How Does America “Reshore” Skills That Have Disappeared?
If you want Americans to reenter the manufacturing workforce, you need to convince <i>everyone</i> that manufacturing is a decent path to a good wage and lifestyle.  And then you need to make it actually happen.<p>Unfortunately, over the last 25 years the US has decimated vocational education in the high schools while simultaneously convincing families that a 4-year college degree is the only way to a viable lifestyle.  So we cram college-prep and AP classes down everyone&#x27;s throats while we auction off the drafting tables and auto shop tools.<p>It&#x27;s for the best, since there&#x27;s nowhere for a voc-ed student to go after graduation other than community college.  Meanwhile we&#x27;ve moved on to dismantling unions and apprenticeships and all the other things that tracked workers into the factories and guaranteed them living wages.<p>I&#x27;ll let our European friends explain how they don&#x27;t have this same problem.