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>The US lost a LOT of capability over the last 20 years

citation needed...

My understanding was that US manufacturing output has been steadily growing (even if employment has been falling) for all of that time.

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That's a common belief and it's wrong.

https://research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1250...

We lost the ability to make CRTs and subsequently never gained LCD and Oled manufacturing. We lost the leading edge in IC manufacturing. We lost the ability to put people in orbit. Were in danger of not being able to make passenger planes.

Sure, all of that can be turned around, but the trend is toward losing capability to do advanced things.

I think I have read that that manufacturing employment has been falling in China and the world as a whole, too.

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