Re: Guardian Almost Makes Sense

On Sun, 4 May 2025 16:27:25 -0400, bitrex <user@example.net> wrote:

On 5/4/2025 2:41 PM, Jeroen Belleman wrote:

On 5/4/25 19:18, Cursitor Doom wrote:

On Sun, 04 May 2025 09:01:56 -0700, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
wrote:
>

>
which is shocking.
>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/02/american-
reindustrialization-manufacturing

>
I would normally hit the 'next' button when someone links to a
Guardian article, but as you say, they're right for once with this
one. Lots of countries in the West were sold the same lie about
swapping manufacturing for services. Mrs Thatcher told the British
that the old 'smoke stack' industries would have to go abroad and be
replaced by smart services. Those peasants in the Far East, they were
told, would take over all the shitty, manual jobs whilst the British
would get cracking with the clever stuff like manufacturing silicon
chips. Problem was, the peasants in China and Taiwan didn't get the
memo. The British lost a huge amount of manufacturing alright, but the
service economy which replaced it was - for the most part - low paid
and low skill. Some economists who could see the issues with this said
at the time: "we can't as a country make a living from shining each
other's shoes" - and that's the prediction which *should* have been
listened to.

 
I was still in high school in the early 70's when my economy teacher
tried to sell us the merits of a service economy. I was puzzled: How
can an economy that doen't *produce* anything material survive in the
long run? A little over half a century later, here we are: It can't.
 
It's surprising it took that long, is true.
 
Jeroen Belleman

>
I have a relative who works at a business college, count the number of
BMWs, Mercedes, and Ferraris in the parking lot vs the number of them at
the average steel mill circa 1985 you'll see how the "service economy"
sold itself.
>
You're there grinding your life and health away for a lower middle class
salary while your buddy in sales at the local car dealership just made
$47,000 in commission alone in 1985 dollars that year and you're like
"huh that's interesting"

"Export or Die"
Anyone remember that? More to the point, how many people forgot it!