The decline of US manufacturing is often blamed for jobs scarcity and the problems of the middle class. High wages for US workers make it difficult to compete with cheap labor in countries like China and Vietnam. Even Apple–as famous an American company as exists–manufactures the bulk of its products in China. Elon Musk is trying to push the American manufacturing business back to the top–he’s about to build a $5 billion Gigafactory in Nevada that will employ American workers. But industry news is usually about manufacturing jobs disappearing.
The Obama administration is investing, through executive actions, more than $300 million in high-end, advanced manufacturing. The administration’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership earlier made recommendations that this new investment follows through on. The White House said “NASA and the departments of Defense, Energy and Agriculture would invest more than $300 million in the emerging technologies of advanced materials including composites and bio-based materials, advanced sensors for manufacturing, and digital manufacturing,” according to Reuters.
