[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

You nailed one of the BIGGEST gorillas in the room that nobody is talking about. There's not much "real" stuff propping up our economy anymore, now that we've successfully "outsourced" (I truly hate that euphemism) all of our manufacturing to China. All we have left is service-type activity which is largely "fluff", largely propped up by governmental regulation and convention - not based in it producing any real value.

In order to REALLY fix our economy permanently - in order to really ensure that we have permanent and sustainable growth - we need to bring back more manufacturing here and produce our own goods. Better still, we need to actually export what we can (agriculture comes to mind).

I blame being undercut by Asia (which is the direct result of our own stupid and short-sighted choices, driven by nothing other than a desire for cheaper, cheaper, cheaper) as the real core "disease" that's rotting our economy from the inside out.

We're doing a wonderful job trying to treat symptoms, but the underlying disease will still remain long after "stimulus" and other prop-ups are gone. And we'll be right back here. Mark my words.

A non-manufacturing economy is unsustainable - pure and simple. You need to produce goods of value (or services of value) to last. Most of what we produce is services, and they don't have much (if any) intrinsic value outside the context of our own particular society, legal system and set of governmental regulatory controls.

Originally Posted by dd74

Now and then I hear some very forward-thinking (forward to the tune of nearly insane) economist say, "Steel. We should produce steel again." Why? Because we can and should, and petrol prices will rise, which will make it harder for Asia to ship its steel to countries outside its region.

Steel is one industry. The automotive industry -- maybe. Textiles: the best clothing I've ever had was American made.

But honestly, it's a pipe dream without a huge pro-American campaign.

Originally Posted by red-beard

Seriously, it is not about the consumers. It is about taxation. Manufacturing first moved from the high tax, high wage states, to non-union, low tax states. Now they can't escape the taxes, they move overseas.

If we eliminate all federal taxes and institute a federal sales tax instead, corporations will flock back to the USA.

Great posts, there's really nothing more to add. Until we have some serious fundamental shifts in our economy and government, I don't see any improvement as anything more than temporary. We've spend the last 50 years building our economy on quicksand, it's only a matter of time. The stimulus billions are only adding to our weight, sinking us quicker and quicker.

I'm all for positive talk, but was informed yesterday that our company would be laying off more employees, rumored to be about 1/3 of engineering. I work in the aircraft industry, one of the few industries that actually contribute to a positive trade balance. So where's our bailout? Oh wait, our government simultaneously hates our industry but is also buying new Gulfstreams for the Senate.