More: The 10,000 Year Rise of the World Economy by Philip Coggan is a tour de force.
This 2020 book surveys how the world economy grew from ancient times and how wealth is created in a connected world.
Manufacturing started with small groups in workshops. The invention of new, expensive machinery allowed employers to create factories to exploit economies of scale.
For workers, this was a dramatic change in lifestyle. Workers were now paid not for each item they produced, but for their time.
Josiah Wedgwood was the first to introduce time cards and a clock for his workers. Paying for time and not output requires the supervision of workers. Thus, started the foreman.
Over time, unskilled manufacturing work moved to Asia, including Malaysia. The high-tech parts are still manufactured in the West and US but sent to Asia to be assembled.
This led to a drop in manufacturing jobs in the West and the US. But as Coggan points out, this decline began long before China rejoined the global trading system. Technology was responsible as it allowed fewer workers to be hired. [p 115- 117, paperback].
So will tariffs solve the US’ problems as President Trump thinks… Coggan does not think so.