It’s an entirely predictable sequence: Every four years, national political figures will find their way to industrial battleground states such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and proceed to extol the virtues of factory jobs. Some economists and idealogues will then dismiss the political rhetoric as nostalgic and unrealistic pandering.
I welcome the attention this issue receives and am happy to joust with the skeptics, because I know just how important manufacturing is to the health of our nation. And if the United States enacts a bold industrial policy to strengthen this critical sector, every single state will see millions of new manufacturing jobs.
