[thefz]

> I had never in my life met people who make stuff. In Europe, my parents worked for non-profits. The parents of my friends were mostly middle managers, financiers, or professional service providers. Living in Silicon Valley is profoundly different, because the people you meet are working on building things that you use.

Your milieu is not a whole continent.

I know lots of people who actually make stuff.

[friend_and_foe]

Of course there are people that make stuff. There are VW factories, there are natural gas wells, there is a baker just down the road selling bread. But the author is using an anecdote to make a point: America is about making stuff. Most people in the US make things. We have government bureaucrats and university professors and data entry people, but a larger portion of our population creates things, it's a part of our culture to be creative, it's no longer really like that in Europe with a few exceptions (the Netherlands for example exports a ton of food) and you see that when you look at aggregate imports vs exports.

[rickydroll]

In the US, I'd say some people make things. The rent seekers of wall street try to covert every made thing into a rented thing you never own. Renting discourages maker curiosity and leads people to the comfortable trap of providerism.

[earthnail]

Germany exports an absurd amount of goods. However, many of the goods exported are from older technology value chains - cars for example. It’s dangerous for an exporting country to not be exporting in an entire crucial sector of modern tech: computers.

[Jensson]

> but a larger portion of our population creates things

Any data supporting this? USA still runs a trade deficit against Europe.

[red-iron-pine]

ITT bourgeoisie people living in affluent burbs that cater to the service industry only meet people who are also in the service industry.

News at 11.