Do you think industry should account for a larger share of US GDP?

[Julie4]

If I remember correctly, industry's share of US GDP is something like 11%. Along with France, the US is the developed country with the lowest share of industry in GDP.

[RavVid]

So far robots are not as cheap as cheap labor is my understanding but that has capacity for change and if that does occur then the %age manufacturing has of GDP could change significantly.

The US does have access to cheaper labor in Mexico that France doesn't have being surrounded by quite wealthy countries.

One of the good social aspects of yesteryear is that manufacturing provided a lot of jobs so virtually everyone could have one. Manufacturing was supported by tariffs and duties in Australia for example. So there was a direct cost in terms of products being more expensive.

However there is a cost for not having jobs for everybody. At a point 90% of Aussie males of working age were employed but that has dropped to 74%. (It is employment rate you need to look at and not unemployment rates which gov'ts manipulate). I think that is about 65% in US and 77% in France & Germany

There is an indirect cost of providing unemployment benefits etc.

There is a further indirect cost of social disaffection of not having a job and that might show up in theft, drug dealing and having plenty of time to set cars on fire in the street & riot.

Not everybody has the capacity to be a doctor or engineer or even an office worker and are possibly best suited for repetitive tasks in a factory.

So I would say yes but I am looking at the social benefits of jobs rather than a %age of GDP and robotics won't help..

[TadCurious]

We used to make things here in the U. S. But the globalists through terribly awful trade policy effectively shipped millions of factory jobs overseas. (Mainly to China.) It was a fantasy of the globalists that having "free" trade with China would lead to the Chinese Communist Party loosening its totalitarian grip on its people and cause them to become a non-threatening presence on the world stage.
And the so-called free trade was never free when it came to China. They've been in a trade war with the U. S. since they were allowed accession to the WTO and given most Favored nation status by the U. S. It's been a disaster for our factory workers and we have allowed China's rise at our expense.

[RavVid]

Plus selling companies off to be relocated in china with the IP as well. It is not surprising that the factory worker segment is pissed off with their lives being destroyed.

[TadCurious]

@RavVid
Exactly. We have either given away or had stolen by China our technological superiority. And that has directly to a rapid increase in their military capability. It's become a truism in recent years that China is our largest adversary. And our country's leaders made terrible decisions in bringing about that state of affairs.
We have allowed ourselves to become dependent upon China for critical products like antibiotics. That's a scandal all by itself. China is not our friend and it has played the U. S. like a fiddle for the last 35 years.

[RavVid]

It worked well with Germany and Japan because their constitutions were rewritten and there was re-education. Hasn't worked with China. It is even worse than the way it was previously because it is one man rule in both Russia and China when it wasn't before.

China is over rated technologically but if they can steal the F-35 plans the US needs to take actions. Belatedly it seems to be.

[Taffy1234]

Industry should account for 100% of the GDP. It won't happen in our lifetime, but it will happen.

[Drewtate]

Probably yes but industry is set to move back to the US from India and China due to the next wave of automation making it cheaper than using cheap labor in China or India thus making goods cheaper due to reduced transport and labor costs.

[exitseven]

yes, it is a big problem that nothing is made in USA anymore. This needs to be changed.

[OddBeMe]

If you’re talking actual factories and manufacturing…no. Manual labor is becoming less of a variable (I could argue nominal) in gross markets.

[DextroShade]

Yes, we should be making tangible things instead of stupid financial products and social media.