Some manufacturing coming back to USA

[jhu]

because of robots! + 3D printing. Is it time to welcome our new robot overlords yet?

 

[techs]

I too busy welcoming our new Super Rich overlords.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

I too busy welcoming our new Super Rich overlords.

I for one, welcome the thousands of decent paying jobs that they will bring.

 

[techs]

I for one, welcome the thousands of decent paying jobs that they will bring.

Not so much.
Caterpillar had a 4.9 Billion dollar profit last year, and over a billion dollars profit the first quarter of this year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/b...workers-for-steep-cuts.html?_r=2&ref=business
Machinists are on strike because despite these profits Caterpillar wants to cut salaries.
They want the starting wage to be 13 dollars an hour and the max wage to be about 45 thousand. Not a good job. But merely average.

 

[MovingTarget]

Still good news, but we can still have some manual-labor intensive jobs here to. We just need to shield ourselves somewhat from global labor arbitrage. Tarriffs are one possible way, but there are others. If my cast iron skillet that I just bought can still be made here in this economy, then so can many other consumer goods if we put our mind to creating a cohesive pro-American worker industrial policy. (as an aside, here's a video of them making those skillets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4S3kYJyUfM&feature=related )