The power of capital accumulation

Which Country Is No. 1 In Manufacturing? 

By Jeff Harding, 

This chart from Forbes (via Big Picture) breaks some common myths held about America’s manufacturing power (“We don’t make anything anymore”). What you see in the charts is the application of capital in an economy. Our workers are three times more productive than Chinese workers.

It’s interesting that if you look at long-term employment trends in the U.S., aside from recessions, it has stayed rather steady as a percentage of the population for a long time. Which goes to show that while employment in manufacturing is declining, new jobs are created elsewhere. And, lest you believe that those service jobs pay less than manufacturing jobs, that is simply not true: on the average they are almost identical ($44,000 p/a).