How does America manage to maintain a relatively high standard of living and a strong economy even after deindustrialization? And what are the major industry sectors that sustain the modern American Middle class?

12 comments

1. The thing is, we have a wide variety of good paying industries. Trades, commercial drivers which can include everything from long haul drivers to local delivery, tech, etc.

2. IRRC most Americans work in the service industry. Services are tertiary sector jobs while resource extraction are first sector (mining, lumber harvesting, etc) and industrial makes up the 2nd sector. Over the years service sector has been growing bigger and bigger. The US does not lead the US in chip resources extraction (mostly Africa, S. America) or chip making (I think) but the Tech industry has a strong US influence through US tech workers/programmers (service based)

3. You make a common misconception.

   America didn’t deindustrialize. We diversified.

   We’re still the second largest manufacturer in the world by $. But we also founded many, many other industries. Software, computing, internet and high tech all began here and are still dominant. Our health and life sciences industry still leads the world. Or defense industry is dominant.

   And our companies have expanded globally, bringing their capabilities to those countries. Improving the wealth of the people in those countries. And making a profit in those countries, which benefits the American shareholder. So as Mexico benefited from industrialization, so did Ford shareholders (who were largely Americans).

4. Let’s take the semiconductor industry as an example. The US has a >40% share of the global market, whereas both Taiwan & China are in the single digits. We don’t do the manufacturing, but we make the design specifications that get sent to the fabricators.

   As things automate more & more, the majority of the value-added starts heading to the people making flowcharts & blueprints in an air-conditioned office. Especially in already highly automated & capital-intensive industries like aerospace and pharmaceuticals, which wealthy countries tend to move towards

5. Like others have said, our manufacturing is still strong and we have an extremely diverse economy with things like tech. Also, [due to our geography](https://youtu.be/BubAF7KSs64) we are blessed to have the capacity to be one of the top producers of both food and oil in the world and have the water transportation network to be able to export it across the world cheaply. American logistics is the envy of the world for a reason.

6. Technology is a primary export now. Even if not always physical. We are in Reddit after all.

7. US manufactures and exports a ton of things, specifically automobiles and aircraft.

8. The middle class is ever shrinking as the wage gap expands.

   A lot of Americans do not have a high standard of living, a lot of America does not have a strong economy. I’m struggling with the risk of losing job security if I take a job elsewhere for more pay; but at this point I’m essentially working three jobs and I think I’m going to have to take the risk.

9. Well to be honest the transition wasn’t super clean. The rust belt is called the rust belt for a reason. Many former industrial centers like Detroit, Cleveland, West Virginia, and other parts of the northeastern US were devastated by deindustrialization. It’s just that those areas started from a very high place. Much of these areas are only now beginning to recover or haven’t at all. White collar work has replaced manufacturing as the basis of the American middle class, though, and areas where white collar work is booming are the main areas of growth in the country.

10. We didn’t really deindustrialize

11. Competition and ease of starting businesses

12. Cos, uncle Fed has the most powerful printer !! 😉