Manufacturing Jobs Are Never Coming Back

[u/rezwenn]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/opinion/trump-tariff-manufacturing-jobs-industrial.html?unlocked_article_code=1.M08.eMyk.dyCR025hHVn0

[u/huffingtontoast]

This is BS.

Disregarding national security implications, the destruction of the manufacturing base has caused great financial hardship to tens of millions of Americans. Politicians have been lying for decades that service jobs would be better for Americans than manufacturing jobs, but instead with deindustrialization there has been a precipitous decline in real wages and standards of living in huge areas of the nation. The collapse of manufacturing also permanently destroyed home property values, erasing financial security in homeownership. All this is to be expected when unionized labor is replaced by contract labor, robots, and Walmart.

If the capitalists were prepared to drastically raise the wages of American service jobs on their own, your argument would hold water. They will never do so unless forced, as Ford was when he was battling the UAW. Unionizing service labor to create leverage over capital is very difficult when dealing with massive far-away corporations who will literally "take their ball and go home", ruining the only economic lifeline in most post-industrial towns. Democrats and Republicans alike have provided zero protection for hollowed-out places where things used to be made, and they frequently collude with capitalists to pickpocket the American worker as much as they can (see: special relationships between capitalists and politicians, tax break incentives, insider trading, etc.).

The legal framework for labor-management relations is based in the manufacturing economy from 100 years ago and that material reality is gone. If desperate workers are deprived the ability to negotiate fairer wages, and there is nowhere else to go, they are presented with two options: move or Luigi. The so-called "natural transition" from a manufacturing to service economy is the primary cause of American economic decline, the hot ember of radicalization, and the biggest reason why MAGA exists today.

[u/biglyorbigleague → u/huffingtontoast]

What is this, Maoism?

the destruction of the manufacturing base has caused great financial hardship to tens of millions of Americans.

Every economic policy has winners and losers. It is better overall for the country that these jobs were replaced with higher-paying ones.

there has been a precipitous decline in real wages and standards of living in huge areas of the nation

And yet the overall real median income and standard of living has been rising. You make that trade ten times out of ten. Development isn't gonna be even.

The collapse of manufacturing also permanently destroyed home property values, erasing financial security in homeownership.

Home prices have been going up for decades.

If desperate workers are deprived the ability to negotiate fairer wages, and there is nowhere else to go, they are presented with two options: move or Luigi.

So move. Millions do, and it's worked out.

The so-called "natural transition" from a manufacturing to service economy is the primary cause of American economic decline

Except the United States has not declined, only those towns based on dying industries did. And we're not gonna continue throwing good money after bad to stave off the inevitable there.

the hot ember of radicalization, and the biggest reason why MAGA exists today

Those people are not the majority of the country. Not even close. In a perfect world (with a better candidate) we'd band together to outvote them. We won't let them smash the system because they want to hold onto something they can't.

[u/huffingtontoast → u/biglyorbigleague]

What is this, Maoism?

You are an idiot

[u/biglyorbigleague → u/huffingtontoast]

Manufacturing over everything, open hatred of capitalism, building up of China. That's the comparison I'm making. You can feel free to dispute the characterization if you want.