Implied Dissent

Saturday, August 16, 2003

Every so often someone mentions the 'fact' that America doesn't make stuff anymore. Unfortunately for those people, but fortunately for America, it's just not true, as Bruce Bartlett demonstrates. In 1800 90% of Americans were farmers, and they had a merely adequate amount of food. Today only about 3% (I might be off a little bit on that number, but the point is still valid) of us farm, we have so much food that the government pays people not to farm, and farming is one of our biggest exports. It is a similar situation with manufacturing. There are some weak spots certainly and we import a lot of certain goods, but US manufacturing is strong. Also, much of the drop in manufacturing employment is a statistical phenomenom of how different workers are classified, not a real decline. Don't let the would-be Cassandras fool you.

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