In the 1950s, when Japan and much of Europe was in ruins, the U.S. accounted for 50% of the world’s global production. By the 1960s, this was 35%, declining to 25% by the 1980s. By 2025, the U.S. share of global production had fallen to 12% as production grew elsewhere. (itif.org, Feb. 18)
The ca
The industrial period of the west was some of the most brutal, horrific periods of human history. Slavery, entire cities black from pollution, company towns that were like prisons, children dying in mines, poison in the air, food, water and most of your products . Why would anyone want to go back to that unless they were profoundly evil or profoundly ignorant of how bad it was.
Can you look at western regimes today and see anything but profound evil?
Good point
They don’t remember it that way. The fact that the costs of hyperconsumption have been externalised for decades because China has been taking the brunt of it is lost to everyone. Like they would see the (now defunct) pictures of the Beijing smog and have no idea that the responsibility for a part of it falls on them too. Instead they used their racist bias to explain the situation.
The image of manufacturing in their mind is probably highly romanticised. They picture a blue blooded American man working hard eight hours a day coming back to his paid off home, his housewife and his 50 or so children.