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Comment by downrightmike | Hacker News Reader

Well, we often see the huge start of it in the 70's when the USA was able to get products out of China. Thanks to nixon, well paying middle class jobs evaporated, replaced with worse service jobs, or nothing at all. Then deregulation in the 80's allow Bain and the like to load up companies with debt and take that money as fees. Effectively destroying these American institutions. Sun Beam used to make things in the US. Toys R Us used to be a stable business. We can't have nice things because the basis for them has been wiped out. There is also the two income trap. So people over consume to fill a gap or cope with stress from having to work so much.

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The other side is that the peak of American prosperity occurred post WWII where a majority of the developed world (any country that had experienced an industrial revolution), was blown to shreds. This gave the US roughly a temporary monopoly on manufacturing and exports. It’s hard to see a future where the dominance of American prosperity happens again unless that scenario repeats itself. Aka WWIII with the US coming out unscathed and the rest of the world destroyed.

No doubt your point of mismanagement and bad actors is valid but it’s important to recognize that much of the glory days of the American middle class corresponded to the height of many others misfortune.

Note that this effect hasn't just occurred in America but other developed countries (e.g. London, Canada, Australia) all which had more secure work, local manufacturing, local union power/membership, etc and have experienced similar trends as the US.

In our local newspaper there have been many articles about wage stagnation and the decline of our manufacturing base as well - albeit we may be a few years behind America which isn't much in the grand scheme of things.

It is possible, look at asia, they don't have land lines in many countries, they started around 3G, and now are pushing that further with 5G. The last economy to update will be the most advanced. So if the US can learn from China and Europe, it is possible that they could become a greater manufacturing power.

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