[deaddodo]

This is the part that blows my mind. People seem to think the US is incapable of and does no manufacturing. It is the second largest manufacturer[1], and has a capacity about 65% of what China does. Which is 350% of the next largest manufacturing country.

What they stopped manufacturing was menial and low-end product; because it's not price-effective to have 100 Americans sit on an assembly line and solder SMT components for $7-18/hr. Instead, those potential workers pivoted into service jobs and office work.

1 - https://www.safeguardglobal.com/resources/blog/top-10-manufa...

[rayiner]

> What they stopped manufacturing was menial and low-end product

This statement is as inaccurate as the comment you’re trying to debunk. The fact is that China leveraged it’s low-end manufacturing work to work its way up the chain and now is the leader in many areas: https://itif.org/publications/2025/09/23/how-china-is-outper.... E.g. China has been investing heavily in radar technology and as a result has air to air missiles with comparable range to the U.S. https://en.defence-ua.com/weapon_and_tech/why_the_us_is_alar...

There are synergies to having the high end stuff and the low end stuff in the same place. The story of IBM developing System 360 mentions the benefit from the ladies who wound the wire core memory and the guys who designed the computer on the same campus in New York. We gave that up when we outsourced the “menial” stuff abroad.

[rangestransform]

When I was at Tesla, this was the reason given for having the Fremont factory despite Bay Area labour prices

[deaddodo]

Your entire blurb doesn't prove an inaccuracy, it simply shows that China has diversified it's manufacturing beyond low-end manufacturing.

I never claimed that they did not do high-end manufacturing.

[delfinom]

Yes/no.

China at this point is hard in automation, beyond anything the US has. China is well past the peak of sweatshops.

As someone in the manufacturing space in the US, the biggest issue we have in the US is that manufacturing continues to die. Any manufacturing we have left is the old guard dying off. It comes from a range of issues from companies refusing to invest in younger employees, to the cost of real estate (both buy or rent) for commercial properties being absurd..

[deaddodo]

Incorrect. To reiterate, the closest near competitor below it does ~30% what the US does; and it only goes down from there. And, compared to China, they are doing 65% of their manufacturing capacity at 25% of their population. The US is doing fine.

The fact that China is diversified beyond low end manufacturing just shows that they have incentive + economic impetus to expand that field; and hardly disproves what I stated or shows any trend of US manufacturing "dying off".

[CPLX]

That’s just not the reason though.

The reason we can’t do manufacturing is because Wall Street demands capital light business models.

That, in turn, is an outcome of being the global reserve currency.

[twoodfin]

The reason we can’t do manufacturing is because Wall Street demands capital light business models.

Not at the (AI) moment.

[apercu]

Fair, but there is tons of HIGH END manufacturing we could do that we just don't, even though there is every incentive to do so.

[deaddodo]

The US does 65% of China's manufacturing capacity at 25% their population.

They are doing fine.