Manufacturing Industry Is the Cornerstone of America

By Marco Rubio | Orlando Sentinel

At a recent visit to an American auto factory, one of the workers told me that though he didn’t come from a family of auto workers, he hoped his sons would follow in his footsteps in the industry. He said it felt good to be a part of creating something and watching the finished product roll off the line.

I couldn’t help but think that this kind of work is exactly what most Americans think of when we talk about the American Dream: productive jobs that provide for our families and that, one day, our children can have for themselves. Dignified work and the prosperity that follows are critical components of the American Dream. But when we make choices that let those opportunities wither away, we allow those parts of the Dream to die.

Manufacturing industries are the cornerstone of America. By expanding the parts of our economy that make things — manufacturing, construction, agriculture — we make good on our end of the deal.

To millions of middle-class Americans, jobs in the tangible economy offer dignified work opportunities, work-life balance, and mastery of a trade. With high wages and consistently strong benefits, they’re also the best for workers.

Making things is productive. This isn’t just an abstract economic metric; when we create physical goods, we’re building assets that continue to provide value after initial purchase. Whether in the form of steel, cars or homes, it means the creation of goods that can be resold and recycled throughout the economy, creating a rippling effect that lifts up Americans many steps removed from an assembly line. While some consumer-oriented parts of the services sector pay well, for most people, it is less likely to be productive or create economic growth. Think, for example, of purchasing a yoga lesson or ordering food via a delivery app. In contrast with the creation of a tangible good, the value of these services rapidly diminishes once the transaction is completed, if it exists at all.

Manufacturing provides much greater opportunity for technological advances and building workers’ skills. Think of the American achievements that revolutionized our world, like the airplane, the Apollo missions, or nuclear energy.

When America’s business leaders and policymakers talk about today’s economy, they too often do so in words fundamentally disconnected from real-world experience. They speak in terms that fail to take into account that there’s more to life than working. For many, “keeping up” means being forced to crank out extra hours in an office or drive for a rideshare service after clocking out of your day job. That comes at the expense of the time spent raising kids, being a conscientious neighbor, or caring for an older family member. Even though those extra hours boost GDP, is that really how we should be measuring success?

When we tell ourselves that the gig economy allows for more work flexibility, what we’re too often forgetting is the distinction between work and family life. Unlike manufacturing, too much of the services sector for the working class has come to require making their lives conform to the immediate needs of customers.

This is not a problem for the affluent. And for some people, a more fluid work schedule really does work best. But it cannot be the only option for Americans trying to make ends meet.

At this point, we’re familiar with the economic disaster of a community losing its manufacturing base. Just as the economy as a whole can’t grow from everyone lending money to each other, a community will not be prosperous if everyone simply buys coffee from each other. Someone has to create the value that everything else is based on. The notion that a recently laid-off metalworker can simply download an app, jump into a new gig, and then resume the same quality of life she once enjoyed — in wages and benefits, but also in the amount of time she’s able to spend with family — is ridiculous.

Zooming out, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the tangible economy outperforms other sectors when it comes to patents and exports. Manufacturing has an outsized multiplier effect on other sectors of the economy. Despite declining overall business investment in the U.S. economy, it produces an enormous proportion of today’s R&D spending.

We are not meeting the promise that we make to workers. Americans deserve an economy driven by abundant, dignified work — jobs that offer good wages and benefits, encourage skill development, and enable us to be devoted family members and productive members of our communities. Policymakers must recognize that we can no longer be passive observers in this project.

Originally published October 7, 2019 at https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/guest-commentary/os-op-marco-rubio-why-manufacturing-matters-20191007-lkdgeohln5alzffuom3glpagca-story.html.