Blaming China won’t bring jobs back to ‘post-industrial’ economies

Almost anywhere you look these days, you can find claims from political, academic and other various sources that China’s supposed overproduction and exports of manufactured goods pose unfair advantages. These sources may also claim such unfair advantages justify protectionist countermeasures. But it is difficult to counter one’s own folly.For decades, the US, much of Europe and even Japan, long proud of its manufacturing skills, have prided themselves on becoming “post-industrial” and services-oriented economies. They did not ask who is supposed to make “things” when thing-making is no longer in fashion.So, it’s no wonder that a goal-oriented China, which strategically plans for the long-term rather than leaving matters to the supposed wisdom of the marketplace, stepped in to fill the inevitable supply and demand gap.