What would Ben say?(Manufacturing Management)

This year is the 300th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin. Hence the recent interest in his amazingly productive life as an inventor, businessman and diplomat. What would he say, I wonder, about how U.S. manufacturers should compete with the cheap manufacturing labor available today in emerging countries?

For several years the American economy has registered very good labor productivity growth, about 4.6% annually. Last year, however, we saw output per man-hour increase by only 1.8%, noted The Conference Board in a recent report.

This compares to