I find it shocking that so much US money is spent on the military. I'm not a US government official so maybe it somehow makes budgetary sense (maybe the military helps the country earn more money by collecting "protection money" from other countries?), but from an outsider's view it looks crazy.
Yes, American workers won't benefit that much. American shareholders and capital-owners will. That said, American workers do benefit from having dirt-cheap consumer goods to buy.
The problem is the elites surrounding Trump tend to come from the shareholding capitalist class as opposed to the working class. Maybe they will act in the interests of their working-class constituents? Who knows, I guess time will tell. From Trump's behaviour so far I don't have such a strong impression that he would be a good technical manager, so one has to hope he is good at picking great technocratic advisors.
Apparently the talk with the tech titans of Silicon Valley went swimmingly. [
www.nytimes.com]
Yeah, like you I think that manufacturing/engineering is special. More people should want to be scientists, engineers, technicians, machine operators, etc. The discipline, intelligence and industry of its people is one of the most precious resources a country has. If the people are exceptional, even if the country has failed them, they can migrate elsewhere and live productive lives.
I read a news article once where some engineering company boss said that it would be impossible to bring all the China-based manufacturing back to the USA without inviting several thousands of Chinese specialists (mostly precision tool machinists).