The term postindustrialism covers a bewildering
variety of businesses in the so-called 'new economy' whose only
obvious shared characteristic is what they are not: they are not
manufacturing. Broadly defined, virtually all service
industries might be considered part of the postindustrial
economy. Some statisticians have recently started to
classify computer software as a manufacturing industry.
The task is to weigh the economic merits of
postindustrial activities (soft industries) against those of what
might be called hard industries.
Hard industries-intended to denote
capital-intensive, technically sophisticated forms of
manufacturing.
Postindustrialists overlook that assembly is only
the final, and generally by far the least sophisticated step, in
the making of modern consumer goods.
The more important steps are making the
sophisticated components and materials as well as the manufacture
of the production machines that make the world's components and
materials.
In the 1950's the United States led the economy
due to higher levels of manufacturing. Now the United States has
lost much of its manufacturing to other nations with carefully
honed national strategies to boost their manufacturing
prowess.
Japan is one example of how a nation can climb
the ladder of manufacturing sophistication.