Good point. I don't think that every country in the world should be aiming to run an export-manufacturing trade surplus; that's mathematically guaranteed to end

Good point. I don't think that every country in the world should be aiming to run an export-manufacturing trade surplus; that's mathematically guaranteed to end in tears. I do worry about institutional capability loss on the scale of companies, industries, and whole countries. Look how hard, over-budget, and over-schedule it has been to resume building nuclear reactors in the USA after the entire country took a decades-long break from new unit construction. There was too much knowledge lost from aging humans' heads before it could be passed on to the next generation on the job, and now it's very expensive to regenerate.