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Speed Can Reindustrialize America - Austin Vernon's Blog

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The US manufacturing sector is ~10% of GDP (~$3 trillion), and the US is the second-largest manufacturing country. Yet many see the US as a manufacturing failure and prefer extremely blunt government-directed policies. I think the underlying causes of this malaise are both misunderstood and misdiagnosed. The US excels at high-volume manufacturing, but not low-volume manufacturing. The US can revive low-volume manufacturing with markets and technology once we understand the issue. The following are the main points: The US does a lot of manufacturing, but it's tilted towards high-volume, static, and boring products. The US performs poorly in producing short lead time, custom parts. Long lead times and soft costs, fueled by the world-leading US wages for "white collar" work, are the root cause of poor performance in low-volume production because there are few units to spread the soft costs over. The same world-leading wages create massive demand for short lead time parts. New end-to-end d

Speed Can Reindustrialize America - Austin Vernon's Blog Speed Can Reindustrialize America 2026 February 12 Twitter Substack See all posts Reviving manufacturing doesn't require a planned economy, just a better business model. Manufacturing and the US Economy The US manufacturing sector is ~10% of GDP (~$3 trillion), and the US is the second-largest manufacturing country. Yet many see the US as a manufacturing failure and prefer extremely blunt government-directed policies. I think the underlying causes of this malaise are both misunderstood and misdiagnosed. The US excels at high-volume manuf

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