Michigan Solar & Wind Power Solutions

Does the USA Really Need Detroit's Manufacturing Capacities? 12/20/2008

Posted by Mark Hagerty

The media has been full of articles asking if we should 'bail out' the automotive industries.  We have heard people state this is the twenty-first century, our growth is in the service sector not manufacturing.  We have heard the automotive industry is a dinosaur that is laden with outrageous legacy costs and it should be allowed to fail like all broken business models. Many have said that 'bailing out' the automotive industry goes against the fundamentals of a free market society. 

Some of these items may be true, but before we decide to let the industry die, let us consider a few things.  Can a nation defend itself without a manufacturing base?  In the Civil War the south had very little industry.  The north had the vast majority of the manufacturing capacity of the US.  Many in the south today refer to it as 'The War of Attrition'.  The British plan for a quick end to the Colonial Uprising was to sever the manufacturing head from the body.  They planned to do this by going up the Hudson River and joining up with forces coming down from the St Lawrence River.  This would have removed the manufacturing base from the rest of our fledgling country.  In World War II Detroit was the manufacturing base for us and our allies.  Without it we possibly could be reading this article in German.

- Detroit produced 80% of all our tanks and tank parts.  Detroit Tank Arsenal in one month produced 907 Sherman Tanks!

- Detroit produced 75% of all our aircraft and aircraft engines.  Willow Run Assembly at its peak was producing 231 B-24 Liberator Bombers a month.  Charles Lindburg refered to Willow Run Assembly as the "Grand Canyon of the mechanized world".

- Detroit produced 12,000,000,000 rounds of artillery shells.

- Detroit produced 6,000,000 machine guns and carbine rifles.

If one believes that the US has not always subsidized industries, that have a national security interest, then they need to study the US policies on oil.  This industry has been heavily subsidized from a military standpoint and a tax standpoint. 

From the author's perspective, the best scenario is one where Detroit manufacturing capacities continue.  They should continue turning out electric cars, wind turbines blades, wind turbine generators, wind turbine towers, fuel cells, energy storage systems, and the rest of their vehicle product assortments.  If, God forbid, we are caught in a major war at least we have the infrastructure to defend ourselves.

Imagine a world where the economic and industrial power house is a totalitarian quasi-communist country.  Now imagine this country having four times the population that we have, and not enough natural resources to sustain itself.  This is the world of the not too distant future.  This is not a world where I want to find ourselves without a manufacturing base.