It’s a well-written article about why tariffs won’t work. I think everyone on Lemmy probably knows that already though. What I found interesting is that every developed country seems to follow the same trend. Pushing for going back to manufacturing might be the national equivalent of “I don’t want to grow up!”.
This seems like a way better approach:
A recent report from Tim Bartik at the Upjohn Institute suggests that the most impactful policies for struggling manufacturing-heavy communities include:
Customized services for small and medium businesses, including manufacturing extension services and job training services
Public spending on education, from preschool and K-12 to colleges and universities, as well as vocational education and job training programs for workers
Public investment in infrastructure and increasing land supply for business and housing development
Less effective policies include broad tax cuts for business, targeted business attraction incentives and attempts to reduce workers’ wages. One of the best ways to fund investment in distressed communities is with broad-based tax increases, while one of the worst ways is to cut K-12 education spending.
From what I understand, manufacturing hasn’t stopped, or even declined. It’s still going strong, it’s just a much smaller percentage of the GDP now. Here’s a chart that shows that trend (the source of the chart itself looks like some business-y site, but they say the data is drawn from the UN):
So I don’t think anybody’s saying that we need to stop countries from developing, just that once a country develops a strong manufacturing base, they don’t have to limit their economy to only or mostly manufacturing.
I bring up the GDP only to point out that some graphs with scary numbers don’t really mean much. I don’t think “GDP go up” means the middle class isn’t getting fucked.
Broadly, I agree that we should manufacture more. I just think that the jobs aren’t “coming back”, and framing it that way leads to people arguing along political lines. I’d be interested in seeing more of a breakdown than the charts I posted above. Which manufacturing industries have kept growing in the US? Clearly not electronics, as you point out. I like your tax-based proposal, though.
It’s a well-written article about why tariffs won’t work. I think everyone on Lemmy probably knows that already though. What I found interesting is that every developed country seems to follow the same trend. Pushing for going back to manufacturing might be the national equivalent of “I don’t want to grow up!”.
This seems like a way better approach:
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From what I understand, manufacturing hasn’t stopped, or even declined. It’s still going strong, it’s just a much smaller percentage of the GDP now. Here’s a chart that shows that trend (the source of the chart itself looks like some business-y site, but they say the data is drawn from the UN):
Here’s a scary chart showing the decline of manufacturing:
But notice that it’s as a percentage of GDP
So I don’t think anybody’s saying that we need to stop countries from developing, just that once a country develops a strong manufacturing base, they don’t have to limit their economy to only or mostly manufacturing.
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I bring up the GDP only to point out that some graphs with scary numbers don’t really mean much. I don’t think “GDP go up” means the middle class isn’t getting fucked.
Broadly, I agree that we should manufacture more. I just think that the jobs aren’t “coming back”, and framing it that way leads to people arguing along political lines. I’d be interested in seeing more of a breakdown than the charts I posted above. Which manufacturing industries have kept growing in the US? Clearly not electronics, as you point out. I like your tax-based proposal, though.
deleted by creator