This misses the point about 'national' manufacturing, which presumably the state/politicians want to emphasize. It does't matter how much you outsource as long as it is within the national boundary. Perhaps you are referring to off shoring, which then becomes international. Hence Apple for all practical purposes is not a manufacturer as understood in the national statistics sense. But then it does earn a massive profit per employee in the US so it does show up in US statistics. At the same time apple's employment impact at home is minimal. Now that's the question politicians should be concerned about.
Incidentally today manufacturing is no panacea for employment on a large scale, unless it is labor intensive, which sounds oxymoronic since technological change and productivity increases are supposedly manufacturing characteristics. Only vintage technologies in combination with abundant supply of labor can support manufacturing, which even India can't do these days for several reasons. India is becoming a place for fabless chip design. No factory, no semiconductor manufacturing, no real consumer electronics, but it designs chips in virtually every kind of application one can think of. One can clearly see that in systemic terms, in the absence of countervailing action, inequality is inevitable. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Anthony P. D'Costa, Chair & Professor of Contemporary Indian Studies Australia India Institute and School of Social & Political Sciences University of Melbourne 147-149 Barry Street, Carlton VIC 3053, AUSTRALIA Ph: +61 3 9035 6161 Visit the Australia India Institute Website http://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/ Recent Conference (The Land Question) http://idsk.edu.in/program.php Recent books: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198082286.do#.UI5Wzmc2dI0 http://www.oup.com/localecatalogue/cls_academic/?i=9780199646210 http://www.anthempress.com/pdf/9780857285041.pdf http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=295354 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent from my iPad > On Mar 15, 2014, at 17:44, <[email protected]> wrote: > > Classifying a business as manufacturing or non-manufacturing doesn't change > the > economic relationship. > > A manufacturer can outsource their work to another company and thereby get > economies of scale. > > -- > Ron > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
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