Building a Car Before You Can Drive It: The Illusion of Reindustrialization
There’s a popular slogan echoing through America’s political halls: “Bring the jobs back. Reindustrialize. Make it here again.” It sounds patriotic. It evokes images of bustling factories, union jobs, and thriving small towns. But it’s also a deeply flawed diagnosis of what really went wrong — and a dangerously misguided prescription for how to fix it.
Reindustrialization, in many ways, is like building a car before you know how to drive. It assumes that merely producing things again, in America, will somehow reverse decades of inequality, community decay, and wage stagnation. But it won’t. Because manufacturing didn’t leave America — prosperity did.
What Really Happened
Global trade absolutely boosted American productivity. It lowered prices, expanded consumer choices, and allowed American companies to focus on high-value industries. The problem wasn’t globalization. The problem was that the top 1% vacuumed up nearly all the gains.
If those productivity surges had been equitably shared, the average American worker today would be making significantly more. Service jobs wouldn’t be “low-wage” by default. Small towns wouldn’t be ghost towns. And millions wouldn’t be working two jobs just to scrape by. The issue wasn’t offshoring alone — it was inequality.
The Blame Game
Instead of confronting the real villain — a broken economic model that rewards capital over labor — the narrative has been hijacked by cultural scapegoats. Immigrants are blamed. Foreigners are blamed. China is blamed. But here’s what the data says:
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Crime rates among immigrants are lower than among native-born Americans.
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Immigration grows the economy and supports job creation.
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Foreign trade lowered costs for millions of American families, especially those living paycheck to paycheck.
But these facts don’t make headlines. Politicians prefer sensational stories — the one tragic murder by an undocumented immigrant rather than the 10,000 stories of honest, hardworking immigrant families contributing to the fabric of America.
The Fiscal Mirage
If America is serious about rebuilding, it needs to stop burning holes in its own budget. Massive tax cuts for billionaires are not free. They are federally-funded giveaways paid for by borrowing — often from the very countries the same politicians claim to fear.
So let’s get this straight:
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Importing cars from China is bad.
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But importing billions in loans from China to finance billionaire tax cuts is fine?
That’s not economic patriotism. That’s fiscal hypocrisy.
What the Real Problem Is: Wages, Not Jobs
When the unemployment rate is under 5%, it’s not a jobs crisis — it’s a wage crisis. Americans are working. They’re just not getting paid enough. And the “bring back manufacturing” myth doesn’t fix that, because modern factories don’t need armies of workers — they need machines.
Automation, AI, and robotics are redefining manufacturing. Even if every factory returned to U.S. soil tomorrow, the jobs wouldn’t come back with them. The machines would. That’s why higher wages across all sectors — especially services — are the real frontier.
Want to Compete With China? Team Up With India
If America truly wants to outcompete China in the 21st century, the answer isn’t to retreat inward. It’s to form smart strategic alliances — starting with India. With its massive, educated workforce, growing digital infrastructure, and democratic values, India is the natural counterbalance to China’s authoritarian economic rise.
Invest in trade, technology sharing, education, and co-manufacturing. Build partnerships, not walls.
A Smarter Vision
We don’t need to rewind the clock to the 1950s. We need to build a forward-looking economy where:
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Productivity gains are shared.
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Tax policies reward innovation and fairness.
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Immigrants are seen as assets, not threats.
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Global partnerships are leveraged, not demonized.
Because building a car — or a factory — means nothing if the economic system behind it still drives the working class off a cliff.
It’s time to stop romanticizing a past that never existed for everyone — and start building a future where prosperity is real, inclusive, and sustainable.
Building a Car Before You Can Drive It: The Illusion of Reindustrialization https://t.co/NkHZYb93cc
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 30, 2025
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Jamie Dimon dropping BOMBS:
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) May 30, 2025
“Immigration… what the hell were we doing? The bottom 20% of our population’s wages haven’t gone up in 20 years. The Biden admin was wasting so much money on “green” stuff that we know won’t work… meanwhile our schools don’t work.” pic.twitter.com/Z58MEiGXhM
