Goods Producers and Their Disproportionate Value

My materials analysis laboratory, Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc., exists to support the producers of goods in the USA.  I consider this mission to be a noble one.  To be sure, we provide research and development services to institutions other than manufacturers, provide quality control verifications of their supplies for service providers, and we provide some environmental safety evaluations as well.  However, the core of our business is assisting manufacturers with their materials problems and processing concerns and their product development.

Compared to the employment of private sector service providers and even of government employees, the number of goods producers are a beset minority.  The Federal Reserve of St. Louis provides the data:

As of December 2025, there were 21,477,000 goods-producing workers and 113,613,000 service workers in the private sector.  The total number of government "workers" was 23,359,000.  The goods-producers were outnumbered by these government employees by almost 1.9 million.  The ratio of private sector service providers to private sector goods-producers was 5.29.

Let us examine how households actually spend their money.  We will again turn to the data of the Federal Reserve of St. Louis:

The ratio of money spent on services to that spent on goods is only 2.24 as of December 2025.  This is much smaller than the ratio of service providers to goods producers of 5.29.

One cannot say that an American goods-producer is thereby 5.29/2.24 = 2.36 times more valuable than an American service provider in the economy.  Many of the goods consumed by U.S. households are produced in countries using slave labor or very low cost labor, or by heavily subsidized and little-regulated industries.  Those are advantages that my laboratory tries to help American manufacturers overcome by helping them produce superior goods at lower production costs so they can tap into this value of goods to households that is revealed by their spending choices. 

Since 2005, the number of goods-producing Americans has been relatively constant, aside from dips in and shortly after recessions.  Despite that, the value of American goods has increased.  With good energy policies that take advantage of our tremendous carbon-based fuel resources to provide low cost and highly reliable energy, with reductions in the cost (burden) of government which in 2025 was 37.7% of GDP, and with further reductions in the number of irrational government regulations, American goods-producers could grow in number and the value of American manufacturing could grow faster than it has.  The potential is there.

Let me offer you this nugget to justify my statement that there is plenty of reason to believe that reliable energy and good government policy has the power to increase the number of manufacturing employees.  Note the fact that from 2014 to 2024, the states of Florida, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Arizona, South Carolina, Utah, Alabama, and Missouri were able to increase the percentage of manufacturing employees by substantial percentages.  If state government policies have so much effect, then federal government policies and the improvement of other state government and local government policies must have a large effect on manufacturing employment also.  The potential is there.

Thirtieth Anniversary of Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc.

The 14th of July, 2025, is the 30th anniversary of my materials analysis laboratory, Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc.  Within two weeks of the announcement that the recent merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta was going to result in the closing of the Martin Marietta Laboratories - Baltimore laboratory, I incorporated Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc.

I initially provided surface analysis services using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, also called electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis or ESCA) and a scanning Auger electron microprobe (SAM).  Soon, I added thermal analysis services (thermogravimetry or TGA, differential scanning calorimetry or DSC, thermomechanical analysis or TMA, and dynamic mechanical analysis or DMA) and metallographic microscopy.  Down the road awhile, we offered infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).  We then added energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to our SEM.

Still later, we added mechanical testing capabilities with the purchase of a used Instron machine and we upgraded its electronic controls and software.  We purchased an ultraviolet - visible light or UV-Vis spectrometer.  Then came the purchase of our gas chromatography - mass spectrometer (GC-MS), followed by the purchase of our wavelength-dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF).  Next, we purchased a 3-dimension high resolution digital optical microscope with surface profiling capabilities and an integrated laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) elemental microanalysis spectrometer. Finally, our last major purchase was our x-ray diffraction instrument (XRD).  Through the years, I commonly paid myself less salary than my employees so I could invest more into expanding the laboratory's materials analysis capabilities.

This expanding instrument capability has helped us to provide a wide range of materials characterizations, failure analyses, materials verifications, quality control, detection of hazards, and research and development services.  We utilize these capabilities on materials as varied as metals, semiconductors, polymers, glasses, ceramics, composite materials, minerals and other inorganic chemicals, and organic liquids.  We presently employ 8 people, counting two interns and two other part time employees.

