Typical ignorant protectionist claptrap.
Americans used to be all farmers too, I suppose that at the height of the manufacturing sector the American economy must have been in the crapper, right? Because all of those farmers were unemployed for the rest of their lives?
I suppose once a factory shuts down then all of those employees might as well commit suicide because they will never have another good job again?
This is a very old, very debunked argument going back a long, long time.
For the past fifty years, the number of Americans employed in manufacturing has been between ten and fourteen million. It’s been remarkably stable, how many people in this country have been employed in manufacturing. And in fact, manufacturing output in America is far greater than it used to be (because of better machines).
All this means lower prices, a wider variety of goods, and a growing economy.
Protectionism (tariffs, bailouts, import restrictions, etc.) has been understood by ALL economists from laissez faire capitalists to revolutionary communists to be BAD for everybody. It is based on a flawed, one-dimensional piece of reasoning that looks ONLY at the first order effects these policies have on a single, small group of people, while ignoring the long-term effects it has on everybody.
As for unions and regulation-gone-too-far, yes, that’s sped up the process, but the process would have continued anyway.
We used to be a primarily agricultural economy, then an industrial manufacturing economy, now we are a service economy. In fifty years, we could be a space pirate economy, who knows? The point is that you shouldn’t panic when economies go through transition. You don’t need to “save” a particular industry. Nobody in Beverly Hills or Palm Beach rolls up their sleeves and actually manufactures something at a plant, and yet they are doing pretty well economically.
That you tell you something about assuming we NEED a particular industry or type of job to prosper.
talk about “claptrap!” LOL
and just what economy are you living in that is “growing”
trade deficits, increasing unemployment, lower wages, HUGE personal foreclosures & government deficit spending...and the feds are having to bail out your “growing economy”...
you might want to do a little research before you “break wind.”