The Decline of the U.S. Machine-Tool Industry and Prospects for Recovery (1994)

Re:The Decline of the U.S. Machine-Tool Industry and Prospec... by amluto on Tuesday April 08, 2025 @10:20PM (#43628337)

Counterpoint: as far as I know, 30 years ago, a small US company could invent a consumer good and credibly manufacture it here in small to moderate quantities. Today, not so much. If you want an economical contract manufacturer to help you manufacture your product using modern tooling and access to the engineers who know how to set up those tools, as far as I know, you mostly need to look outside the US.

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Re:The Decline of the U.S. Machine-Tool Industry and Prospec... by Spooky23 on Tuesday April 08, 2025 @11:22PM (#43628607)

No way. You need to go back to the 1960s, and that’s a stretch.

The age of the mega corp killed all of that stuff. NYC had a few thousand factories, all crushed by bigger, subsidized by tax policy competitors in the US south and then offshored.

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Re:The Decline of the U.S. Machine-Tool Industry and Prospec... by aj7 on Wednesday April 09, 2025 @03:29AM (#43629708)

Yes, absolutely. Our skill is in design, management, and marketing, and distribution. Making stuff is today’s farming.

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