The Hill News

Is manufacturing becoming a lost cause in America?

U.S. manufacturing contributed as much as 30 percent of GNP after World War II. Since 2007, due to the recession and other factors, that share of GNP has fallen to 11 percent today. And the products American industry has stopped making aren’t just the products of “mature industries.” They are also microprocessors and cell phones and navigation systems and other innovations that define high tech.

The critical phase in technology is when a company moves from start-up to mass production. This high tech “scaling” is happening primarily in China. One Taiwanese company alone, Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, employs more than 800,000. That’s more than the worldwide headcount of Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Sony and Intel added together.

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