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Date: Sun, 4 May 2025 16:27:25 -0400
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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"