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, i

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." 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.