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Here’s a letter that I sent today to the Washington Post:
Harold Meyerson insists yet again that America has lost its manufacturing, alleging also that investors are abandoning the U.S in favor of “nations with far cheaper workforces” (“Obama’s Factory Factor [2],” August 21). Mr. Meyerson predictably singles out China as one such nation.
Facts utterly contradict Mr. Meyerson’s fantasies. First, U.S. manufacturing revenues (adjusted for inflation) reached their all-time high in 2006. 2006 was also a peak year for inflation-adjusted manufacturing profits in the U.S. and for inflation-adjusted U.S. manufacturing exports. And the U.S. accounts for the largest share of the globe’s manufacturing output; Americans today produce 2.5 times more manufactured goods than do the Chinese. [See here [3].]
Second, in 2007 the flow of per capita foreign direct investment into the U.S. was up 13 percent from 2006, to $675. In China, it was up 14 percent – to $55. [I derived these these figures from here [4], here [5], and here [6]; I got population figures from the C [7]IA World Factbook [7] .]
Harold Meyerson is a perfect example of the Beatles’ “Nowhere Man”: “He’s as blind as he can be / Just sees what he wants to see.”
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
I also posted this letter in the Comments section that accompanies Meyerson’s articles. It’s extraordinarily disheartening to read most of the other comments.