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I think this is a matter of "our" perspective being different. I also don't have hard stats, but I'd be willing to bet that the average HN reader is much better
by bencpeters 15y ago
I think this is a matter of "our" perspective being different. I also don't have hard stats, but I'd be willing to bet that the average HN reader is much better educated, with many more valuable job skills, and much more entrepreneurial than the average American as a whole.
Our economy has been transitioning from a goods/manufacturing-based one to a service-based economy for years. The question in my mind is whether or not this is sustainable in the sense of being able to provide decent, livable wages for the vast majority of the US population in a globalized economy. My gut is that isn't - at some point we need to make something real, not just sell each other services while a (relatively) small elite design things that are then made overseas.
The other thing to realize is that manufacturing carries with it a lot more than just assembly line jobs. Factories need some managers, but perhaps more importantly, they also need skilled technicians and engineers to optimize processes, troubleshoot problems, work on complicated assemblies, etc. I think it's reflecting a bit of an elite bias to say that "Factory work just doesn't seem like a viable long-term career"
I don't have numbers to back this up, but I think in general it would be a good thing for America as a whole, and for the American middle class in particular, if we began to move back toward being a country of "makers" rather than a country of "service providers."
- yummyfajitas 15y agoNo, our employment has been transitioning from manufacturing to services. We make more things than ever before, ignoring small recession-induced blips. http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/IPMAN http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/IPMAN http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/INDPRO http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/INDPRO
- ChrisLTD 15y agoI don't have numbers to back this up, but I think in general it would be a good thing for America as a whole, and for the American middle class in particular, if we began to move back toward being a country of "makers" rather than a country of "service providers." From the data I've seen from a few Google searches, U.S. industrial manufacturing output keeps going up (with hiccups in recessions), but employment in manufacturing is going down due to increases in efficiency and automation. Also, I think it's weird to put this dividing line between service providers and makers. I design and program websites for a living, which most people would call a service. But couldn't you also say that I "manufacture" websites? A cook at McDonald's manufactures burgers. A writer a newspaper manufactures articles.
- Symmetry 15y agoActually, the people who make the McDonalds burgers do count as manufacturers, since the burgers are made offsite and only warmed up at the restaurant. But it is stupid that doing the same thing in different places could change something from a service to an manufacturing job.