I play a game with myself as I shop for Christmas and throughout the year. I try to find a "Made in USA" label on what I buy. Nowadays I lose that game almost every time, unless it's for food.
Senator Bernie Sanders likes to quote the statistic that in the 8 years of the GW Bush adminstration, we closed over 42,000 factories in the US. This came from an American Prospect article by Richard McCormack whose money quote is after the jump:
Without an industrial base, an increase in consumer spending, which pulled the country out of past recessions, will not put Americans back to work. Without an industrial base, the nation's trade deficit will continue to grow. Without an industrial base, there will be no economic ladder for a generation of immigrants, stranded in low-paying service-sector jobs. Without an industrial base, the United States will be increasingly dependent on foreign manufacturers even for its key military technology.
For American manufacturers, the bad years didn't begin with the banking crisis of 2008. Indeed, the U.S. manufacturing sector never emerged from the 2001 recession, which coincided with China's entry into the World Trade Organization. Since 2001, the country has lost 42,400 factories, including 36 percent of factories that employ more than 1,000 workers
The source data for the decline in manufacturing employment is on the Bureau of Labor statistics web site. Here it is on a graph.
It shows that after decades of stability, US manufacturing employment dropped by 34% from the average of 17,701 sustained between 1970 and 2000. That's 6 million good middle class jobs lost, every one of which had an important multiplying effect within their local community.
In a word - we are screwed unless we turn this around. We are giving away our strength as a nation, ruining our economy, destroying the hope of our children and dooming ourselves to 2nd rate status until this changes. This is why our last several recessions have been longer and longer. Increases in consumer spending don't trigger as much domestic employment as they used to - because the goods we buy are made overseas.
We used to have an industrial policy that protected our domestic manufacturing base from predation. The mantra of 'free trade' and the relentless lowering of our tariff barriers changed all that. This didn't happen by accident. It was the result of enemy action and we should treat it that way. And the enemy is the US Chamber of Commerce, and their members.
Fixing this should not be a partisan issue. It is a uniting issue for Democrats, Independents and the few sane Republicans. If pushed, it can win elections for Democrats. Even Republicans have to admit that they won't be able to afford their global military empire if this continues.
Democrats tried to push this issue
Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act (S. 3816) would end tax loopholes that encourage the offshoring of jobs.
Republicans defeated it.
We didn't make that a big enough issue in 2010. We need to bring it back up again in the Senate in 2012. Maybe with a filibuster rules change, we can make McConnell hold the floor for 12 hours and try to defend it.