Such is the case with General Motors' Electronic Data Systems. The software systems and telecommunications GM uses in its production process make it one of the ten top communications companies in the United States today. General Motors illustrates the general case that, because manufacturing needs are so great, the manufacturing process ties the whole economy together. Manufacturing placed in this new light shows how information processing and services that are utilized for mastery and control of production actually complement, not substitute or succeed manufacturing. Lose manufacturing and we will lose, not develop, high-wage services.
Manufacturing is where the lion's share of the value-added is realized.
It is, in other words, where the profits are. As a result, no one makes VCRs in America. If America wants to stay wealthy and powerful, we can't shift out of manufacturing and into services. Were America to lose mastery and control of manufacturing, after a few short rounds of product and process innovation vast numbers of service jobs would be relocated outside the United States. Then, real wages in all service activities that dominate employment would fall, impoverishing the nation.