Bringing Manufacturing Back Into The United States
Bringing manufacturing back into the United States is much more complicated than Donald Trump's believes. No President can wave a magic wand and have new manufacturing plants springing up throughout the United States. Sure, the United States ramped up manufacturing rapidly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in the 1940s. But the United States had lots of underutilized manufacturing plants already built.
It takes years to bring manufacturing back into the United States from overseas. In fact, President Biden has done much more to bring manufacturing back into the United States through his bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act that passed congress in 2022. The purpose of this act was to bring to the United States the manufacturing of computer chips that have been made mostly in Taiwan and Japan.
One of the biggest mistakes any American President ever made before Donald Trump was when President Nixon cut funding for scientific research and development in 1970. Part of this was to punish colleges and universities because at that time colleges and universities were hotbeds of anti-Vietnam War protests. I graduated from Kent State University in June 1970, five weeks after the shootings on that campus. I had a major in science and a comprehensive science teaching certification. I found myself competing for middle school and high school teaching positions with laid off rocket scientists from NASA and former graduate students who lost their grants and went on the job market.
What happened as a reaction to these cuts in government funding was that the emerging semiconductor industry moved to Japan and Germany where companies and their governments supported research and development in semi-conductors. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that the United States caught up with those nations. Those government cuts in scientific research and development made in 1970 are one of the major reasons why semiconductors are manufactured in Asia.
The the pandemic shut down the manufacturing of those essential components of all computers and systems and created a supply chain nightmare for manufacturing companies in the United States. This created shortages and fed the inflation of the Biden administration. Hence, the CHIPS and Science Act had incentives to bring the manufacture of semiconductors back into the United States.
Now, thanks to cuts from the Trump administration, several manufacturing plants already planned could be on the chopping block. Without that federal money, those plants might not be built. A giant Intel manufacturing plant was planned outside of Columbus Ohio. it was projected to employ over 10.000 workers manufacturing computer chips in the United States, shortening supply chains and bringing down the cost of everything from cars to computers and cell phones. Now that plant is in jeopardy of not being built.
Then, we need to realize major reason why manufacturing was moved outside of the United States in the first place. It was to take advantage of the much cheaper labor and the lack of strict environmental regulations in foreign countries. In 2000, I was assigned to do benefit meetings and enrollments at the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner plant in North Canton Ohio. That plant employed over 3600 union workers making vacuum cleaners. A guy named Hoover invented the vacuum cleaner there in 1907 and his first vacuum cleaner was on display in the headquarters. By 2006, there were no workers employed in that large manufacturing plant. Those jobs were exported to Mexico primarily because of much cheaper nonunion labor.
This was a decision made by the accountants and executives, whose jobs remained in the United States, but over 3600 manufacturing workers lost their jobs. There are no consequences to the company for exporting those jobs. The Bush administration did nothing.
Another reason given for sending manufacturing jobs outside of the United States is that many foreign countries have much less environmental regulation than in the United States as well as cheaper labor. Now, if those jobs were to magically return to the United States, will American consumers be willing to pay higher prices for goods manufactured in the United States?
Are Americans willing to pay more for goods manufactured in the United States because we also value clean air and clean water? I highly recommend watching the 2019 movie “Dark Waters” based on a true story about a twenty-year legal battle over a DuPont manufacturing plant in Parkersburg West Virginia that made Teflon was polluting the local water supply. It was killing cattle and causing cancer among people who drank the local water.
Donald Trump is a sick delusional fool if he believes that with the stroke of his pen he can instantly bring back manufacturing jobs from overseas to the United States and still not cause inflation because some of the reasons why those companies moved their manufacturing plants outside of the Unted States was because of cheaper foreign labor and lax environmental regulations.
Then where is the United States going to get all those workers? Will we need to reopen our borders and allow more migrants to come here because we need their labor? There is one law that is not subject to repeal or judicial review and that is the law of unintended consequences. There will be plenty of unintended consequences from Trump’s actions and most will not be good for the United States and consumers.
Lee Kamps
Lee has been working with Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurance since he began working at the Erie County Welfare Department in January 1973 where a major part of his job was determining eligibility for Medicaid. He went into the private insurance business in 1977 with Prudential Insurance Company and within a short time had become one of the company’s top sales agents. In 1982, he was promoted into management where he managed two field offices and as many as thirteen sales agents. After leaving Prudential in 1986, Lee decided to become more focused on health insurance and employee benefits. He has advised many local employers on how to have a more cost effective employee benefit program as well as conducted employee benefit meetings and enrollments for many area employers. The companies Lee has worked with ranged from small “mom and pop” businesses to local operations of large national companies. Lee received his B.S. degree from Kent State University where he has been active in the local alumni association. He has completed seven of the ten courses toward the Certified Employee Benefit Specialist designation. He has taught courses in employee benefits and insurance at Cleveland State University and local community colleges. In addition, Lee is an experienced and accomplished public speaker. He has been a member of Toastmasters International where he achieved the designation of “Able Toastmaster – Silver” in 1994. He has also served as a club president, Area Governor and District Public Relations Officer in Toastmasters as well as winning local speech contests. Lee has also been a member of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association’s Speaker’s Bureau where he was designated as one of the “official spokespeople for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” prior to the hall’s opening in 1995. He has given talks and presentations before many audiences including civic organizations, AARP chapters and many other community groups. With the implementation of the Medicare Modernization Act (Medicare drug bill) in 2006, Lee has shifted his focus to Medicare and helping Medicare beneficiaries navigate the often confusing array of choices and plans available. As an independent representative, Lee is not bound to any one specific company or plan, but he can offer a plan that suits an individual person’s needs and budget. In addition, Lee is well versed in the requirements and availability of various programs for assistance with Medicare part D as well as Medicaid. While he cannot make one eligible, he can assist in the process and steer one to where they may be able to receive assistance.