The United States is rapidly
becoming the very first "post-industrial" nation on the globe.  All
great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the
great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at
which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing.  It was
America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution.  It was
America that showed the world how to mass produce everything from
automobiles to televisions to airplanes.  It was the great American
manufacturing base that crushed Germany and Japan in World War II.  But
now we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America.  Tens of
thousands of factories have left the United States in the past decade
alone.  Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost in
the same time period.  The United States has become a nation that
consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly little.  Do
you know what our biggest export is today?  Waste paper.  Yes, trash is
the number one thing that we ship out to the rest of the world as we
voraciously blow our money on whatever the rest of the world wants to
sell to us.  The United States has become bloated and spoiled and our
economy is now  just a shadow of what it once was.  Once upon a
time America could literally outproduce the rest of the world combined. 
Today that is no longer true, but Americans sure do consume more than
anyone else in the world.  If the deindustrialization of America
continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are we
going to be leaving to our children?

Any great nation throughout history has been great at making things. 
So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to
erode at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S. continue to
consider itself to be a great nation?  We have created the biggest debt
bubble in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high
standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere
close to sustainable.  Every single month America does into more debt
and every single month America gets poorer.

So what happens when the debt bubble pops?

The deindustrialization of the United States should be a top concern
for every man, woman and child in the country.  But sadly, most
Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them.

For people like that, take this article and print it out and hand it
to them.  Perhaps what they will read below will shock them badly enough
to awaken them from their slumber.    

The following are 19 facts about the deindustrialization of America
that will blow your mind....

#1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400
factories since 2001. 

#2 Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers
of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations
in China with an investment of
over $100 billion over the next decade.

#3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its
last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina in November.  Approximately 900
jobs will be lost.

#4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cellphones were sold
worldwide.  So how many of them were manufactured inside the United
States?  Zero.

#5 According to a new study conducted by the
Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China
continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a
million jobs this year alone.

#6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit
with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year
ago.

#7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5
million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.

#8 According to Tax
Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of
U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1
million. During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American
multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.

#9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28
percent of U.S. economic output.  In 2008, it represented 11.5
percent.

#10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the
closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul,
Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to
be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with
Ford's new "global" manufacturing strategy.

#11 As of the end of 2009, less
than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing.  The last time
less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in
1941.

#12 In the United States today, consumption accounts
for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.

#13 The United States has lost a
whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the
world in per capita broadband Internet use.  Today it
ranks 15th.

#15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer
industry is actually lower in 2010 than
it was in 1975.

#16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of
thousands of different products.  Asia now produces 84
percent of them worldwide.

#17 The United States spends approximately $3.90
on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the
United States.

#18 One prominent economist is projecting that the
Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by
the year 2040.

#19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million
Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the
highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.

So how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose
before we do something about it?

How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed
before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our
hands?

How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country
before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing
our economy?

How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting
war zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing
national economic suicide?

The deindustrialization of America is a national crisis.  It needs to
be treated like one.

If you disagree with this article, I have a direct challenge for
you.  If anyone can explain how a deindustrialized America has any kind
of viable economic future, please do so below in the comments section.

America is in deep, deep trouble folks.  It is time to wake up.