Making It: Why Manufacturing Still Matters

Meanwhile Americans are only vaguely aware of the many consequences - including a decline in their self-image as inventive, practical, and effective people - of the loss of that industrial base. While manufacturing's share of the US economy shrinks, it expands in countries such as China and Germany that have a strong industrial policy. From the longtime New York Times economics correspondent, a closely reported argument for the continuing importance of industry for American prosperity. Over the past 55 years that share has gradually declined to less than 12 percent at the same time that real estate, finance, and Wall Street trading have grown. Combining brilliant reportage with an incisive economic and political argument, Making It tells the overlooked story of manufacturing's still-vital role in the United States and how it might expand.. Louis, and Washington, D.C. And yet, with the improbable rise of Donald Trump, the consequences of the hollowing out of America's once-vibrant industrial working class can no longer be ignored. - longtime New York Times economics correspondent Louis Uchitelle argues that the government has a crucial role to play in making domestic manufacturing possible. Reporting from places where things were and sometimes still are "Made in the USA" - Albany, New York, Boston, Detroit, Fort Wayne, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, St. In the 1950s manufacturing generated nearly 30 percent of US income

Ronald Lazar said TELLS IT AND OFFERS SOLUTIONS. As in his first book, "The Disposable American", Louis Uchitelle relies on his life long reporitorial experience as a journalist who pursues individual examples over a broad landscape and weaves them into a coherent story of the less than robust recent history of manufacturing in the US.We are still making more than we formerly did, but the manufacturing share of the economy is only 1"TELLS IT AND OFFERS SOLUTIONS" according to Ronald Lazar. As in his first book, "The Disposable American", Louis Uchitelle relies on his life long reporitorial experience as a journalist who pursues individual examples over a broad landscape and weaves them into a coherent story of the less than robust recent history of manufacturing in the US.We are still making more than we formerly did, but the manufacturing share of the economy is only 12% today as against 19% in the 1970's. H. % today as against 19% in the 1970's. H. "Blows the lid off of the myth that Americans lack the skills for manufacturing and that there's nothing that government can do to solve the deindustrialization of our cities." according to Madeline Janis. Makes a bold argument for public policies that prioritize good jobs and opportunities for Americans. Blows a lid off the argument that global manufacturing is something that is private and that our government couldn't have stopped. Highly recommend reading this book for the great stories, great writing and focus on real change that is possible.. 20th Century Nostalgia I wanted to like this book more than I did. Uchitelle has a long history on writing about this subject, and I think in some way that history makes him nostalgic in a looking backward sort of way and not in proposing new solutions.In the book, he looks at the relative decline of manufacturing as an urbanized phenomenon and wants to get back to that. He hates the factories that do exist in smaller communities near the interst