Any reports that say we produce less than we used to are either entirely bogus, or are using some sort of measurement that isn't about value, something like weight, or are focused on specific companies or sectors, rather than the whole economy, or are short term (for example if manufacturing two months ago was a bit less than 6 months ago, or if the reports predict a coming cyclic recession).
Manufacturing employment is down a lot, its been dropping for most of your life time. But we are producing more with less. I consider that to be a positive now, not just in the very long run. (Although a general positive can still be painful for many people, the "creative destruction" of economic change does involve some actual, unavoidable destruction.)
not unlike the productivity increase by the mechanized agricultural revolution.
Yes very much like that. We went from maybe 90% employed in agriculture to maybe 2%. A similar process has been happening in manufacturing for decades, possibly its speeding up now.
What many people don't know is that its not just the US, or rich countries in general, where this is happening. China is also "losing" manufacturing employment, as its manufacturing productivity increases. Its further back on the curve than we are (it still uses a lot more unskilled labor), but its on the same type of curve. |
