#129

MANUFACTURING PROVIDES A SENSE OF PRIDE AND PURPOSE FOR A NATION

by PETER THOMAS BUSCH

W

hat society produces adds definition to who people are and what motivates them moving forward.

Disruptions in production may cause dislocation and economic hardship. War, for example, can turn everything upside down by shifting focus from production of automobiles to the production of military aircraft – partly for profit but also for purpose, particularly during times of war.

Oil needs to flow in an either or scenario. Steal must be diverted to priority manufacturing as capitalists retool factories to fulfil the ongoing need to supply the military.

The term ‘ the producers’ more often than not refers to the owners of production – and not the thousands and millions of workers in the factories assembling the end product.

Consumers play an important role as well, being an active marketplace for goods with the ability to influence production through consumption choices that affect demand, and also as taxpayers funding the government.

People participate, in part, out of the need to provide for themselves and their family, and in part, to fulfill a greater desire to succeed. The fortunate few choose where to work.

Often a national identity is tied up with succeeding, but that success becomes highly stylized for a particular economic social cultural ethic. Success in America is ultimately different than success in Russia. China may simply be trying to find the best way to survive and may very well define success as arriving at the end of the day without loss of territory or another population uprising in the near distant territories.

And then everyone else just tries their best to fit in – even Europe with deeply entrenched historical difference must participate at least minimally with the big three. Europe runs a shadow program of monitoring and taking an advantage wherever possible without connecting the national identity with the need to change the world, after the lessons of the Great War, World War II and the Cold War.

War may change everything by shifting the focus onto more obvious life and death issues, as if moving from a soft sell of national identity to a hard sell for reasons not always disclosed.

America exists to produce, whether the American is a rancher driving the cattle to the butcher block to feed American families or a rig hand ensuring the oil well continues to pump black gold or and autoplant assembly-line worker, fulfilling the desire to own and drive an automobile.

No matter how focussed everyone is on the politicians and the capitalists, America is that person who drives the interstate every morning and every afternoon to and from the workplace.

The American agenda to obtain renewed prosperity for national security purposes speaks directly to the people, as outlined in detail in the National Security Strategy of the United States of America, published November 2025.

Economic issues have often been at the forefront of major military conflicts, especially during the time of empires when battles were waged to secure additional resources and larger consumer marketplaces – or simply to get richer and accumulate wealth.

The government intends to engage a strengthened America with the new world order so as to reinforce a distinct national identity, and thereby strengthen the homeland states, in a formula intended to create peace and prosperity exponentially.

The Government intends to end mass migration to America, a trend that has caught fire for better or worse in other parts of the world. Europe is divided on the issue after mass migration occurred following the collapse of the power balance in Syria, and continues in various forms when the weather is good.

Unannounced migrants have become increasingly suspect with the speculation that undocumented migrants are undesirable aliens arriving in America in bad faith with respect to the carefully prescribed American dream.

Ultimately any conversation about national identity in America involves assertions about the Constitution – although what each amendment to the constitution means remains subject to interpretation.

On the global stage, the Government Administration intends to end the age of philanthropy first given shape by the Marshall Plan in the wake of destruction of European cities and industries during World War II. America influencing the world with soft power is to be, at minimum, converted into a mutually beneficial, zero-sum game, as opposed to America continually running a net deficit.

America decided that peace could be secured by ensuring the prosperity of the fallen nation states, and that a weakened adversary would simply encourage more war as the scrappy desperate dog pinned in the corner would continue to bite.

This mutually beneficial investment strategy, after decades of global war and economic uncertainty, ultimately morphed into a global non-profit funding program.

The curtailment of numerous PAID FOR BY AMERICA initiatives on the world stage is part of a new ethos that America has been too generous and has been taken advantage of by the good actors and the bad actors alike.

America wants to realign the global balance around America First initiatives, given the near present need to care for Americans at home who have not been cared for since the Greatest Generation returned from the world war battle fields.

The trade imbalance is an obvious sore point that interconnects with the need to reindustrialize America and create more better jobs in manufacturing for Americans.

And when bringing industry home, to be successful, the country must secure minerals and energy resources for manufacturing. China, with a billion plus population and an insatiable appetite for resources, has used storerooms of cash to stretched tentacles wherever possible.

China imports cattle from Australia and leases land for agriculture in Africa, while selling America disposable consumer goods.

Deterring military aggression occurs in part by displaying to the greater world a strong industrial base that can replenish the war machine in ongoing live fire exercises.

The idea of soft selling peace abroad is waning in America. The Administration though does not seek isolation. Instead of retreating into an inherently myopic sphere of influence, America wants to more vigorously engage with the global community, not as a donor but as a player on a level field.

Managing the western hemisphere is becoming more of a priority in line with the Monroe Doctrine which labeled any military aggression in the region a hostile act against the United States. Europe has been kindly asked to stop colonizing the Americas while China has encroached the western hemisphere through economic partnerships – seeking resources and political alliances with like minded communists and/or former socialist regimes.

Nation states may begrudge America the stated changes, because more for America is less for everyone else. The greatest opposition though comes from within the homeland states as groups attempt to control the defining moments of a nation.