enthalpy

Thursday, February 26, 2004


More on yesterday's post about manufacturing jobs. I did a little digging for Economic Report of the President. It's PDF, but worth the read. The box on page 78 pretty much describes the difficulties in defining a "manufacturing job."
The definition of a manufactured product, however, is not straightforward. When a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, for example, is it providing a "service" or is it combining inputs to "manufacture" a product?

For example, mixing water and concentrate to produce soft drinks is classified as manufacturing. However, if that activity is performed at a snack bar, it is considered a service.
I don't know who came up with this definition, but it's pretty damn embarrassing. But I guess it explains the "Manufacturing activity is increasing" comment in Bush's State of the Union Address.

There's a donut shop that opened up down my street called "The Kolache Factory." I guess they get a tax break due to the heavy industry involved in the assembly of kolaches.



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