 But this idea the simplistic nonsensical idea the trade deficit the fact that we import so much is bad for us is Wrong now a lot of times and this is what I want to talk about today a lot of times that is associated with this notion That Manufacturing in the United States is in decline The manufacturing in the United States. We don't produce stuff. We don't make stuff. You heard this a lot on the campaign trail We don't make stuff anymore Manufacturing the United States is in decline. We've exported all of my near factoring To the rest of the world to China Vietnam Japan Korea Germany and we don't make stuff anymore now, let's start with this just being Factually wrong we make more stuff today than ever much much much more than ever Every year almost our manufacturers produce more stuff than they ever did before just sheer output is Greater than ever in American history of the stuff Our revenues the dollar Value of the stuff we make in the United States is higher In manufacturing I'm talking about than ever before and the profits are greater and exports are greater Yeah, we import more But we're exporting more today than we ever have before indeed That goes down when we have a recession and then imports go down as well because we have less money to spend And we buy less American stuff and we buy less font stuff and if the recession is global we export less But when the economy is growing right right now, it's not going very fast, but it's growing We produce more stuff than ever we generate more revenue from that stuff We generate more profits and they have stuff than ever and we generate more exports than ever now I use the royal we but I'm talking about Well, not the royal we the regular we but I'm talking about us manufacturers us manufacturers Now it's true that as a percent of the total economy That is shrinking, but that's because we've seen a rapid growth in services Massive growth in services, you know when manufacturing peaked as a percentage of the total economy in 1953 That's way before and after that's way before china That's way before we were even importing from japan 1953 was after world war two Pretty much everything in the world was being manufactured in the united states And yet that's when we peaked and since then as a percent of the total economy Manufacturing to be shrinking why? Because everything else has been growing faster Because we become richer and when you're rich When you're rich, which what america is basically we're a rich country We even the poor in america are relatively rich as compared to the poor In some countries in the world many countries in the world When you're rich, it's not just about stuff It's about services It's about restaurants have you noticed how many restaurants there are in the u.s How many people in the united states work At restaurants or generally in the hospitality industry and how every year there seem to be more Why because we get richer all the time which means we can afford to eat out more than we used to A hundred years ago Nobody but the very wealthy ever went to a restaurant There were very few restaurants because most people couldn't afford to go out to eat Now a lot of those restaurants today are fast food, but not all of them There's a growing industry of all kinds of restaurants middle high-end Explosion of restaurants out there. I mean I just look at any strip mall. Anyway in the united states all kinds of stuff Sushi is everywhere. You know how many jobs that creates massive quantity of jobs And some of them are good paying. I'm sure the sushi chefs get paid pretty well Some of them are low paying the waiters and so on probably get less, but that's okay. That's how Jobs are created millions and millions and millions and millions of jobs So services has exploded hotels. They never used to be hotels I mean I I travel here now southern california is particularly wealthy, right? So you see nail salons everywhere. You see massage parlors. I mean the legitimate ones everywhere Because people get pampered today Because we have the money and we have the time to get pampered. We couldn't afford to be pampered 50 years ago We're working too hard and we didn't have enough money to spend on stuff like that But we do it. It's it's everywhere. You just look at any strip mall. Look at all the variety Of services that we can get today. We don't clean our own homes. We we outsource that At least in the middle class many people, you know Outsource the cleaning of the homes. Yes, we've grown a massive service economy. But also What is software? Software service programming a service Hundreds of thousands. No, why hundreds of thousands? Millions and millions of americans make good money. I'm talking six figures. Sometimes well into the six figures programming programming service job Cisco Cisco Innovative company It's a service company. Yeah, they they create some boxes some stuff But most of what they do is services networking and stuff like that IBM use Build computers now mostly it's a service company. But you know what the jobs are really high-paying finance consulting Big businesses in america people make good money at them Explosive growth over the last 50 years since 1953 60 years Yeah, all of that is grown manufacturing is grown as well just going slower than services Right So as a percent of the total economy It shrunk But in terms of the size of manufacturing Exploded much bigger today now People complain Because they say the few are manufacturing jobs Now that's true as well. You know when employment peaked in in manufacturing In 1979 there were 19.4 Million people working in manufacturing. I notice even 19.4 million is not that large We have a population of over 300 million people in the united states. So 19.4 that was the most ever that have worked in manufacturing that's gone down Since 1979 but notice the 1979 when manufacturing employment peaked Was 14 years before and after 22 years before china joined the world trade organization 14 years before and after you can't blame nafta for the reduction in employment in manufacturing You can't blame china for that. That's ridiculous Now why did why why is Why are we producing more stuff with fewer people? Much more stuff with a lot fewer people. Why is that? Because we're more efficient Because we're more productive Because we use technology Because we have robots and computers and all kinds of technology That reduces the need for people But increases the amount of stuff we create And increases the quality and standard of living of all of us Because the stuff is cheaper and the stuff is much better And we produce lots of it, but we do it really efficiently. We should celebrate efficiency not complain You