Umair Haque genuinely wants to know. John Tamny says it can't be manufacturing:
Considering agriculture, from 1900-1920 in the U.S. agriculture and mining accounted for 30-40% of total employment. Today that number is a fraction, but far from pushing Americans to the breadlines, economic evolution pushed them into better, higher valued work. Would anyone in their right mind really like to return to the days in which the U.S. economy was largely farm based? The same applies to manufacturing. … [T]o dream of a manufacturing future for the United States is to pine for excruciating poverty.
Edward Glaeser turns to entrepreneurship:
[W]e should place far less emphasis on the industries of the past and more on those of the future. Federal policies that bail out auto companies and subsidize agriculture aren’t merely expensive; they also encourage people to stay in declining industries rather than strike out on their own.
(Photo taken in Detroit by Flickr user Angela Anderson-Cobb.)
The Dish 