Your notion of "manufacturing" needs to be expanded broadly to include the making/provision of valuable intangibles, like services, or of intellectual property. Unceasingly producing valuable things of any kind, be they edible/wearable, etc., or not, is the way to create wealth.
If that's true, then the man who can mine, drill, farm, chop, catch or assemble the most should be the most valuable in the economy. Forget the guy who invents the mining machine, drilling rig, plow, tractor, internal combustion engine, spinning reel or assembly line, he isn't creating any real wealth, because he didn't directly participate in any of the activities you mention; he only helped make them happen more efficiently. According to your ideas, a manager creates no wealth because he isn't directly performing those tasks, even though he may be able to improve the productivity of those who do because of his terrific motivation and people skills.
There is an enormous amount of wealth in knowledge and invention, not just production. The simplistic view you give of how the economy works just doesn't... work.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by "Manufacturing."
You mentioned oil drilling as one of the fundamental ways to create wealth. What about refining the oil?
"There are only 3 fundamental ways to create wealth. (not money) Mining/oil drilling. Agricultural/logging/fishing, Manufacturing."
And Hong Kong does which of these? Mercantilist fallacies die hard ...
Right on. Does the economist (?) who wrote this piece expect that one day NASCAR race cars will be built in China? Or that cattle will be raised in Asia, shipped across the Pacific and slaughtered on the way? Corn? Soy beans?
It's the Economist Magazine. Consider the source.
Pure bullcrap. There are only 3 fundamental ways to create wealth. (not money) Mining/oil drilling, Agriculture/logging/fishing, Manufacturing. All the rest is merely paper snuffling or shuffling paper banknotes from one pocket to another
Boy, there is a book's worth of economic theory in those two sentences.
dittos!!
The rest is paper shuffling is right! That's part of the reason for the black underclass problems ... we got rid of the factory jobs that used to mean a breadwinner for the family. So now welfare is the breadwinner. This is part of the New Orleans disaster.
absolutely correct. the more people who can passively participate in the economy, taking a cut, the closer to failure we are.
Are you saying the US mines, drills, grows or manufactures less than in the past? Perhaps you have some links to back up your assertion?