How Trump can make America make more

With modest fanfare, the White House launched Made in America Week on Monday. In the afternoon, the Trump administration held a series of events to show off American products.

We agree with President Trump that making things in America is, as he might put it, marvelous, lovely and fantastic. This country has a big manufacturing base, which should be cause for satisfaction.

But that doesn't mean America should close itself off to the rest of the world's products just so more must be made here.

Some people mistakenly suggest that such protectionism will conjur domestic manufacturing into being from nothing. Trump talks this way, too, sometimes. But without exception, such advocates either overlook or avoid acknowledging that American manufacturing is still strong. Today, we make about 86 percent more in real terms than we did 30 years ago. What causes anxiety and resentment is that we're doing so even while one-third of manufacturing jobs disappeared during that same period. Technology has made the remaining 12 million manufacturing workers three times as productive as they were in 1987.

So one cannot make old jobs "return" with protectionist policies. The jobs went to machines, and we'd be much poorer if the work was again done by hand.