THANK YOU! I feel so vindicated! Back in the 1980’s my dad, a machinist lost his job, that he was at for 18 years because it moved. I watched companies that had been in business for a 100 years fold and go to Mexico or China. I watched Clinton sign away our jobs with NAFTA and thought how can a country stay sustainable when it gives away its manufacturing base? Not everyone is cut out for University and these blue collar jobs were a way for you to still have a decent living and raise a family. Then they sell your job for profit and cheap crap to China. Companies fold, people lose their jobs and poverty and crime sky rocket. People didn’t lose their homes just because of bad loans, they lost their homes because they no longer had jobs. Our politicians sold us to China! And at the time the big wigs were all for it. The basic question was ignored, how can a country stay viable if it no longer has a manufacturing base? Isn’t that how America became a super power by all the things we made. We became rich from our manufacturing base. If you think about it, it lasted about 60 years. From the 1920’s to the late 1980’s. And then it all went downhill.
Great article. I hope Trump can turn this around. It shuts down the globalization of the world, but who wants that other than the WEF.
“Barbie’s leg pops off if you bend it too fast” was hilarious but so true. Remember when our parents bought one set of appliances that lasts thier whole life? Remember Kenmore brand that was considered a quality item or Sears tools. All went to China and all no longer worth a dam.
So well said. I’m thinking back to the early 2000s and how the prevailing wisdom for successful businesses was to go “asset light.” Those boring bricks and mortar stores and banks, factories, power generating plants — low margin, someone else should run those. Remember what that gave us? Enron. You’d think we would’ve learned something.
I read all this stuff like “the average American buys 60 new articles of clothing a year and wears each one no more than three times before disposing of it” — in what universe does this make any sense? Pretty sure I still have T-shirts from the last century in my rotation.
And while I do some of my shopping on Amazon, I hate that for many product categories, all you get are these endless lists of indistinguishable plastic crap with brand names no one has ever heard of and many of which look like keyboard smashes.
So well stated. I fully support the shock and awe approach Trump's taking. As for the cheap stuff, it's addicting and will be hard to break ourselves from, but it's so important to bring manufacturing back to America.
Great post, Lady Liberty, thanks for sharing. I will subscribe to your Substack.
I think globalists/swamp would rather bankrupt the world economy than allow Trump to have success (Quite psychopathic). Trump admin indicates 50 countries have called about renegotiating trade deals since the tariffs were announced last week; we will see what comes of that. Perhaps we will see more bilateral trade agreements, which I think would be a good thing. Please check out my post on the tariffs if you are interested. https://open.substack.com/pub/swlion26/p/political-hypocrisy-and-the-trump?r=q9u1t&utm_medium=ios
Reshoring manufacturing to America assumes there’s a large number of unemployed workers with the fitness, skills and desire to work in factories. Is there? 18% of Americans are 65+. Meanwhile the median age in Vietnam is 33.
Skills and education? China STEM graduates exceed 3.57 million annually (40% of graduates).
U.S. graduates 584K STEM annually (20% of graduates).
Fitness? An astonishing 40% of Americans are obese. Opioid addiction is rampant. And many cannot access or afford basic health care. US life expectancy is 77.5 years. Canada’s 81.3, Japan 84.5.
Highly paid unionized auto manufacturing jobs are the exception, not the rule. Bottom line: are Americans going to line up to work making shoes and garments for minimum wage?
I would not bet on a renaissance of American manufacturing. For now, major markets seem to agree. Over the last few days the S&P 500 lost more than $5 trillion in value.
I completely agree that multinationals sold us out. And some tariffs are valid, such as with China, when used strategically. But thats not what’s happening here. There’s no runway to a long-term solution to bring back manufacturing to the US, which was already happening under Biden, a narcissist, and as much as I don’t like him. There’s no vision w/ this president except to upend the global economy and send us into depression. And privatize everything in a nihilistic tantrum. The market is crashing and people’s retirement accounts are at stake. Doesn’t that matter to the apologist author, who justifies her opinion by only saying tariffs are “probably a good thing?” Let’s deal with facts. You can’t turn back 40 years of multinational greed overnight. To believe otherwise is to be in deep denial and lacking in any compassion for working people, false blathering, and clever turns of phrases, to the contrary.
Very good. Does each person always bring a gift when coming over to dinner to each other’s or do neither bring one? Both options even out fairly. All being even it’s better to not bring a gift which saves extra trouble. If one always brings a present and the other never does, there’s a perpetual mismatch which needs addressing.
