What's your position on the booming population in America? Where do the millions to be added to the country's population fit in with your model? What are they to do for a living? Do you think everyone is capable of being a doctor, lawyer, nurse, CPA (shudder)? Are there going to be enough rich people to provide service jobs for the masses?
You may despise manufacturing and those that do those jobs but they have been the backbone of our economy for generations.
"You may despise manufacturing and those that do those jobs but they have been the backbone of our economy for generations."
The key words there are "has been". Economies and civilizations change. Before manufacturing, agriculture was the backbone of our economy.
Change happens. Feel free to scream at the top of your lungs, for it matters not.
"After all, the chief business of the American people is business." - Calvin Coolidge
Manufacturing as a percentage of the workforce is dropping pretty much everywhere. Why? Automation and other productivity gains means that we can make more with less labor. That trend is hitting the Chinese even more than us. For ever modern plant making Western consumer goods, there's a bigger state run plant being shut down or receiving massive subsidies. Look at the steel industry -- big massive plants with tens of thousands of workers are dying out or are big money losers throughout the world. Small mini-mills with extensive automation and the capability to make a wide variety of products are the new low cost manufacturers of steel. The only way for those huge dinosaurs to compete with the mini-mills is for their governments to subsidize them. Which means that those governments are taking money from profitable enterprises and wasting it on losing one's. In the long run, it's not a winning proposition.
You have to get beyond strict job descriptions. Much of the service economy involves constant change in what the workers do. Getting a minimal education and working for your entire life at one plant making the same product is a fantasy. It only happened for a while in the US because the rest of the world was a smouldering wreck after WWII.
Side note -- agriculture was the backbone of our economy in 1800. Are you going to argue that we were better off then? Change always comes. Either learn to adapt or become extinct.
You mean the 20th century. Prior to World War I, some ninety percent of the US workforce was involved in farming.
I don't "despise" manufacturing. It was the center of the American economy at one time and now that time is passing. There will be other transitions in the future, this isn't the last. As for our population growth, I'd say it's a blessing. Other industrialized countries are facing low, or negative growth rates, and eventual extinction. More people doesn't mean a "burden" on our system, unless you live in socialism. Look, we don't know what exactly the future economy will consist of. But we do know that factory jobs don't cut it any more. There will be new industries and new jobs. The economy will adjust, as it always has in the past.