Tuesday, December 13, 2005

China - You can have Manufacturing

"On a per capita basis, the US graduates more than 750 engineers per million of population, while India and China graduates only 200 and 500 engineers per million, respectively, according to a study released on Tuesday by Duke University’s engineering school.

Those figures run contrary to widely quoted numbers that say the US graduates 70,000 engineers a year versus 350,000 from India and 600,000 from China. The latter figures are based on reports issued by the Chinese ministry of education and the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) in India."
- Financial Times

Well, apparently degrees mean something and with that said, I am not worried about our manufacturing losses because we are ahead of the world in the future of economy. The US is the benchmark in many fields including biotechnology, warfare, pharmaceutical, energy, and research and development, just to name a few.

"The study concludes that that group of engineers in other countries are not an immediate threat because high-end jobs cannot be outsourced. Almost one-third of the world’s science and engineering researchers are employed by the US. {Emphasis added.}

Thirty-five per cent of science and engineering articles are published within the US and the US accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s research and development expenditure."


If you have the experience or are going to college, fear not. The jobs listed above and many others (service, retail, etc) cannot be outsourced. This leaves the manufacturing debate in the past just like the entire industry.

3 comments:

Dad29 said...

Umnnhhh...

Just exactly where are those engineers and scientists going to work if manufacturing goes away?

You don't seriously think that design engineering can occur 5,000 miles away from the operating plant, do you?--Because that is not the case with most companies I know about.

By the way--"warfare" is not really an industry, but war materiels are still largely made of metal. When all the manufacturing types wither away and die (no jobs here, fella)--who the hell is going to build the tanks and trucks? The enemy?

Waggoner's points are not merely smoke and mirrors, and Bill Ford's in line right behind him.

This is still serious.

Neo-Con Tastic said...

Manufacturing will not go away completely. The good manufacturers will adapt to this new, competitive environment. Manufacturing isn't gone; primal-manufacturing is. This is simply an evolution of the industry.

Secondly, materials of warfare will be produced here - maybe we'll buy the inexpensive steel from China. It's been known to happen.

Dan Trabue said...

"The race to the bottom," as those of us opposed to "free" trade agreements call it. Whichever country is willing to offer its employees and environment the least protection will get the jobs. The success of laissez-faire will be that we "let it be": let jobs, benefits, healthy environment be gone.

The survival of the fittest: Social darwinism bites us in the butt and we'll say "Thank you, may we have another bite?"