Every now and then, contradictions just fall into your lap. [Just read the bold, if you are in a hurry...]
Greg Mankiw, trumpeting Jacoby, who writes:
Americans make more “stuff’’ than any other nation on earth, and by a wide margin. According to the United Nations’ comprehensive database of international economic data, America’s manufacturing output in 2009 (expressed in constant 2005 dollars) was $2.15 trillion. That surpassed China’s output of $1.48 trillion by nearly 46 percent. China’s industries may be booming, but the United States still accounted for 20 percent of the world’s manufacturing output in 2009 — only a hair below its 1990 share of 21 percent.
In condemning Obama's initiatives, someone called Debra Saunders writes this as the backwater Townhall.com:
After receiving at least $43 million in aid from the state of Massachusetts, Evergreen Solar announced last month that it would be closing its manufacturing plant in Devens, Mass., laying off its 800 workers and moving its manufacturing operations to China.
Warning: These are the "green jobs" that President Obama has touted as part of his "winning the future" agenda
...
Michael El-Hillow, Evergreen Solar's chief executive, explained in a statement the reason for his company's move: "While the United States and other western industrial economies are beneficiaries of rapidly declining installation costs of solar energy, we expect the United States will continue to be at a disadvantage from a manufacturing standpoint."
Warning: These are the "green jobs" that President Obama has touted as part of his "winning the future" agenda
...
Michael El-Hillow, Evergreen Solar's chief executive, explained in a statement the reason for his company's move: "While the United States and other western industrial economies are beneficiaries of rapidly declining installation costs of solar energy, we expect the United States will continue to be at a disadvantage from a manufacturing standpoint."
So, which is it? Leftists are wrong for decrying the decline in manufacturing or wrong for hoping for more of it or both, somehow?
And, if you don't know your stuff, how can the average reader sort out these contradictions?:
Jacoby, again:
But factory employment has declined because factory productivity has so dramatically skyrocketed
The Hamilton Project, however, is looking for ideas of this sort:
an economic policy initiative at the Brookings Institution, has launched a prize competition to identify new and innovative thinking about policies to create jobs in the United States and enhance productivity
And you thought the inconsistencies in legal opinions were hard...
