[lanthissa]

the us is 16% of global manufacturing by value with 4% of the population, i dont know how this fact isn't brought up more.

on a population weighted basis the us manufactures more by value than china.

A bunch of people salivating for a world where the us was 52% of world gdp, not because it was great, but because the rest of the world was ash.

[zipy124]

Whilst this is true, there is some distortion to that statement with measuring by value. If I produce a screw for the US military (a scenario where supply chains are highly regulated and thus may be unable to buy cheap from a foreign country) and sell it for $1, I have produced a dollar of manufacturing by value, but If I produce exactly the same product in China for $0.1, I've only made 10 cents by value, despite the fact I have made exactly the same product.

There is a reason why for instance ships and raw materials output is measured in tonnage, since that is the actual thing produced, the value is secondary to that. That is you would want to measure the actual amount of goods produced rather than what they sold for, obviously only amongst comparable categories.

[wvenable]

Also US unemployment has been low. The idea that Americans need more jobs just doesn't fit the numbers. There are plenty of good paying non-backbreaking jobs for Americans but they just don't seem to believe it.

[pepperball]

> There are plenty of good paying non-backbreaking jobs for Americans but they just don't seem to believe it.

Where at?

[9rx]

Also, US manufacturing already struggles to find workers.

The problem, though, is that 70% of US manufacturing happens in small town/rural areas, which is not where the people looking for jobs are found, so you get this curious disconnect.