There was fun article years back pointing out that regardless of the "we don't make anything anymore" narrative, the US has never been lower than the 2nd largest manufacturer in the world.
this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
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Not even in 1600?
🤨🤔😐You win this round, smartarse!
Eh... what?! The World existed before the US? Get out of here... /s
How's that narrative go when looking at raw material processing? My understanding is that a decent amount of products we manufacture nowadays have their parts manufactured elsewhere in the world and then are just assembled in the US. That would certainly shift the narrative a bit I think.
This is a genuine question. I know we probably still make our own petroleum products, we haven't manufactured steel since the 1990s, with the collapse starting in the 80s, but everything else is an informational gap for me.
The US still makes steel for example. It fell compared to the 1960s, but is still at about WW2 levels. That is true for a lot of US manufacturing. The industry is still around, but has not grown since years and automation and falling prices makes them less relevant to the overall economy.
That is surprising and very contrary to the narrative I've been hearing. I'd heard that our steel production had dropped to trivial values after the Pittsburgh forges had gone under.
My town's steel mill is overbooked and absolutely cleaning up financially. A casino moved in a few years ago, bought almost all the land around the mill, and wanted to buy them out for space to make the hotel bigger. The mill basically said, "You literally can't pay us enough."
So now we've got a steel mill in the middle of a casino's parking lot.
US iron ore mining, 1890-2014 (Wikipedia)
The article was mostly talking about how manufacturing has changed, becoming less blue collar and more white collar. Far far fewer people are employed at higher salaries due to automation (robots). So manufacturing can't support entire towns like it used to. Plus what we manufacture has changed - it's much more high end, high value products.
It just shows how much of world economy doesn't make stuff.
Also factory jobs are less because of automation. People forget just how much robots have been the number 1 job stealer for many, many decades.
I know a lot more about meth than I want to thanks to proximity.
Everything I have read about meth, particularly other people's medical records, has convinced me that you shouldn't do meth ever if you value your teeth, your skin, or your heart.
Can confirm. And also, don't make it if you value your house.
Pfft, payday has taught me how to cook. And how to rob banks.
See that's just recreational meth. I'm only for medicinal meth.
Desoxyn? Damn that's a stimulant of last resort
I also support legalizing recreational chemotherapy! 🤣
Pretty sure China has been intentionally marketing opioids and their precursors to us specifically to get the West back for the opium epidemic
Well known Chinese opioid dynasty, the Sacklers?
After just finishing Dopesick, I can confidently agree this one was good old American capitalism and corruption at work.
I meant the illegal ones. We definitely have our own homegrown plague reapers too.
I believe they are referring to the lates epidemic, which is largely due to fentanyl. Most of the precursors for this come from China.
I work in the field of "making stuff" in the US. Believe it or not after a 2 year downswing, manufacturing seems to be on a bit of an upswing.
This isn't because Trump is bringing manufacturing back. It's because businesses are realizing Trump isn't a threat like they thought he would be and can bank on him chickening out on extreme policy.
I could be wrong though.
Not even talking about the digital opium: TikTok. You should see what content they push towards Chinese youth vs the rest of the world.
Not sure why you get downvoted, that's a great point. So many of us are hooked onto our phones. Most of the biggest companies, including TikTok itself, are manufacturing content, even consent, so yes it matters.