It was back in the 70s that Americans first noticed that Japan had gotten off the mat. Not only were they building cars, they were building cars Americans wanted to buy.
By the 80s, you heard an element of alarm from certain quarters about how Japan was fast gaining on American industrial supremacy. You'd read articles decrying the fact that in Japan they graduated one lawyer for every ten engineers. In America it was the opposite. With MBAs the difference was even more extreme.
Fast forward fifty years and look around you. This is the result of prioritizing paper-shufflers over people who do productive work. What bright young student wants an engineering degree, when everybody knows it's financial engineers who make the real money.
The dystopia you barely recognize as America when you watch the news is the direct result of that mindset. Our culture glorifies the idle rich and the rapacious billionaire oligarchs, while we under-pay, exploit, and generally shit all over real people doing work that actually matters.
Sooner or later, America will have to make that right.
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