After this election, I hope to never hear the term "deindustrialization" ever again. It's incredibly inaccurate and simplistic and completely at odds with economic reality. The United States' manufacturing output is greater than ever before, yet all we ever hear about is how manufacturing is in decline. The golden age of manufacturing Trump and his followers are obsessed with hasn't existed since the 1970's. Domestic manufacturing has become decentralized and specialized: we will never go back to the "good old days" of factories employing thousands of people with high school diplomas. The media feeds into this narrative by focusing on what we used to make rather than what we make today. Manufacturing today isn't so much about low-end goods like steel and girders as it is about high-end goods like electronics and machinery.

People who work in manufacturing today are skilled professionals and technicians, not guys with high school diplomas. The reason you can't find a good paying job in manufacturing with nothing but a high school diploma is not because manufacturing jobs don't exist anymore, but because manufacturing jobs today require more than a high school diploma. To use an example from my adoptive home state, Cleveland's manufacturing industry has undergone something of a renaissance since the Great Recession. Guess what? The people who work in those factories and workshops are trained professionals, not guys with high school diplomas.

The sooner we stop obsessing over a golden age that was a product of its time and move on with our lives, the better.