Industrial Sovereignty Is a Choice

Attending the recent Reindustrialize Summit in Detroit made me more optimistic about American industry than I have been in years.

The backdrop was fitting: Detroit is a symbol of America’s complicated relationship with industry. Cranes and restored buildings dot the riverfront, and the city is in the middle of its own partial economic recovery.

The Summit drew roughly 1,500 people. Many of them were young founders, operators, and engineers working to build hard things - nuclear reactors, autonomous systems, advanced materials, and robotics. Their conviction is simple: the American industrial decline that began at the end of the 20^th century was a choice, not a fate. They are right. And we can choose to reverse this decline and change our fate.

Decades of short-sighted policies and capital outflows have meant that we’ve lost our manufacturing advantage in many core industries to China.