the bucket but it is getting harder to find things, especially in higher tech items that we make anymore.
I'm all in favor of investing in the R&D and development of high end industries, but this is going to require that more Americans garnish the proper skill sets in things like engineering, design, computer technologies, higher mathematics etc..
Biotech industry is one place we seem to do quite well in, but I also noticed that semiconductors is also on the decline list. Generally a lot of heavy industry items are in decline and things like textiles and auto related industries were always bread and butter items. Thanks for the link and info.
Fastest-Declining U.S. Exports
1. Audio and video media ... US$584.3 million (down 67.5% from 2006, down 56.6% from 2003)
2. Metalworking machine tools ... $6.7 billion (down 29.3%, down 27.8%)
3. Computer accessories ... $29.4 billion (down 18.7%, down 6.1%)
4. Manufactured tobacco ... $1.2 billion (down 15.1%, down 38.5%)
5. Complete military aircraft ... $4 billion (down 10.5%, up 85%)
6. Textile apparel and household goods ... $4.7 billion (down 9.3%, down 20.5%)
7. Cotton fiber cloth ... $2.9 billion (down 9%, up 2.2%)
8. Military apparel and footwear ... $654.3 million (down 5.6%, down 22.6%)
9. Pulp and paper machinery ... $2.7 billion (down 5.4%, up 13.7%)
10. Aircraft launching gear ... $329.8 million (down 4.4%, up 92.4%)
11. Electric energy ... $991 million (down 4.3%, up 31.1%)
12. Semiconductors ... $50.2 billion (down 4.3%, up 8.8%).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Randomstudent
On the other hand if you click the link to Brazil one of their fastest growing imports from the US is artillery, guns, missiles, and tanks along with parts for military type goods.
God forbid if peace breaks out or the global economy tanks, then were screwed
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
