The one idea would lead someone to train for a career, get a job, buy a house, get married and start a family, and set down roots.
The other idea would lead someone to remain mobile and agile, i.e. stay single, rent, and be ready to move where the new opportunities await.
Maybe it's the pace of change. Before, someone could work for the same company his entire career because even though creative destruction was happening, it wasn't happening so fast that he had to move on. Maybe it only meant that his sons had to change professions and locations.
Maybe it's a good thing that wealth is being transferred from the West's Middle Class to the Third World's desperately poor due to unequal enforcement of environmental and labor laws. Since the fabulously rich will always be with us, it naturally follows that the great equalizing of standards of living will happen among the Middle and Lower Classes.
Adam Smith's notion that free trade allows countries to focus their efforts on creating those products and services that they are best at, and buying the rest from other countries doesn't make sense anymore. Since most wealth is generated either in factories or offices, and since central AC and heat is available across the globe, the only thing that distinguishes one country from another is the cost of the workforce and regulations. Two attributes in which poorer countries will always excel.
Since politicians are selected to help THEIR citizens, and not the citizens of the World, if tariffs are needed to even the playing field so that American workers can keep their jobs then sobeit, even if this somehow increases the overall inefficiency of "The Market".
And as far as towns not becoming "company towns". Many of the rust belt states made major efforts to lure companies in with tax breaks, etc. There were some success stories, but there were also massive failures that put those towns into even greater debt. Corporations are very nimble and can start-up, shut-down, and relocate factories and offices more quickly that established communities can respond.
Maybe we should listen to our masters at the WEF, own nothing, always have a packed suitcase at hand, be ready to relocate at a moment's notice, be single, be childless, and be happy... oh so unbelievably happy.
I don’t think there is any disconnect. You just have to remember that while one group of people are achieving the American Dream they are changing the marketplace. And some of that is going to destroy other companies. And internationalization doesn’t play as big a part of it as people like to think. Competition is competition.
And there’s nothing new in any of this. Look at what happened to the textiles industry in the North of England in the late 19th century. New technology came to be, more fabric could be made faster by fewer people. But demand didn’t climb as much as supply COULD. Mills started slashing output to prop up their market, which meant slashing hours, but even with that a lot of mills went out of business.
I’m seeing another one of these cycles happening now. A chunk of my roof blew off, once all the insurance stuff got settled out my tarpaper roof got replaced by a foam roof. And I’ll tell you right now foam roofs are going to replace tarpaper and probably even shingle. It took them half as long to put the new roof on as it took them to take the old stuff off. It’s supposed to be easier to repair (cut out damaged chunk, spray a little foam), and it’s slashed my utility bills. Right now the foam costs about 30% more than paper (really not sure how we got the insurance company to be cool with that), but that will come down. And meanwhile it’s dramatically better insulating so my utility bills have dropped by a 1/3. And it’s guaranteed for 25 years.
So that’s the future, and everybody in the tarpaper and shingle industries needs to be ready for that. I don’t think it will effect the more decorative roof options cause it ain’t pretty (it gets coating so it’s plain) but the “I just want my roof to keep the outside out” section of the industry will be foam. Which means everybody in the industries that make and support tarpaper and shingles are on the clock. Might be 10 years, might be 20, not sure how fast the price will come down and regular people will be able to do it. But at some point, those classic plain roofs most of us probably have and we all see all over will be foam. And if there’s a town whose sole industry is making tarpaper they’re hosed.
That is NEVER a good thing!! MAGA!!!!