Losing an industry or ceasing to manufacture a particular product, in this case stainless steel flatware, has indeed become a fairly frequent event. Just in the last few years, the last sardine cannery, in Maine, closed its doors. Stainless steel rebars, the sturdy rods that reinforce concrete in all kinds of construction, are now no longer made in America. Neither are vending machines or incandescent light bulbs or cellphones or laptop computers.
Less noticeably, American manufacturers are importing more of the components that go into their products. The imported portion has risen to more than 25 percent from 17 percent in 1997, according to Susan Houseman, a senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute in Kalamazoo, Mich. The Boeing Company, to consider one striking example, once bought all of its components from American suppliers, or made them in its factories here. Now the wings of several of its airliners are manufactured by Japanese subcontractors and shipped across the Pacific in giant cargo planes.
Pictured above: A worker at the Sherrill Manufacturing flatware factory in Sherrill, N.Y., which closed its doors eight months ago – Dick Blume/The Post-Standard.
“The big debate today is whether we can continue to be competitive in R&D when we are not making the stuff that we innovate,” she says. “I think not; the two can’t be separated.” . “Young people stop thinking about making things,” Mr. Jordan says. “It is no longer in their heads. They have a different mental orientation.”
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Well, the incandescent light bulb closure was a partnership between Congress and big business. ‘Old’ light bulbs (although inefficient) are cheap to make, and the manufacturer makes a higher margin on the CFL bulbs which, although more difficult to manufacture, are made in CHINA.
While the overt story was ‘incandescent bulbs are less efficient, let’s be green…’, surely the manufacturer is happy to have to switch to a higher-margin product, made overseas. After all, no one was prevented from buying CFLs before the outlaw of 100W incandescent bulb.
Well, the incandescent light bulb closure was a partnership between Congress and big business. ‘Old’ light bulbs (although inefficient) are cheap to make, and the manufacturer makes a higher margin on the CFL bulbs which, although more difficult to manufacture, are made in CHINA.
Excellent story of the last US bulb factory here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/07/AR2010090706933.html
While the overt story was ‘incandescent bulbs are less efficient, let’s be green…’, surely the manufacturer is happy to have to switch to a higher-margin product, made overseas. After all, no one was prevented from buying CFLs before the outlaw of 100W incandescent bulb.
Mike Y