- The United States is rapidly becoming the very first
"post-industrial" nation on the globe.
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- All great economic empires eventually become fat and
lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them,
but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely
amazing. It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution.
It was America that showed the world how to mass produce everything from
automobiles to televisions to airplanes. It was the great American manufacturing
base that crushed Germany and Japan in World War II. But now
we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America.
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- Tens of thousands of factories have left the United States
in the past decade alone. Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs
have been lost in the same time period. The United States has become a
nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly
little.
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- Do you know what our biggest export is today? Waste
paper. Yes, trash is the number one thing that we ship out to the rest
of the world as we voraciously blow our money on whatever the rest of the
world wants to sell to us. The United States has become bloated and
spoiled and our economy is now just a shadow of what it once
was. Once upon a time America could literally outproduce the rest
of the world combined.
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- Today, that is no longer true, but Americans sure do
consume more than anyone else in the world. If the deindustrialization
of America continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are
we going to be leaving to our children?
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- Any great nation throughout history has been great at
making things. So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing
base to erode at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S. continue
to consider itself to be a great nation? We have created the biggest debt
bubble in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high
standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere close
to sustainable. Every single month America does into more debt and every
single month America gets poorer.
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- So what happens when the debt bubble pops?
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- The deindustrialization of the United States should be
a top concern for every man, woman and child in the country. But
sadly, most Americans do not have any idea what is going on around
them.
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- For people like that, take this article and print it
out and hand it to them. Perhaps what they will read below will shock
them badly enough to awaken them from their slumber.
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- The following are 19 facts about the deindustrialization
of America that will blow your mind...
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- #1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400
factories since 2001.
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- #2 Dell Inc., one of America's largest manufacturers
of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its
operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over
the next decade.
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- #3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its
last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in
November. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost.
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- #4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cellphones were sold worldwide.
So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States? Zero.
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- #5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic
Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase
at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million
jobs this year alone.
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- #6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with
China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.
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- #7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5
million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.
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- #8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and
2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased
an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time
period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined
8 percent to 21.1 million.
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- #9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of
U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.
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- #10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the
closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because
making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford's new "global"
manufacturing strategy.
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- #11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million
Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time less than 12 million
Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.
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- #12 In the United States today, consumption accounts
for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.
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- #13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its
manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
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- #14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in
the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th.
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- #15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry
is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.
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- #16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands
of different products. Asia now produces 84 percent of them
worldwide.
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- #17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on
Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from
the United States.
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- #18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese
economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the
year 2040.
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- #19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans
are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number
of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.
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- So, how many tens of thousands more factories do we need
to lose before we do something about it?
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- How many millions more Americans are going to become
unemployed before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem
on our hands?
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- How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave
the country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that
is killing our economy?
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- How many once great manufacturing cities are going
to become rotting war zones like Detroit before we understand
that we are committing national economic suicide? The deindustrialization
of America is a national crisis. It needs to be treated like one.
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- America is in deep, deep trouble folks. It is PAST time
to wake up.
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