If we are losing to Russia because they have factories and we don’t, couldn’t we also rebuild our manufacturing industry? Of course we could! But a lot would have to change.
Because we would have to have a different financial and economic system. One that rewards solid manufacturing more than advertising and fancy design. Then workers and engineers would be more valued than creatives, lawyers and financial salesmen. That would make financial flows not market-driven but utility-driven, measured in some other way. It would also make our education system look different. It would see a return to an emphasis on science, at the expense of personality development and lectures on glitchy websites. And a teacher who could teach math would be in a solid position, even if he was caught claiming that George Washington landed in a flying saucer.
Is that really the kind of change we want? Do those who hold big money and political power today really want it?
