Welcome to Ohio.
Even out here in the Peoples Republic of California, surely the most business unfriendly state in the nation, you see very little of that. I think in your case you are just seeing the reduction in manufacturing business in a state that is basically industrial, or once was. It isn't like that out here and I don't think it is like that in the South, Southeast and Southwest. Florida is booming that's for sure.
And as to the makeup of the GDP. You are right but people buy what people want not what you and I would want for them. That's life. The alternative has been tried many times and it fails miserably. Humans aren't perfect but they're all we've got.
No, that's escape from life (willful avoidance of reality).
A nation cannot defend itself without a heavy industry and technical base. We have gone a long way toward pissing ours away.
Playing loud rap or Christina Aguilara music will not drive invaders from our shores.