[erb]

just 9 percent. ...unsustainable: Market Skeptics "manufacturing as a share of the economy has been plummeting. In 1965, manufacturing accounted for 53 percent of the economy. By 1988 it only accounted for 39 percent, and in 2004, it accounted for just 9 percent. "

in less than 45 years, while spending has gone up on (almost) all US infrastructure (military, gov, ect.)

[bratticus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('erb', '"')... in 2004, it accounted for just 9 percent. " in less than 45 years, while spending has gone up on (almost) all US infrastructure (military, gov, ect.)

[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('erb', '[')url=http://www.marketskeptics.com/]Market Skeptics[/url] "manufacturing as a share of the economy has been plummeting. In 1965, manufacturing accounted for 53 percent of the economy. By 1988 it only accounted for 39 percent, and in 2004, it accounted for just 9 percent. "
in less than 45 years, while spending has gone up on (almost) all US infrastructure (military, gov, ect.)

[Nickel]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bratticus', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('erb', '"')... in 2004, it accounted for just 9 percent. "

in less than 45 years, while spending has gone up on (almost) all US infrastructure (military, gov, ect.)

[Nickel]

Paul Craig Roberts, who was Undersecretary of the Treasury in the Reagan admin, has been writing about this for years now. The West in general and the US in particular has been off-shoring not just jobs, but technical know-how and even facilities to China for decades. It used to be the Nazis would take over your country and move all they could to Germany... now you don't even need to conquer. You just need greedy corporate executives who can't see any further than the end of their own yacht. So now much of our manufacturing and even our technical knowledge is gone, and we chose to let it happen. We agreed to it. So kids are graduating with engineering degrees and technical degrees and there are no jobs for them. Soon it won't be the Chinese moving here anymore; we'll be moving there for the jobs that used to be ours. I've been reading about this for four or five years now. It's only "news" because no one wanted to hear it.

[dsula]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Nickel', 'P')aul Craig Roberts, who was Undersecretary of the Treasury in the Reagan admin, has been writing about this for years now. The West in general and the US in particular has been off-shoring not just jobs, but technical know-how and even facilities to China for decades.

[dsula]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'M')y friend owns inexpensive machine tools from from China from Harbor Freight that he can use to build just about anything, except the most complex high tech toys. We in the West have given away the means for basic productions. We seriously believe the world can not live without our fancy patents and other intellectual property. Boy do we have a surprise in store.

[carbniky]

If there was someone who was TRYING to destroy America and get it to fall apart, is there something they could have done that was more effective to crash the system?

No.

they have been doing their job very well.

[Nickel]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dsula', 'N')ot greedy executives. Greedy consumers made it happen.

[bratticus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Nickel', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dsula', 'N')ot greedy executives. Greedy consumers made it happen.

[Nickel]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bratticus', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Nickel', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dsula', 'N')ot greedy executives. Greedy consumers made it happen.

[Tyler_JC]

We only became a significant oil importer in the 1970s after US oil production peaked.

Regardless, it's not oil alone that lead to the weakening of the US manufacturing sector.

[davep]

I agree that the Captains of Industry helped the shift towards China.

I used to work at Philips, and they built a components plant in China in the nineties, using some of their finest engineers to share their knowledge. They had to agree a 50-50 share, with the share becoming entirely Chinese after a few years.

They accepted, because everyone else was doing the same thing. Now, we see the results of this idiocy.

[bratticus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Nickel', 'U')S was a net importer by the 80s, if I'm not mistaken. Where China (and Japan) gets the oil from is their problem. They get to charge us for it and make a little profit on top, I'm sure.