“We’ve shipped almost all of our manufacturing elsewhere”…this is not correct. According to Financial Times, the U.S. still has a higher share of world manufacturing output than any other nation:
http://photoncourier.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_photoncourier_archive.html#8398186398533995155
Things made in the USA include jetliners, CAT scanners, locomotives, tractors & heavy equipment, cranes, desks, and filing cabinets, to mention a few.
It was inevitable that the % of the population engaged in manufacturing would decline over time, even ignoring offshoring, due to productivity improvements…just as happened earlier with agriculture. There’s a lot that can & should be done to help U.S. manufacturing and improve exports, including tax policy changes; it’s also important to recognize that US manufacturing is strong in many areas.

photoncourier.blogspot.com on December 1, 2008 at 11:34 am

Thanks for the link to your July article. Here’s a bumper sticker for ya:
OUT OF A JOB YET?
Oh yeah, we’re in Michigan
FIND A JOB YET?
Jimmy Lewis
SCS, Michigan
Blog: http://rougerevival.blogspot.com/

Jimmy on December 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm

[Out of a Job Yet? Keep Voting for Obama
Well, it can be used in 2012.]
Obama wasn’t supporting outsourcing. Conservatives were. I can’t wait until 2012 because you guys will be so embarrassed by how much of a good president Obama will be, particularly on the economy.

Norman Blitzer on December 1, 2008 at 12:48 pm

Norman, Norman, Norman … it’s not us guys … we’re in this together. It’s U.S. guys and gals.
In case you havenít notice, as yet Norman, the Obama recession is in full swing Ö i.e.: stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come. This is an Obama recession Ö and it just may turn into a depression. B.O. hasn’t done anything yet, but it is HIS ideas that are killing the economy. His ideas are killing Wall Street.
Suddenly everybody in the liberal media are beginning to ask question and actually saying things like: ìWe donít know who Obama really is!” This statement was in the Associated Press just last week. Then you have Charlie Rose starting to talk about B.O.ís ties to Saul Alinsky. And then a Reuters story with the headline: “Will Democrats Tinker With Mutual Funds, 401k Plans?” So now they do the story, after the election, and guess what Norman Ö for the first time they get it right. Theyíre telling you Norman exactly what the Democrats plan to do with your 401K Ö confirming what many people tried to warn you about prior to the election.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down nearly 800 points since Obama won the election, and he hasn’t passed anything yet. And if you understand the Stock Market at all Norman, you would understand the meaning of ìspeculatorsî and ìfuturesî.
And if you want to carry on this conversation, I suggest you take a look at the projections on the number of small business that will be going out of business under Obama Ö let alone the untold number of Small Business that will never see the light of day.
Jimmy Lewis
SCS, Michigan
Blog: http://rougerevival.blogspot.com/

Jimmy on December 1, 2008 at 1:44 pm

Outsourcing policies are bipartisan — Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama, it will be the same. Bilingualism is the same thing. The nuttiest thing that happened was that I got one of these marketing calls the other day; I picked up the receiver, and was treated to a menu: ‘for English press one, for Spanish two”; so even for unsolicited marketing calls, the unfortunate recepient is expected to listen to voicemail menu before even hearing the unwelcome message. The English language is under full attack, just like making products in America (really making them here) is under attack.

