...working an assembly line does not require a great deal of skill or training.That's not been true for decades. Have you ever worked in any of the numerous fields of manufacturing? First, our production plants are highly automated, which requires a tremendous degree of 'labor' skill to maintain and often even just operate these machines. Second, you have heard of SPC, Arthur Deming's statistical process control, haven't you?
As implemented here and in Japan, The workers on the line are incorporated into the quality assurance process, and are carefully to guage the production tolerances. And if they deviate unacceptably, to stop all production until finding a fix.
It is often these same workers who come up with the fix. Not management. This is highly skilled in most manufacturing, and requires a deeper understanding of things than you seem to appreciate.
And then on the macro-economic level, you have to realize that nothing has repealed THIS:
Chart Source: U.S. Commerce Dept.
Manufacturing’s use of intermediate goods and services in its production process means that it generates substantial economic activity at the intermediate level. This is called the multiplier effect, and it turns out that manufacturing’s multiplier effect is stronger than other sectors.
Specifically, every $1 of a manufacturing product sold to a final user generates an additional $1.43 of intermediate economic output, more than half in sectors outside manufacturing. Manufacturing’s multiplier effect is greater than any other sector and far greater than that of the service sector, which generates only 71 cents of intermediate activity for $1 of final sales—half of the additional intermediate output generated by $1 of manufacturing final sales.
Manufacturing’s multiplier effect is greater than any other sector and far greater than that of the service sector...I'd agree that your numbers are the best available. My problem is with coming up with output figures for service work. Manufacturing is easy it figure. Take shoes, the BEA has data for all sorts of different kinds of shoes. For restaurants they lump Starbucks in with Four Seasons. Quality is just one problem for the bean counters; darn near everything is a headache in figuring output for services.
A shoe factory makes shoes and you can count them. Someone could say that output from a trucking company equals freight tons X miles. They'd be screwing up because we might hire some computer geek to reroute our trucks to make all deliveries with less driving. The bean counter will say my output (freight ton miles) is falling while my banker will say that I'm getting rich. For me, the most consistent way of measuring output in the service sector is by looking at profits, which is why I say the transition from manufacturing to services is good for America.
This is highly skilled in most manufacturing, and requires a deeper understanding of things than you seem to appreciate. How long does it take from the moment one is hired till one has reached this "highly skilled" level you are claiming is needed? How is it that that unionized plants like GM are producing a lower quality vehicle than plants in other parts of the US which have non-unionized, lower paid workers. The problem with Union's such as the auto workers is that their pay is not based on skill or demand, it is based on the ability of the Union to force a salary increase. In the days when the American Auto manufacturers had a monopoly on car sales it was easier to give in to the union and raise the price of cars, than to hold the line. The American Auto industry is now facing the consequences of that behavior. What the Auto workers make is not based on actual skill, but on the fact they are unionized.