[RE]

Really?  Did any kid ever think, "When I grow up, I wanna work in a factory!"  Did any parent ever say, "I hope my kid grows up to work in a factory just like me!"

This complete nonsense comes from muddle headed academics who associate "factory jobs" with the relatively high paying jobs Auto Workers had from the 1940s through the 70s, before the transition to a service economy and before factories were offshored for cheaper labor.  The UAW was a fairly strong union in those years.

AS a rule though, factory work always sucked and absolutely nobody who worked those jobs liked anything about them other than the fact they were the only jobs available for low skills people that paid a wage you could raise a family on.  The people who did it sacrificed their lives on the dream that their children would NOT have to work in a factory when they grew up.  The jobs were mostly boring and dangerous, and whether it was Paper Mills or Clothing factories, few ihndustries besides the Automotive and Aviation industries actually paid that well.  If you predate the 1940s to earlier factory work, you had child labor and nonexistent safety standards that lead to regular fires and deadly accidents. 

In any event, as The Boss wrote in "My Home Town", "those jobs are gone boys, and they ain't never comin' back".

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/09/nx-s1-5375146/trump-tariffs-factory-jobs-nostalgia

Americans still dream about factory jobs. Can they be brought back?

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[monsta666]

This complete nonsense comes from muddle headed academics who associate "factory jobs" with the relatively high paying jobs Auto Workers had from the 1940s through the 70s, before the transition to a service economy and before factories were offshored for cheaper labor.  The UAW was a fairly strong union in those years.

I don't think this type of muddled thinking is limited to academics. If anything they are the minority who think that way. These days, these expressions and sentiments largely stem from the social narrative spun about either by older folk (who perhaps ironically probably didn't even do the factory work) or politicians that want to tell the story of how the 50s was so much better and if only those factories came back then America (or insert your home country) would become great again.

The thing underlying this narrative is this romanticism and perhaps even prestige held with manufacturing jobs. They hold a greater status to a service based job and often, service jobs are taken to be something held in lower regard or at worst, not seen as a "real job". Thing is these thoughts are largely based on nostalgia and not reality.

It is my impression (and correct me if I am wrong) but when these factory jobs were actually prevalent most people did not consider them good jobs. It is only in hindsight and the lack of experience of their obvious drawbacks (the physical dangers and to the environment) is the status of these jobs being elevated. In any case the jobs aren't coming back and even if they did they would not be well paid and people would not be happy doing them. At the end of the day it only a step above saying we can improve the job market by getting people to do farming jobs. It sounds great on paper but the reality of it would be very different. 

The path of economies is to go from an agricultural to manufacturing and then to servicing based economies. This is the journey of advanced economies and going back to manufacturing is basically impossible without accepting you will lower the standard of living. You cannot bring manufacturing back and continue to pay people well. You will have to compromise. Thing is these days people don't often want to hear the truth. It is easier to dream and listen to people who tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear.

[RE]

I'll agree that it's a nostalgic spinj driven by politicians more than academics, but they do use a (false) economic argument to support it, which is that factory jobs are better paying.  This argument works with the MAGAotts because when the switchover was made, the factory jobs that disappeared WERE better paying that the service jobs that replaced them.  Auto workers who had $30/hr (1970s dollars) production line jobs with medical bennies and retirement packages were laid off, and the jobs they had to take to replace them were as fast food workers at $5/hr with no bennies.

The thing is today IF the jobs did come back, they would be paid on the same scale they are paid in China or Mexico in order for the factory to be competitive on the global market.  I doubt any American would be very happy working in a Foxconn Factory making I phones.  Hell, the Chinese who are currently doing hate it so much they commit suicide.

The whole REASON factories left was to access populations they could pay at a lower pay scale.  They're not going to come back here to pay at a higher scale.  This is CFS and should be obvious to people, but nostalgia for "the good old days" combined with the idea that factories actually produce something tangible and therefore are a more "valid" form of work sells the narrative to the kind of dimwits who vote for Trump.

This also makes obvious why the Tariffs won't work, because all it does it raise the prices of the products.  Which means for the Konsumers to be able to afford to buy them, the prices have to go up, which means wages then have to go up.  AKA, an inflationary spiral.

As you point out though, reality doesn't play as well as the fantasy, which now has been repeated so many times people simply accept it as truth.

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[K-Dog]

It is my impression (and correct me if I am wrong) but when these factory jobs were actually prevalent most people did not consider them good jobs.

Pay was enough so people could live independent lives.  There was enough for freedom.  There was enough for dreams.  Most people are just trying to keep up now.  Freedom is when money meets needs with some extra left over.  But the big reason for the nostalgia of the factory job is the social connections that went along with having one. 

You were a 'winner' in a world of losers.

[TDoS]

It is easier to dream and listen to people who tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear.

Boy if that isn't applicable to all sorts of things, even peak oil being one. It is probably because it is a common human characteristic....we hear and believe what sounds good to us...and when the real analytical/scientific folks come along and dispute it with data and logic and expertise and whatnot...well....they are trolls and liars.

Works for all sorts of things I imagine, including the entire "the good ol' days" fallacy (for lack of a better term).

[RE]

A fairy typical article about the great factory jobs Amerikans dream of, although the final question in the coda is worth considering:

This brings us to an even bigger question: What warrants all these interventions to boost one particular sector of the economy? Is manufacturing actually special? And, if so, what makes it so special? That's next week in the Planet Money newsletter.

What's special is that manufacturing is where the biggest return comes on capital, since a factory can produce so many units to sell.  So if you own a factory, you make a lot more money than if you own a fast food joint, which can only sell so many burgers.  To get rich, you need to own a chain of burger shops.  Who dreams of factory jobs?  CAPITALISTS!

https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2025/05/13/g-s1-66112/why-arent-americans-filling-the-manufacturing-jobs-we-already-have

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