"You are making the argument for jobs in general, not manufacturing jobs in particular. Why do the new jobs need to be in manufacturing? "
- Because most jobs follow the manufacturing jobs. Research and development needs to have access to current processes for testing and idea generation. A lot of marketing activity also tends to be close to the product.
- Because manufacturing know how and capacity allows the creation of new products. Once you've transferred that knowledge and your own knowledge base begins to dry up, you're idea generating capacity becomes limited.
- Because ultimately agriculture and manufactured goods are still basic needs. Other elements of the economy are less necessary and thus less stable.
- Because manufactured goods still represent a large part of the consumer expenditure.
- Because manufacturing is one of the two big things that have really changed and thrown us into the economic quagmire. We can reverse the overseas outsourcing of manufacturing. The other change is oil prices, we can probably reverse that too.
You can add jobs in other areas of the economy: Service, information, health care and entertainment. But they are more susceptible to economic downturns. You might be able to argue healthcare is not, but healthcare is a different beast altogether.
Many services aren't necessary. In a crunch, people can fall back to ironing their own clothes and cooking their own burgers. You can see that in stock sector rotation charts. Industry recovers first, then services.
- Also whoever controls production, typically controls the related services.