I read an article today that tries to make an argument that the US manufacturing sector is doing worse than it appears because some of the data is interpreted incorrectly.
Unfortunately, it really doesn't make a very convincing point and simply misstates some very obvious conclusions.
One of the problems with it is that it appears to be very partisan as opposed to an objective analysis and wants to take out the major manufacturing growth area after which manufacturing appears to be suffering.
It then blames this on trade and in all honesty, it makes the same point that pretty much every mainstream economist has been making, our old unskilled labor jobs can be done cheaper by robots or foreigners.
The growth is in new technologies and skilled labor.
I actually thought it was going to make a potentially valid point about the content of manufactured goods but it failed to get there.
To be successful in the future you need to develop the skills of the future.
Who is going to train workers to have these skills is the relevant question?
The economy that allowed people to simply show up and learn to do a simple process is gone or going. That sort of work is better done by robots who don't get bored and don't make human mistakes.
The requirement for the future is people who can think, learn and make decisions to keep the process flowing.
The jobs are actually better, even if there are less of them.
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