THANK YOU! I feel so vindicated! Back in the 1980’s my dad, a machinist lost his job, that he was at for 18 years because it moved. I watched companies that had been in business for a 100 years fold and go to Mexico or China. I watched Clinton sign away our jobs with NAFTA and thought how can a country stay sustainable when it gives away its manufacturing base? Not everyone is cut out for University and these blue collar jobs were a way for you to still have a decent living and raise a family. Then they sell your job for profit and cheap crap to China. Companies fold, people lose their jobs and poverty and crime sky rocket. People didn’t lose their homes just because of bad loans, they lost their homes because they no longer had jobs. Our politicians sold us to China! And at the time the big wigs were all for it. The basic question was ignored, how can a country stay viable if it no longer has a manufacturing base? Isn’t that how America became a super power by all the things we made. We became rich from our manufacturing base. If you think about it, it lasted about 60 years. From the 1920’s to the late 1980’s. And then it all went downhill.
Great article. I hope Trump can turn this around. It shuts down the globalization of the world, but who wants that other than the WEF.
“Barbie’s leg pops off if you bend it too fast” was hilarious but so true. Remember when our parents bought one set of appliances that lasts thier whole life? Remember Kenmore brand that was considered a quality item or Sears tools. All went to China and all no longer worth a dam.
Not sure how this ended up in my feed but it’s a tragically honest and beautiful look at what WE collectively did.
So well said. I’m thinking back to the early 2000s and how the prevailing wisdom for successful businesses was to go “asset light.” Those boring bricks and mortar stores and banks, factories, power generating plants — low margin, someone else should run those. Remember what that gave us? Enron. You’d think we would’ve learned something.
I read all this stuff like “the average American buys 60 new articles of clothing a year and wears each one no more than three times before disposing of it” — in what universe does this make any sense? Pretty sure I still have T-shirts from the last century in my rotation.
And while I do some of my shopping on Amazon, I hate that for many product categories, all you get are these endless lists of indistinguishable plastic crap with brand names no one has ever heard of and many of which look like keyboard smashes.
So well stated. I fully support the shock and awe approach Trump's taking. As for the cheap stuff, it's addicting and will be hard to break ourselves from, but it's so important to bring manufacturing back to America.
Great post, Lady Liberty, thanks for sharing. I will subscribe to your Substack.
I think globalists/swamp would rather bankrupt the world economy than allow Trump to have success (Quite psychopathic). Trump admin indicates 50 countries have called about renegotiating trade deals since the tariffs were announced last week; we will see what comes of that. Perhaps we will see more bilateral trade agreements, which I think would be a good thing. Please check out my post on the tariffs if you are interested. https://open.substack.com/pub/swlion26/p/political-hypocrisy-and-the-trump?r=q9u1t&utm_medium=ios
‘Tis better to make stuff than to buy stuff.
I appreciate your Barbie Commodity Form Analysis
Reshoring manufacturing to America assumes there’s a large number of unemployed workers with the fitness, skills and desire to work in factories. Is there? 18% of Americans are 65+. Meanwhile the median age in Vietnam is 33.
Skills and education? China STEM graduates exceed 3.57 million annually (40% of graduates).
U.S. graduates 584K STEM annually (20% of graduates).
Fitness? An astonishing 40% of Americans are obese. Opioid addiction is rampant. And many cannot access or afford basic health care. US life expectancy is 77.5 years. Canada’s 81.3, Japan 84.5.
Highly paid unionized auto manufacturing jobs are the exception, not the rule. Bottom line: are Americans going to line up to work making shoes and garments for minimum wage?
I would not bet on a renaissance of American manufacturing. For now, major markets seem to agree. Over the last few days the S&P 500 lost more than $5 trillion in value.
I completely agree that multinationals sold us out. And some tariffs are valid, such as with China, when used strategically. But thats not what’s happening here. There’s no runway to a long-term solution to bring back manufacturing to the US, which was already happening under Biden, a narcissist, and as much as I don’t like him. There’s no vision w/ this president except to upend the global economy and send us into depression. And privatize everything in a nihilistic tantrum. The market is crashing and people’s retirement accounts are at stake. Doesn’t that matter to the apologist author, who justifies her opinion by only saying tariffs are “probably a good thing?” Let’s deal with facts. You can’t turn back 40 years of multinational greed overnight. To believe otherwise is to be in deep denial and lacking in any compassion for working people, false blathering, and clever turns of phrases, to the contrary.
For a thoughtful take on Trump's tariffs, read this:
https://www.ianwelsh.net/trumps-liberation-day-this-boy-could-fuck-up-boiling-water/
Very good. Does each person always bring a gift when coming over to dinner to each other’s or do neither bring one? Both options even out fairly. All being even it’s better to not bring a gift which saves extra trouble. If one always brings a present and the other never does, there’s a perpetual mismatch which needs addressing.