c f on December 1, 2008 at 2:40 pm

Shop American has become a sad cruel joke played on us. We allowed all this outsourcing by two Presidents Bush and Clinton. And will definitely continue with the Snake Charmer KING HUSSEIN COBRAMA. We need someone like Lou Dobbs to run our economy. Someone who will get rid of free trade agreements that work against American workers. Fair trade that helps out workers not just Wall Street portfolios. He is right that there is a “War on The Middle Class”. Though outsourcing of jobs or insourcing of illegal alien labor, Americans continue to get kicked in the teeth by both parties. Only a few get it right on trade issues, Ron Paul (lost on foreign relations though) or Duncan Hunter and just a few others.
Who are on are COBRAMA’S economic team? Tim Geithner, Austan Goolsbee, Paul Volcker and Peter Orszag. All Free-Traders!! Austan Goolsbee was the one who reassured the Canadian government representatives that COBRAMA’S bad mouthing of NAFTA was all political posturing and not to worry. Well his team is all Free-Traders. COBRAMA’S has flipped or lied on every position throughout his life and campaign.
Where were the Dems to stop Clinton in the 90s as NAFTA, GATT, WTO, MOST FAVORED NATION WITH CHINA, and all the other free trade proposals? Clinton passed free trade with the help of House and Senate Repubs. So the Dems dont come out clean either.
As for jobs there were will be more jobs created under COBRAMA. Who couldn’t create more jobs with the bailout that is occurring? Already 7.8 Trillion dollars and counting. With so much money being borrowed and printed and put into the banks to them up, yes jobs will be created. Mostly service sector jobs. But at what expense? Two trillion dollar budget deficits? Deficit spending your way out of a recession. What will happen with inflation? COBRAMA is playing with fire. More stimulus..err Bailout Money still to come under COBRAMA. This will be at least another Trillion dollars or so. Come Feb. and March the bailouts will be in place and COBRAMA will play the hand he is dealt as he double downs the family farm to appease everyone’s financial troubles. This is where Volcker comes into place. Volcker is credited in 1979 and 1980 to strangle the baby….err inflation in the bathtub at all costs. He got interest rates up to 21 percent to crush inflation. This so called “guru” had collateral damage like high unemployment, damaged the steel industry, family farms were foreclosed and all time high bankruptcies.
Yes COBRAMA has agreed on all these bailouts with Bush. Geithner is a Fed Board Member with Bernarke, so he obviously is hand in hand with this fool. America got played by the so-called wizard of Wall Street Alan Greenspan. COBRAMA praised all of Greenspsan’s moves. Greenspan should be in a prison cell. COBRAMA doesn’t know squat about economics. He already has reneged on his “cut taxes for the middle class and tax the top 5%” bullcrap he was peddling. That is counterproductive in getting that top 5% to invest their money which he needs them to do since the market has cratered and they are very cautious. So he was talking sh*t. But for the masses who dont know economics that played well. But they do remember his promise and that will be used against him. “Dude where is the tax increase on the rich?” Oh yeah we might be in a serious depression by then as he finds out all this borrowing and printing of money may lead to inflation he cant control. But the MSM and liberals will BAIL OUT COBRAMA by whining it was “Bush’s fault!!”

californiascreaming on December 1, 2008 at 2:45 pm

What’s really ironic is that if you buy an American car, you’ll likely spend a lot more on foreign oil–gasoline. So, just as buying a plug-in car means you have a long exhaust pipe leading back to a power plant somewhere, buying an American non-plug-in car means you’ve just kicked “buying foreign” down the literal road a bit.

markjames on December 1, 2008 at 3:17 pm

You can still make the effort to buy american cars assembled here. Yes, some components are imported, but at least the assembly jobs stay here in America for Americans. The only exception is to not buy Asian brands assembled here. We are turning into a banana republic for Japan and Korea and soon China. Baby boomers just looooooove their Camrys. They should be forced to drive around with the corpse of someone displaced by our dying auto industry strapped to their front bumper or splayed across their hood. I am physically sickened when I see Baby boomers that put giant Amerrican flag stickers on their Asian cars.

ObamaSlammaJamma on December 1, 2008 at 5:38 pm

I can only watch as American politicians regulate American jobs to foreign countries. It’s difficult enough to compete against unfair trade practices, which have been a component of “trade” for centuries. But when the Levin brothers, Dingell, Stabenow, and Granholm (here in Michigan) make it so unattractive to keep large-medium companies going in the USA by regulating them (mileage requirements, environmental regs, labor practices, fair wage, etc.) to other shores, what else can you call it?

P. Aaron on December 1, 2008 at 6:00 pm

(I’ll go slow here so southerners can understand)
if people bought american cars, those WOULDNT be toyota and honda plants in the south employing americans………they would be GM, FORD and CHRYSLER plants employing americans!!!!…..come on now…..I thought we were past the abc’s of auto economics by now….we all know what the problem is……dont we???????? still??? really?? come on…..lets get with the game here…..

Steve Steverson on October 27, 2009 at 6:31 pm

Am I being too sensitive about these bumper stickers?

I’m Canadian and I find these stickers a little ignorant.

Creepy Uncle Bob on March 1, 2010 at 9:19 pm

So true. I am a liberal, and I hate that you can’t buy anything from the U.S anymore. I have an idea to keep jobs in the U.S, give incentives to corporations that keep jobs here and give living wages and tax corporations that ship jobs to China and give slave wages. I believe in giving corporations incentives-if they help Americans as well. It’s impossible to boycott China, a nation that abuses human rights, when EVERYTHING is made in China.

Robyn on March 25, 2016 at 4:46 pm