←back to thread

842 points putzdown | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.208s | source
Show context
NoTeslaThrow ◴[] No.43706451[source]
We never stopped manufacturing, we just stopped employing people.

> We don’t have the infrastructure to manufacture

That's trivially false given we're the second-largest manufacturer in the world. We just don't want to employ people, hence why we can't make an iphone or refine raw materials.

The actual issue is that our business culture is antithetical to a healthy society. The idea of employing Americans is anti-business—there's no willingness to invest, or to train, or to support an employee seen as waste. Until business can find some sort of reason to care about the state of the country, this will continue.

Of course, the government could weigh in, could incentivize, could subsidize, could propagandize, etc, to encourage us to actually build domestic industries. But that would be a titantic course reversal that would take decades of cultural change.

replies(26): >>43706502 #>>43706516 #>>43706762 #>>43706806 #>>43707207 #>>43707370 #>>43707504 #>>43707592 #>>43707667 #>>43707700 #>>43707708 #>>43707764 #>>43707801 #>>43707865 #>>43707875 #>>43707911 #>>43707987 #>>43708145 #>>43708466 #>>43709422 #>>43709521 #>>43709923 #>>43711367 #>>43714873 #>>43717675 #>>43804408 #
Suppafly ◴[] No.43707667[source]
>That's trivially false given we're the second-largest manufacturer in the world.

Sure, but we don't manufacture the things that are typically made in 3rd world countries and the lead time to build that infrastructure is years, and generally would result in us moving down the tech tree ladder from being a consumer economy to a manufacturing economy with all of the negatives associated with that.

replies(2): >>43708997 #>>43709714 #
1. anon84873628 ◴[] No.43709714[source]
And is that quoted fact in absolute terms or per capita / as percent of GDP? That makes a big difference as to how we should interpret it.