> look at China, look at their manufacturing industry and what they are able to do with it.

"look at China" what ? Have you seen the population size of China ? Have you seen the geographic size of China ?

Remember what is often said when Mr Trump talks about bringing tech manufacturing back to the US ....

Yes great idea Mr Trump. But even with the most generously optimistic figures, due to the lack of available workforce and space the US could only ever provide the capacity equivalent to one Chinese manufacturing town of which the Chinese have dozens.

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pjc50 a day ago | parent | next [-]

> Have you seen the population size of China ? Have you seen the geographic size of China ?

British thinking seems to be that because we won the Opium War we should just expect a country with 20 times our population and a vast land area to be poorer, both per capita and in total, than our island, forever.

	▲	lazide 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It did work for awhile though, eh?

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8note a day ago | parent | prev [-]

the US and china are basically the same size geographically though? and the US federally owns tons of land it can create manufacturing cities out of

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traceroute66 a day ago | parent [-]

> and the US federally owns tons of land it can create manufacturing cities out of

Ok, being generous and accepting your point at face value ....

What about the people staffing those manufacturing cities ? Is the state creating them too ?

I seem to recall reading somewhere that – at most – the US could "find" 200,000 people for new manufacturing plants.

Sounds about right to me, no ?

I think even with a generous mind the US would struggle to "find" much more than that, let alone getting to or exceeding 1 million which is the value you would need for seriously thinking about >1 manufacturing city.

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nradov a day ago | parent | next [-]

The US labor force participation rate is currently at a relatively low level. There is plenty of surplus labor available with the right economic incentives.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART

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cliglot a day ago | parent | next [-]

> There is plenty of surplus labor available with the right economic incentives.

Instead the “Economic incentives” go to the Chinese owners who then learn that Americans are not interested in working in a sweatshop and instead rely on third parties to supply them with illegal workers and engage in white collar crime.

I’m suspicious of “re-industrialization” pushes because everywhere I’ve ever lived it’s resulted in at best a foreign company given massive tax breaks to create a few hundred low paid button pusher jobs and maybe a handful of better paying technician jobs.

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gruez a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Isn't that just due to people retiring?

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300060

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nradov a day ago | parent [-]

No, the labor force metrics only include people of working age.

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yorwba a day ago | parent | next [-]

They include the civilian noninstitutional population, which includes retirees who are not institutionalized in a nursing home: https://www.bls.gov/cps/definitions.htm#population

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gruez a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Then why does my link specifically have a "25-54 Yrs" qualification, and has a totally different shape compared to the first link? The difference between the two is stark, 21.8 percentage points. Do you really think there's that many people willing to work between 18-25 and 54+?

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traceroute66 a day ago | parent [-]

> Do you really think there's that many people willing to work between 18-25 and 54+?

And willing to work long hours at the minimum-wage rates required for US-based manufacturing ....

P.S. 18-25 and 54+ ... its actually 16–25 and 54+ I don't think you'll find many 16–18 year olds biting your arm off for a job in manufacturing either...

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nradov a day ago | parent [-]

US average manufacturing average wage is $36/hr, which is far more than minimum wage.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES3000000003

	▲	foco_tubi 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The average does not represent the entry level wage, which is closer to minimum wage in some states. Why would you risk losing an appendage in a factory machine if you can fold t-shirts for the same pay?
	▲	traceroute66 a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> US average manufacturing average wage is $36/hr, Chinese-scale manufacturing cities in the US at $36/hr ? Yeah, that ... ain't happening.

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8note 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

as far as people go, the US could grant citizenship to all those people its trying to deport?

and there isnt a lack of people that would accept working in one of said manufacturing towns for 10 years or something to get US citizenship?

If manufacturing was a serious problem, the US could definitely solve that problem too.