US needs Manufacturing

The US needs the capability to be self-sufficient with some to spare.  We need to produce our own energy resources, military defense systems and the raw materials needed to construct everything we need.

Our economy is large enough to accommodate every industry on the planet.  There is no reason we shouldn’t have wide-spread activity in mining, timber, drilling and fracking to extract oil and natural gas and coal and all other ores and minerals. We should also have the pipelines, harbors, freight rail and highways to assist supply chains. We need to grow our own food and raise our own livestock.

We need our own steel production, lead smelters, concrete production and manufactured goods production operations to make all of the appliances and devices we use. 

Our economy should be a private market economy with consumers paying the cost and prices governed by the law of supply and demand. 

Companies should be able to buy what they need based on quality and price. Supply chains need to become cost and quality driven.

We need to recycle and reduce waste. We need to ensure that our water and air quality are clean enough to prevent serious illness. We need to reengineer waste disposal to reduce the disposal problems we have with nuclear waste and coal-fired electric power plant ponds to reclaim harmful minerals.  We need to ensure clean water availability with more reservoirs and distribution. We need to replace all lead water distribution pipes.

We need to balance our trade, but need to guard against the downside of self-sufficiency and identify the type of production the US can compete in. The unintended consequences we face involve violating the laws of supply and demand and again corrupting the consumers’ ability to control prices.

In the 1960s, offshoring products that had high labor requirements, but were limited in volume struck the right balance. At Monsanto Textile Division in 1969, we decided to build a plant in Asia to make wigs. Oddly enough, Monsanto was overstaffed and less interested in productivity in the 1960s, because corporate taxes only allowed a 5% profit. Monsanto chose to spend extra money on staff rather than giving it to the government.

We saw shoes and clothing manufacturers leave the US because they required labor-intensive processes.  New processes may allow a more automated less labor-intensive requirement.

Other industries moved offshore if they had severe labor union abuse. If we do move automobile plants back, we need rules to prevent union abuse and should set their pay based on what foreign automobile companies pay. 

The move from a 35% corporate tax to a 15% corporate tax, plus a 10% tax on the return of capital should provide the US with the opportunity to return manufacturing to “state of the art” equipment and processes. US should be more than able to deliver very highly reliable manufactured products.

We’ve seen the decline in reliability of products made overseas, particularly in electronics. The US consumer is more than ready to buy electronics with much longer productive life and much better reliability. We are tired of replacing junk with more junk.

Rural counties took the hit from NAFTA. We need to restore manufacturing jobs to these rural counties and reverse over packing the large cities. Large manufacturing facilities with significant engineering groups may need to locate campus settings in the suburbs and exurbs of large cities. All others should locate in rural counties.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader