Andy Grove on the gutting of the U.S. economy

Andy Grove provides some excellent examples of how the relentless drive to move manufacturing offshore has hurt, not helped, our economy. He paints a grim picture of 'emerging' technology jobs:

Last year, I decided to do my bit for energy conservation and set out to equip my house with solar power. My wife and I talked with four local solar firms. As part of our due diligence, I checked where they get their photovoltaic panels -- the key part of the system. All the panels they use come from China. A Silicon Valley company sells equipment used to manufacture photo-active films. They ship close to 10 times more machines to China than to manufacturers in the U.S., and this gap is growing. Not surprisingly, U.S. employment in the making of photovoltaic films and panels is perhaps 10,000 -- just a few percent of estimated worldwide employment.

Then he points out something that should have been obvious to an intelligent observer:

Consider this passage by Princeton University economist Alan S. Blinder: “The TV manufacturing industry really started here, and at one point employed many workers. But as TV sets became ‘just a commodity,’ their production moved offshore to locations with much lower wages. And nowadays the number of television sets manufactured in the U.S. is zero. A failure? No, a success.”

I disagree. Not only did we lose an untold number of jobs, we broke the chain of experience that is so important in technological evolution. As happened with batteries, abandoning today’s “commodity” manufacturing can lock you out of tomorrow’s emerging industry.

I'm basically a free-market enthusiast, but the off-shoring mania seemed rather short-sighted at the time. Mr. Grove's editorial provides some serious food for thought. Jump over to bloomberg.com and have a read: How to Make an American Job Before It's Too Late