Yeah I started cluing into the BS back in the 90s. It was repeated over and over how industry and manufacturing were yesterday's economy, and the new economy was going to be about information and services. We as a country have been tricked into buying into entirely quantitative concepts, forgetting/ignoring the fact that economies have qualitative aspects too.
We could not have waged, let alone won, WWII without total industrial supremacy. There's also the problem that after a while your society begins to lose skill sets that are not easily reacquired. Innovation is also hindered, because a lot of innovation and "outside the box" thinking comes from a familiarity with existing processes. When there's no more existing process, there's no more impetus to think up new processes.
Our birthright has been stolen right from under us. We're coasting on what some (Mark Steyn and Thomas Sowell) have termed cultural capital, i.e. the achievements of past generations and the large inertia we have enjoyed, and once that's over what then? We're close to it finally running out of steam already.
