Contrary to what you hear from most D.C. Beltway politicians and national media pundits, we do still make things in America. Veronique de Rugy, an economist and a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, pointed out in a recent commentary that the inflation-adjusted value of U.S. industrial production — that is, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined — “is higher than ever.”
Real domestic manufacturing alone is up 177 percent — nearly triple — from 1975. And since 1994, the U.S. output of “computer and electronic products” specifically has grown by 1,200 percent. Motor vehicle output is up “well over 60 percent.”
U.S. Labor Department data show nationwide payroll manufacturing employment was roughly 12.8 million in 2024. That’s substantially higher than in 2009 or 2014, and slightly higher than in 2019, the last year before COVID-19 hit…