The Myth of The Death of American Manufacturing

Matt Welch (2008:Dec.05). "U.S. Manufacturing Is Dead, Right?" Reason Magazine.

Far from dead, our manufacturing sector is the world's largest, with 5% of the world's population producing five times their share in industrial goods.

States like Alabama, with the second-largest per capita concentration of auto-related jobs, as well as South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Mississippi, have been growing these high-wage jobs for a new generation. In the process, they have brought unprecedented opportunity to some of the nation's historically poorest regions.

Don Boudreaux (2009:Aug.12). "Manufacturing Error," Cafe Hayek.

Harold Meyerson’s argument that America no longer “makes things” is specious.  It’s true, as Mr. Meyerson says, that “Since 1987, manufacturing as a share of our gross domestic product has declined 30 percent.”

In fact, according to the 2009 Economic Report of the President, total manufacturing output in the U.S. – measured by an industrial-production index – hit an all-time high in 2007 (the latest full year for which data are available).*  In 2007, American manufacturing output was eight percent higher than it was in 2000, 69 percent higher than in 1990, 81 percent higher than in 1987, 184 percent higher than in 1980, and 213 percent higher than in 1967 – one of the years that Mr. Meyerson singles out as a glorious one when America “still made things.”

Don Boudreaux (2009:Apr.20). "The State of Manufacturing in the United States," Cafe Hayek.

The facts contradict those who insist that freer trade condemns high-wage countries, such as the United States, to suffer net losses of highly productive enterprises

Don Boudreaux (2007:Sep.15). "The State of Manufacturing in the U.S." Cafe Hayek.

I have never believed that making things is inherently better — inherently more likely to produce widespread prosperity, inherently more noble, inherently more meaningful — than is the supplying of services.  And until I notice a widespread pattern of parents hoping that their children grow up to become factory workers rather than to become doctors, lawyers, and bank presidents, I’ll continue to believe that, whether they know it or not, most Americans value jobs in the service sector pretty darn highly.

Primarily about trade, but addresses manufacturing; specifically, manufacturing jobs:
Don Boudreaux (2007:Nov.11). "Keeping Straight the Facts About Trade," Cafe Hayek.

Contrary to what Adrian Boutureira writes in "The hidden costs of free trade" (Op-ed, Nov. 5), the loss of manufacturing jobs in Massachusetts has nothing to do with the North American Free Trade Agreement. In the four years prior to the implementation of NAFTA (1990-1993), Massachusetts lost 80,000 manufacturing jobs, while in the 13 years since 1994, the loss has been 120,000.

The loss of manufacturing jobs is mainly due to technological progress. The long-term growth of manufacturing jobs in the United States came to a halt in 1969, and the decline started in 1979. While between 1993 and 2006 the number of manufacturing jobs in this country has declined by about 2.7 million, the index of industrial production has risen by 62 percent, and the value of manufacturing output in constant prices has increased by 54 percent.