Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (And How It Got That Way)

by Rachel Slade

America’s biggest apparel company, Nike, for example, entirely abandoned manufacturing in the 1990s, opting to contract all its manufacturing in Asia instead of tying up capital in machines and skilled laborers. Less than a decade later, Boeing, once the pride of America, went the same way. Under CEO James McNerney, Boeing offshored most of the production of its 737 MAX to hundreds of small companies around the globe. The results were disastrous. Parts and pieces didn’t quite work together as planned, costing the company inordinate time and money to fix issues. The plane also had a fatal flaw in its design—a flight control system that would override pilots’ commands, plunging the plane’s nose down during takeoff. After two commercial flights crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 passengers and crew, Boeing finally grounded the 737 MAX. The company paid $2.5 billion to settle the Department of Justice’s conspiracy and fraud case, but McNerney’s wealth was safe. After collecting nearly $100 million in salary and bonuses from the company, he retired from Boeing in 2015.