America Underestimates the Difficulty of Bringing Manufacturing Back | Hacker News Reader

America Underestimates the Difficulty of Bringing Manufacturing Back

twitter.com

7 pointsfeyman_r9 comments

Pretty hard takedown of current Americans' work ethic. I have family members describe a similar ethic at a non-manufacturing site. I csn't generalize beyond that.

Excellent writeup - sadly he seems to be right on the money.

>Most Americans are going to hate manufacturing

That's what I wonder. These aren't jobs people want... so what is Trump and the GoP trying to do?

I found this article [1] and the one from November from Ben, very educational on understanding motivation. However, putting it in practice is a very different thing.

From [1]:

_That is because the structure of the world economy — choices made starting with Bretton Woods in particular, and cemented by the removal of tariffs over time — made them nonviable. Say what you will about the viability or wisdom of Trump’s tariffs, the motivation — to undo eighty years of structural changes — is pretty straightforward!_

[1]: https://stratechery.com/2025/trade-tariffs-and-tech/

People want the popular image of the 1950s, where a hard working dad could support a family living in a house with a picket fence in the suburbs. It doesn’t matter what the actual job is; it’s just associated with manufacturing in people’s minds.

Additionally, such jobs did not require a bachelor’s degree. Today it seems that affording a middle-class lifestyle (i.e., being able to afford to purchase or rent a home in a safe neighborhood with good public schools) often takes two incomes from jobs that require bachelors’ degrees or more, which is expensive in America. There are plenty of Americans who can’t afford that lifestyle, including those with college degrees.

If people are broke and lack other jobs, the jobs will look appealing enough.

For most they are not, and rest will ask why they will ask why they have to suffer to earn their living while their billionaire president is playing golf

Sometimes you do things you don't want to do because it prevents worse things from happening in the future. Such as hostile countries shutting off manufacturing to the US.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com