Bill Clinton and Republicans promised NAFTA would create jobs..

[brentspeak]

46. Congrats on Dumb Post of the Day

No one made the claim that there's something "magical" about manufacturing; simply a straw-man argument manufactured by you.

Large manufacturing in the USA created armies of well-paid American workers in cities across the nation. Those American workers had the money to create and sustain entire local economies all their own: ancillary industries to provide parts for the large manufacturing facilities, stores for workers to shop in, professional positions to serve the workers (doctors, lawyers, accountants), schools, colleges, hospitals, governments, etc.

Only a complete idiot -- or a right-wing economist -- would think that a nation of poorly paid service workers could support any kind of economy that wouldn't eventually deteriorate into another French Revolution scenario.