Today, Howard County, Maryland, presented me with my annual personal property tax bill.  My willingness to forgo income, purchase the equipment of my laboratory, and to take on risk, leaves me subject to a large tax bill annually for the value of my laboratory equipment.  That equipment depreciates, but if it is in use, it never depreciates below 25% of its initial cost.  This is one instance in which inflation is a good thing.  At least the expense of purchasing equipment in 1996 is much reduced by the inflation since then, along with the subsequent property tax.

Governments love taking from small businesses.  From each according to his ability or capability, to each according to someone's perception of their own need or maybe somebody else's need.  The force of government is most easily applied against a minority, such as capable small business owners.  Yet, after 30 years, I will continue working for as many more years as I can.  I still like solving materials problems and working with the kind of people who share my interest in using materials to improve the condition of mankind.

Educating Students Around the World in Materials Analysis and Characterization

In addition to my writings on this blog, I have written most of the website content for my materials analysis laboratory, Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc.  That website consists of nearly 80 pages of information about the laboratory, materials analysis techniques, applications of materials characterization to a wide range of materials to make better use of materials and better products, information about the industries, companies, universities, and governmental agencies we support, and background and specialization information about our scientists.

AME's Dr. Kevin Wepasnick is a home brew-master. He recently collaborated with C&EN, a publication of the American Chemical Society, to make a helium beer. Helium actually is soluble in beer, gives it a very fine head, and maintains a very rich and creamy taste. But it has a much lower solubility than carbon dioxide does and does not create the carbonic acid that CO2 does. Carbonic acid gives beer a sharper taste.  Consequently, helium beer is quite flat.  Because the solubility of helium is very low, Kevin used a much higher pressure of helium in the brewing process. Due to that high pressure, much of the brewing was performed in our laboratory at Anderson Materials Evaluation using higher pressure hardware than is used for the usual carbon dioxide beer. See the C&EN video at www.andersonmaterials.com/beer.  Note the remark that our AME logo is Tight!

An incredible number of students are coming to our website to learn about analytical techniques and materials characterization. In just the last week, about 100 university internet users came to our website. Visitors came from Stanford, Cal Tech, MIT, Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, the Universities of Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, Wisconsin, Colorado, Ohio State, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, Cal Poly, UCLA, UC at Davis, Oregon State, Michigan State, U. of Rochester, RIT, Case Western Reserve U., Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Kent State, SUNY at Potsdam, Lehigh, Arizona State, Missouri U. of Sci. & Tech., Carnegie Mellon, U. of Pittsburgh, Northeastern U., UMBC, George Mason U., Purdue U., Washington State, and many more have visited in the last week.  Visitors from McGill, U. of Toronto, U. of Alberta, U. of Calgary, and other colleges in Canada visited the AME website.

In the United Kingdom, Oxford, Cambridge, and the Universities of Strathclyde, Sheffield, Southhampton, Northhampton, Windsor, Reading, Bath, Leeds, and Birmingham have provided visitors. In the rest of Europe: Uppsala U., Ecole de technologie superieure, U. of Ulm, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz U. Hannover, Picardie U., U. of Mons, Flinders U., U. College of Dublin, Waterloo U., U. Libre de Bruxelles, and others have visited. Many South American, Middle Eastern, African, Indian, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese university visitors have also been to our website in the last week. AME is certainly doing its part to educate the world in materials science and engineering!

20 Years of Materials Analysis by Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc.

Today is not only Bastille Day, but it is also the 20th Anniversary of the founding of Anderson Materials Evaluation, Inc.  For 20 years we have been providing high quality materials analysis and characterization services in our laboratory to our discerning customers.  We want to thank you for using our analytical services and for making it possible for us to enjoy solving many challenging and fun materials problems, while helping you to improve your products and processing operations.

The founder, Dr. Charles Anderson, wants to thank his business partner, Dr. Lorrie Krebs, for her many years of highly dedicated effort in making this 20-year record possible.  He wishes to thank Dr. Kevin Wepasnick for his great contributions for the last several years, all of which have been during the on-going Obama Socialist Recession.  Many other employees have made great contributions in the earlier years, which are also much appreciated.  Many interns have both given us the pleasure of teaching them the science we love so much and have contributed to our work in most cases quite ably.