U.S. needs to step up to the plate in manufacturing exports

  

 Email Article  

Tweet  

  

  

  

 delicious  

  

  

The US manufacturing sector generates about $1.2 trillion or 12% of our GDP.  Our manufacturing sector produces about two thirds of our nation’s total exports of goods and services.  The manufacturing sector supports about 20 million HIGH PAYING jobs.  I believe our nation still leads the world in ideas, innovation and cutting edge technology. Where would China be without their amazing capacity to copy us?  However at current pace, China will indeed pass us up in “cutting edge” technology, as well as “Green” or “Sustainable” technology, simply because they work harder and outpace us in graduates from Universities in Science and Engineering degrees.

The U.S. is one of many countries with a decline in manufacturing employment

However our culture and free society still provides the best potential for future innovation let alone our far superior skilled labor force to lead the world in the coming decade for what the next Global generation will consider to be “IN”.

Our future societies in America will depend upon our ability to maintain a strong manufacturing industry to improve our quality of life and develop the job growth our nation so desperately requires.  The primary focus should be to look at what the Global community needs (not so much wants) instead of what the U.S. needs.  Without an exporting vision behind what we manufacture in this country, I am afraid we will sink slowly into the Abyss we are now heading into as a nation of debt ridden consumers with rising unemployment.  The hindrances we face now include an incredibly huge bureaucratic  government that is intent on destroying our nation’s manufacturing power (see small business, the backbone of our industries) with rising health care costs, unions, taxes, and  inflation which forces industries to look elsewhere to outsource to low wage countries.  You add that to the ability for countries like China to cheat on international trade rules and we have an awfully hard uphill battle on our hands to be able to compete in the Global marketplace.

A bright spot in current trends is that certain sectors like finance, information, technology services are growing in this country.  This of course is the backbone of any manufacturing industry.  What we need is a renewed focus on how to make manufacturing work in this country with more efficiency and less waste.  American’s just waste too much, we waste everything from what we consume to how we spend our time.  Thomas Friedman hit the nail on the head in his latest book HOT FLAT and CROWDED when he addressed this problem.    But we also need new people in our Government who will make it their priority to ensure government paves the way for the exporting industry to flourish rather than impede it’s progress.

Some facts:

• Nearly 80% of all patents filed come from the U.S. manufacturing sectors
• U.S. manufacturing are responsible for two thirds of all R&D investment in this country.
• American manufacturing are the leading buyers of new technology in the U.S.
• American manufacturing directly employs 14 million Americans while creating an additional 8 million jobs in related sectors.
• American manufacturing is the largest single contributor to our economy.
• America leads the world in technologies related to Robotics, Nanotechnology, Laser and Bio technologies.

It’s time for American’s to step up to the plate and renew our focus on where we are strong and don’t give in to the temptation to acquiesce to developing countries that are hungrier.  I liken it to the L.A. Lakers continuing to get stronger so they can defend their title next year against those hungry “Beasts” of the east.

Devin T. Burke
CEO, Universal Cargo Management