this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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[–] m_f@discuss.online 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's a well-written article about why tariffs won't work. I think everyone on Lemmy probably knows that already though. What I found interesting is that every developed country seems to follow the same trend. Pushing for going back to manufacturing might be the national equivalent of "I don't want to grow up!".

This seems like a way better approach:

A recent report from Tim Bartik at the Upjohn Institute suggests that the most impactful policies for struggling manufacturing-heavy communities include:

  • Customized services for small and medium businesses, including manufacturing extension services and job training services

  • Public spending on education, from preschool and K-12 to colleges and universities, as well as vocational education and job training programs for workers

  • Public investment in infrastructure and increasing land supply for business and housing development

Less effective policies include broad tax cuts for business, targeted business attraction incentives and attempts to reduce workers’ wages. One of the best ways to fund investment in distressed communities is with broad-based tax increases, while one of the worst ways is to cut K-12 education spending.

[–] piconaut@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Is the prediction that services employment share will remain around 80% as production per worker continues to increase? A historical correlation is not always the best at predicting the future, especially if the underlying factors responsible for the correlation are not thoroughly understood.

[–] m_f@discuss.online 1 points 3 months ago

I'm not sure they're predicting beyond where the US has already gone, just that other countries seem to be following the same trend. The trend shown can't continue in a linear fashion forever, and I don't think they'd argue that it's going down, so best guess at what they'd predict is that it will level off soon.