One overlooked factor that helped the US after WWII is that we were the manufacturing base for most of the world for decades after the end of the war. Over 50% of manufactured goods were made in the US in the decade after WWII.
German manufacturing is in decline because it relied on dirt-cheap Russian energy. It's not cost competitive otherwise.
https://www.energyconnects.com/news/gas-lng/2025/february/ge... Europe has spent three painful years weaning itself off gas from the east with the biggest impact felt in Germany, the region’s biggest economy. German industry was built on cheap Russian gas and rising energy prices have already trammeled growth and forced some manufacturers to move production abroad.
Another strange thing I learned recently is that in 1930s there was another tariff frenzy as well that lasted until the WW2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Ac...
Why past tense? Dilution remains a good solution to most pollutants, carbon included. That it stops working after a point doesn't make it useless per se.