‘Made in America’ is a matter of national security and longevity

 

By Jack Hellner

Since the 1960s, children have been told that they must go to college to get ahead. Vocational and manufacturing jobs have been devalued, and to facilitate attendance in traditional colleges, the government made loans and grants very easy to secure.

Colleges have taken advantage of this captive audience and continually jacked up the price of tuition much faster than inflation, especially by bulking up administrative costs. No matter how much they raised their costs, more and more students took out loans. There were no questions asked and no pressure to reduce costs. Graduate students can essentially spend the money on whatever they want.

Here is the cost of Harvard as an example, using information easily found:

In 1970, tuition at Harvard was $2,600, and average room and board was $3,219, for a total cost of $5,819—the average wage of Americans was $6,186.

(The inflation multiplier for the period 1970–2025 is 7.2422.)

So, if the cost of Harvard went up by the rate of inflation, the current cost would be $42,142—but the actual total cost is over $90,000, revealing that the price has increased more than double the rate of inflation. The average wage has increased to $53,490. As Harvard and other high-priced schools disproportionately raise their rates, it gives other lower-priced schools an excuse to raise theirs.

The more the government subsidizes anything, whether it is health care or college costs, the more the prices rise. The subsidies do not make things more affordable; they just change who pays for them.

Now, Democrats think it is a great idea for the people who borrowed the money, and the colleges that benefited from the borrowed money, to be free of any obligation to pay it back. It is a disgusting policy to make those who didn’t attend college, and those who paid for their own college, to be financially responsible for paying off loans of those who benefited from the loans. Even more so when you consider how little value many of these college graduates actually bring to the market.

What does bring value though are specialized workers, like plumbers and electricians, or manufacturing works. Yet, here is a graph of how manufacturing jobs have deteriorated since 1970.

Image: Author-compiled table

Civilian employment data can be found here, while a manufacturing chart can be found here.) 

If manufacturing employment today were the same percentage of jobs as there were in 1970, there would be 37.5 million, not the 12.8 million we have today. At what point would the media and other Democrats say we must bring back manufacturing jobs since today’s pathetically low numbers apparently aren’t low enough?

While factories have disappeared, and towns and cities throughout the U.S. have been decimated, the power and money spent in D.C. has soared. Federal expenditures in 1970 were $195 billion; adjusted for inflation the amount in 2025 would be $1.4 trillion. Then, an additional 1.7 multiplier would have to be included to adjust for population growth, and that brings the amount to $2.4 trillion. Today, the actual budget is around $7 trillion, or triple what it would be based on 1970 numbers. Yet when Trump tries to address the massive bloat, the media and other Democrats squeal like pigs. They never have enough.

Democrats always talk about the greed of the private sector, but never about the greed of the government. Why are 13 of the wealthiest counties in the United States located around D.C. a place that produces nothing but regulations and laws?

When Biden took over, he set out to destroy many industries related to energy. When Trump took over, he focused on bringing jobs back:

SBA Manufacturing Loans Skyrocket Under Trump Administration

WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced a major surge in manufacturing loans during the first 90 days of the Trump Administration. Compared to the same period during the Biden Administration, the number of SBA 7(a) loan approvals for small manufacturers has increased by 74%.

We see a lot of tear-jerker stories about jobs lost at the federal government, but rarely any concern when a factory closes and a small town is destroyed. Here is a story about a factory in Indiana that is closed after 132 years, causing 300 people to lose their jobs in a town of 4,200. 

The Casualties of America’s Loss of Glassware Manufacturing to China

Children should be taught that vocational, manufacturing, mining, and many other jobs are as valuable or more valuable than many jobs that currently demand spending massive amounts to go to college.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/04/made_in_america_is_a_matter_of_national_security_and_longevity.html