A mistake about manufacturing costing Americans millions of jobs
Wow - that was a great read.  I like how it started by saying,<p>&gt; Looking back, there were two kinds of people who lived in America in 2016: people who believed Donald Trump, and people who believed data.<p>...only to show that, against the odds, people who believed &quot;data&quot; ended up being incorrect about some of the most crucial conclusions drawn by the use of that data.<p>However, I have this itching feeling that I always have whenever I read an analysis on this topic, and it&#x27;s this:<p><i>Americans don&#x27;t want those jobs back</i>.  We really don&#x27;t.<p>I think Dave Chappelle said it very well: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=inlDT62oGy8" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=inlDT62oGy8</a><p>And that leads to an even bigger realization: people (and the body politic) don&#x27;t <i>want jobs at all</i>.  Jobs aren&#x27;t useful.  People generally only want the resources and independence that come with a job.<p>We&#x27;ve been sold the idea that the connection between &quot;a job&quot; (ie, something that someone does for hours a day, 5 days a week, in the tack of a career) and resource (like food and shelter, ie, the Money) is a natural, wholesome consequence of a free market.<p>But then, why don&#x27;t animals have jobs?  Why don&#x27;t very wealthy people have jobs?  Why don&#x27;t very poor people have jobs?  Why don&#x27;t indigenous people have jobs?  Why don&#x27;t well-adjusted hippies (think Rainbow Gathering) have jobs?<p>I think that we can find a <i>truly</i> free market, with the price signals and freedom from state intervention that free market fans always cheer, but whose central models are the Job and the Money.  If the internet means anything truly useful to our species, I think it&#x27;s best viewed as our chance to finally shed the Job and the Money.