In Defense of Making Things: Why Manufacturing Still Matters

Abstract

A relatively recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) publication is not the only voice that suggests the possibility of achieving prosperity and growth in the modern age without the need to have a strong manufacturing base. Like agriculture before the industrial revolution, making appears to take the back seat as services, and in particular knowledge intensive services that determine hot to make things, take over as growth drivers. Of course, the trends of progress are irreversible, and making will constitute a shrinking part of employment and, possible value created. The latter will most likely be even truer if one cannot separate perfectly the value of incorporated services, as the knowledge content of the things made and the incorporated services build their own complex interactions and grow exponentially.