gentoobro on Nostr: They've nearly banned that sector, actually. All the manual labor that can be ...

They've nearly banned that sector, actually. All the manual labor that can be exported has been, mostly due to overbearing taxes and regulations. The service sector remains because you can't (yet) outsource a waiter to China. It mostly doesn't actually make anything though, and is a sort of hollow masturbation of an economy while the US squanders its accumulated wealth buying manufactured goods from overseas. At the end of the day, an auto worker stands by the cars he made which will serve a useful purpose and a farmer stands by the crops he grew, but a waiter cleans the shit off the toilet at the end of his shift. Was there value provided? Sure. Somebody had to write down the order and carry the food out from the kitchen; either him in the restaurant or you at home. But you can't drive "taking orders and carrying food", nor can you eat it. It's a petty, immediately-consumed luxury and if it was banned tomorrow nothing would really change. Much of the service sector is like this. Mopping floors and taking customer service calls is maintenance and overhead, not production, and generally one tries to minimize the former and maximize the latter.

TL;DR: If you don't make stuff, then there's no stuff, regardless of how many waiters and call center workers and janitors are there to help you with the non-existent stuff.