We Want to Build It Here — But Who’s Going to Do the Work
Rebuild the U.S. skilled workforce — fast, at scale, and without stigma If we don’t fix that, everything else is window dressing. Even during the push under Donald Trump to bring manufacturing back, companies ran into the same brick wall: “We’d build here — if we could find people who know how.” What that actually means (practically, not politically) 1. Trade & Technical Education Must Be Treated as Equal to College For decades, we told kids: College = success Trades = failure That was a huge mistake. We need to: Restore high-school vocational programs Expand community college + industry partnerships Normalize careers like: CNC machinists, Tool & die makers, Industrial electricians, Robotics technicians, Maintenance engineers These jobs: 1. Pay well, Can’t be outsourced, Can’t be replaced easily by AI, Keep factories running 2. Paid Apprenticeships (Learn While You Earn) Germany didn’t guess their way into manufacturing dominance — they trained into it. The U.S. needs: Federal ...