In Praise of HARD Industries

New unmarked condition hardback, 275 pages, First Edition. Very interesting Business Ideas in that we should look to Manufacturing over Tech industries.
THE PROMISE OF THE 'NEW ECONOMY' REAL OR FALSE?
Conventional wisdom suggests that advanced countries should abandon manufacturing to pursue a supposedly more prosperous future in so-called 'postindustrial services' such as computer software, entertainment and media, and financial services. The advent of the 'New Economy' driven by communication networks and knowledge workers has seemingly made manufacturing a second or third-world concern, as first-world politicians, economists, financiers and business leaders rush to embrace the new order.

In this important book, Eamonn Fingleton examines such wisdom, and argues that any country that adopts the postindustrial route at the expense of its manufacturing base risks economic enfeeblement. Far from mere snap- assembly work, modern manufacturing has moved on to a more sophisticated and profitable level - the production of high-tech components and materials.

Thus manufacturing-based economies such as Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, and Japan score over postindustrial ones such as Britain and the United States in export prowess while providing the widest possible range of top paying jobs for workers of all levels of capability. In Praise of Hard Industries is a controversial but timely assessment of the well-being of our economy, at a time when it is being shaped by new infrastructures and new ideas.