Who is responsible for the US losing its manufacturing base?

Answer 1

china

Answer 2

Ironically, the relatively high standard of living made undercutting easy to do. So did the shortage of skilled labour, which encouraged the Unions to kill the golden egg-laying goose.
I think that the public's increasing interest in the Stock Market played a role too - spreading profits around even though those profits came at the cost of jobs.

Answer 3

another misconception

compared to the other manufacturing countries of 30 years ago, the Us has retained a greater proportion of its manu base than Englnad, Germany, Sweden, France, Japan, etc.

true, manu jobs in America are down from 30 years ago. And those jobs moved, principally, to lower wage countries such as Mexico, Brazil, and Korea.

As to fault for this -- I ascribe the fault to those fools who ran wages and benefits in US manufacturing up faster than inflation and faster than productivity growth. That's a sure receipe to get consumers looking for cheaper goods [wages and benefits are over 70% of manu costs, so if they go up the maker has to raise prices -- most capital costs (equipment) are fixed].

So the unions and companies collectively bloated wages and benefits and now they're losing market share to foreign producers with workers in foreign countries [as they should] -- the cost/value proposition of the average Toyota or Honda is far higher than that of the average US vehicle.

In other words (and to quote Pogo) -- "We have met the enemy and he is us."


does this help?

Answer 4

The corporations and the fact that the US government is allowing the corporations to move plants overseas and have offshore bank accounts. These are very big problems. My father works in manufacturing and his company recently built a factory in Shanghai so he might not have a job in the next few years. This is a sad fact.

Answer 5

Industry -- lowering standards of goods
American worker -- demanding more than services worth
Union (I'm very pro-union) -- not considering managements
expense when negotiating contracts

All above combined; failing to realize that we're all in this
together and are all right and wrong about our side of the issue.

Goveernment; allowing too much outsourcing and too
little import (tariff/quality control)

Answer 6

Lots of factors ...

- Competitive overseas companies
- US trade laws
- Bad management
- Labor unions
- Consumers (willingness to buy foreign products)

Answer 7

US Manufacturing is. They led the world in the fifties and the sixties and saw others improving. The US stood by and watched as others past us. We did not invest in new equipment, new technology, or better quality.

Answer 8

China and Mexico and India

Answer 9

Trace it back to Reagan when he began busting unions. In particular when he busted the air traffic controllers union, at the time, one of the most powerful unions.
Bush Sr. then began the NAFTA deal where we opened our border with Mexico and U.S. companies salivated over the cheap labor there.

Answer 10

The US, for farming everything out to China.

Answer 11

Not who but what?

Answer - globalization pure and simple

I dunno that you can blame any one person or entity for globalization. With the rise of the information super highway, there was no getting around it. It was bound to happen. Labor is cheaper in developing countries so **POOF** there goes our blue collar jobs!