We Used to Make Things Here
The ghost of American purpose haunts the Dollar General parking lot.
America’s global hegemony feels like a cruel paradox to those who see themselves as the losers of the information age and the post-NAFTA economic order. We were always an industrious people, whether sharecroppers, entrepreneurial newcomers, or overworked machinists. But when America shifted from producing to consuming, entire sectors of American life collapsed.
