Jim Manzi has written a thought-provoking article on the social and economic transformations our nation must go through if we want to survive and thrive in the 21st Century.
That chart says much. America's manufacturing output, as a percentage of GDP, has not changed, but it now requires less than half the workforce it did in 1947. Productivity increases mean many factory workers have to go find a job somewhere else.
Creative Destruction is a bracing shock to cities, families and individuals as well as whole industries, but we're better off for it in the end. I expected to follow Papa Silverfiddle into the factory after high school, but economic upheaval wrecked my plans. I'm not from Pennsylvania, but Billy Joel's "Allentown" explains it all. I went into the Air Force instead and I'm a better man for it.
Creative Destruction is a bracing shock to cities, families and individuals as well as whole industries, but we're better off for it in the end. I expected to follow Papa Silverfiddle into the factory after high school, but economic upheaval wrecked my plans. I'm not from Pennsylvania, but Billy Joel's "Allentown" explains it all. I went into the Air Force instead and I'm a better man for it.
Innovation, as always is the key
Our success owes much to our dynamism and innovation. We now need to throw it into hyper-drive. This involves putting slow-thinking, sclerotic government on a diet and getting it out of the way, of manufacturing, technology innovation, and education.
I recommend you go read this piece. It is long but interesting. Thankfully, the author avoids partisan left-right arguments while challenging us to think in new ways.
