Why Americans don’t make televisions anymore

DetroitNews.com reports there is no question that the past few decades have brought a decline in American manufacturing. Though the automobile industry may be the most commonly referenced example, some forget that in the past our nation manufactured a variety of products, including consumer electronics. One of the most expensive and most popular American purchases is the television.

Television manufacturing is beginning to reemerge in the U.S., but manufacturers are being stifled. Abusive licensing patent pools threaten to slow innovation and economic growth charging consumers for technology they may never use.

Zenith was the last well-known American made television brand, until it sold off shares to LG, a Korean company in 1995. LG owned 100 percent of Zenith by 1999, eventually putting 1,200 workers at Zenith’s Melrose Park facility out of a job.

Back in 2012, Element Electronics, a Minnesota-headquartered company, began to assemble televisions in Detroit in a facility employing 100 people.

Read more at http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2014/10/22/americans-make-tvs/17680951/