All great points. The one about manufacturing employment particularly resonates for me. It seems to have been taken as an article of faith in many countries that it is desirable to have more manufacturing jobs, accepted by both those on the political left (I imagine because of a history of these industries being associated with the traditional working class and unionisation) and the political right (I imagine because of a more general emotional appeal to a sense of ‘historical greatness’). It doesn’t make sense - for reasons of economic development, technology/productivity and comparative advantage, the decline of manufacturing employment in advanced economies over the last half century feels like a huge sign of economic success, not failure.