Eggplant, Cogent analysis. I also have wondered for many years how we can survive as a prosperous society manufacturing nothing. Not to mention the strategic implications of having no industrial base if we need to get on a wartime footing. Will China or Mexico make our next supply of Higgins boats?
Look at a Youtube video of Niagara Falls, New York urban blight. I grew up there when the factories were cranking out petrochemical products. Now the once decent working class neighborhoods are boarded up ghettos and the factories sit rusting and vacant.