Well, it’s happened again. I got sucked into the Alliance for American Manufacturing’s blog vortex. I find their articles interesting and well written. As a manufacturing Ambassador to the state of CT, I can’t get enough of this information. Here are two posts that really caught my attention.
On March 8th, Matthew McMullan wrote an article titled: “Tying Domestic Manufacturing to Clean Energy Tax Credits Is a Good Idea”. In this piece, he writes the following standout line in response to complaints regarding American efficiency:
“In the name of efficiency, U.S. policymakers spent a couple of decades allowing U.S. companies to plant their factories wherever they wanted. In return for this hands-off approach to industrial regulation the United States got marginally cheaper consumer goods … that many Americans have found hard to appreciate because their livelihoods were upended by a wave of import competition.”
He hits the nail on the head right there! When over half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, any policy that can aid in bringing work back to the U.S. to bolster the average American’s buying power should get implemented with enthusiasm. And in this case, it’s a policy that will help the nation stay competitive in an increasingly global market: renewable/sustainable energy.
Overall, tying renewable energy incentives to domestic manufacturing seems like a no-brainer. It’s the kind of long-term investment in a country that superpowers like China have recently made public.
On that note, Mr. McMullan wrote another article on March 18th: “A New Report Looks Inside Chinese Industrial Policy”. In this article, McMullan provides the following assessment of the Chinese “little giant” manufacturing firms:
“There are literally thousands of these companies, small- and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) getting a boost from the Chinese government, at work right now. Many of them will likely not work out, but China is betting enough of them will. If this doesn’t sound efficient according to what you learned in Econ 101, that’s because it isn’t, and…that’s by design. A lot of manufacturing supply lead to China and the Chinese government is trying to grow those dependencies.”
It’ll be fascinating to see where this widespread investing strategy leads. Since the CPC is ultimately trying to increase international dependencies on its end of the supply chain, any SMEs that end up succeeding would make for great case studies.
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