Adam Davidson on Manufacturing

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2012

⏱️ 72 minutes

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Summary

Adam Davidson of NPR's Planet Money talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about manufacturing. Based on an article Davidson wrote for The Atlantic, the conversation looks at the past, present, and future of manufacturing. Davidson visited an after-market auto parts factory in Greenville, South Carolina and talked with employees there as well as with executives at corporate headquarters. What is the future of factory work in America? Why are some manufacturing jobs in America while others are in China or elsewhere? The conversation looks at these questions as well as how well or poorly the U.S. education system prepares students for the world of work.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host Russ Roberts
0:13.9	of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Our website is econtalk.org
0:21.2	where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast, and find links to
0:26.5	another information related to today's conversation. Our email address is mailadicontalk.org. We'd
0:33.6	love to hear from you. Today is February 2nd, 2012, and my guest is Adam Davidson of NPR's
0:43.6	Planet Money and the Economics columnist for the New York Times Sunday magazine. Adam, welcome
0:48.6	to Econ Talk. Hey Russ, it really is an honor to be on the podcast I love this podcast. Thank you.
0:54.3	You recently wrote a fascinating article in the Atlantic on what has happened to the U.S.
0:59.8	manufacturing sector and what might be happening in the future and you used a factory in Greenville,
1:05.4	South Carolina as emblematic of that story. Start by talking about the factory. What do they do there?
1:11.8	They're an auto parts manufacturer specifically. They manufacture aftermarket auto parts and I
1:18.8	specifically set out to find an aftermarket auto parts factory because auto parts are one product
1:28.3	line that are made in the U.S. and in China, so the competition is rather direct. There's so many
1:34.9	types of things that China makes and we don't make anymore like T-shirts or computer assembly or
1:40.1	whatever. Then there are things that China doesn't do like high-end medical equipment or avionics,
1:47.7	that kind of thing. I really wanted to find a factory on the front lines and auto parts seem like
1:51.9	the right way to go. Then the aftermarket, these are the OE, the original equipment manufacturers are
1:59.6	the ones who make products directly for Ford or GM or Toyota for the car that comes off the
2:05.8	assembly line when it's new. The aftermarket are the folks who make replacement parts. The OE
2:11.7	world is its own universe and they're not really competing for shelf space and auto zone,
2:17.1	whatever, like the aftermarket is. This factory in South Carolina makes fuel injectors, right?
2:23.7	Yeah, they make two major lines. They think to do with electronic systems and then fuel injectors
	...

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