I have been thinking hard about how our children can proper in the difficult times ahead. If we Texans think of ourselves as an independent nation, a sovereign state, then we can think about industrial policy.
Consider the United States of America at its inception. It was largely an agricultural economy with some shipping and a little manufacturing. Alexander Hamilton thought America needed an industrial economy to build wealth and power. As Secretary of the Treasury, on December 5, 1791 he submitted to the House of Representatives an article, Report on the Subject of Manufactures, describing the benefits of industrialization and methods to promote it.
If America could consider launching and industrial economy in 1791, Texas can certainly do it in 2009.
The National System of Political Economy by Friedrich List has been studied by Japan and China when they planned to grow their industries. Maybe we Texas should study and apply it.
The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday May 5, 2009, ran an article, "Indian Steel Forges in U.S." by Robert Guy Matthews that describes how the an Indian Company, Wellspun-Gujarat Stahl Rohren opened a $150 Million steel plant in Little Rock Arkansas. Why is that in Little Rock instead of North Texas? Is Arkansas more on-the-ball than Texas? Well, this does show that industrialization is possible in the South.
Trust by Francis Fukuyama describes on pages 102 -104 how central Italy underwent a small scale industrial revolution in the 1970's. It is the American way to copy what works. If the Japanese, Chinese, and Italians have demonstrated how to grow a world class industrial economy, then we should be able to copy them in North Texas.
Developing an industrial economy will be better for Texas than waiting for Washington to fix the economy.
An ascendant Texas will be wealthy Texas.
Robert Canright
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
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