Would you rather excel at a late-20th/early-21st century techology, like pharmaceuticals, computer chips, computer software, and aviation/avionics, or would you prefer to excel at a late-19th/early-20th century technology, like automobiles?
Automobiles are passe now? Looks like they’ll be around for the next 100years as well. Washing Machines are still a necessity in every household. The hardware stores are plumb full of power tools. Looks like they have a bright future coming in from China. And I’m willing to bet that chip manufacturing , where we once led the world, has declined drastically.
In fact, I asked some defender of our trade policy to tell me what products he’s referring to when he said there are plenty of great things made here. He said the Intel microprocessor. Trouble is, we might produce a good percentage of the silicon wafer, but the chips themselves are manufactured and packaged overseas. Aviation components, electronics even, are more and more being outsourced. The domestic content of Boeing planes has dropped precipitously over the years. And somehow, the software production, nice as it is, is hardly a boon for the manufacturing sector.
“Would you rather excel at a late-20th/early-21st century techology, like pharmaceuticals, computer chips, computer software, and aviation/avionics, or would you prefer to excel at a late-19th/early-20th century technology, like automobiles?”
Why are those thing better than cars? Cars are a very complex product that is high value added.