Every major agricultural product has failed. Animal products aren’t well sold either. American wool was an entire industry. Tobacco we know why. Alfalfa is too expensive and killing feed. Crop after crop has gone away. We have corn and soy left which we have industrialized. They make extremely low quality sugars and oils. The lowest quality of those products tbh. They’re excellent for nutrition in third world countries. Not so much for developed ones and we can all look outside at our neighbors to prove that. They’re huge. Obese. Horrible health markers.
The cars are overpriced and not a good product either. The manufacturers had their lunch ate in the 1980s and now they look for ridiculous margins by selling the most oversized and inefficient vehicles possible to keep themselves alive. The government is the only thing stopping their full collapse, but the consumer is still demanding small electric cars from a different country. The government can’t control consumer choice.
The great wave of cannabis got zero people raised up from low wages even though it was selling like crazy.
Software engineering and hardware manufacturing are long gone and we don’t need proof on that.
Music simply isn’t sold on a mass scale anymore unless it’s generated by a hive and sung or performed by a person who is only a prop. Absolutely zero record stores around.
Furniture? Non existent.
Clothing? Only made for Hollywood and the rest from Bangladesh or Vietnam. Haven’t seen a tailor shop in a few decades.
Toys? We don’t have kids that “play” anymore so toys and toy stores are long gone. Even online.
Everything my eyes point to was made better somewhere else. I think it’s time to admit that the system won’t get us ahead. It’s not doing anything for anybody. Give it whatever name you want but its our system and it doesn’t work.
The problem in alot of your examples is unchecked capitalism chasing manufacturing offshore in the chase of profit, or online distribution killing brick and mortar. But I also don’t think every example of yours is quite as bad as you make it out to be. You might just need to dig a little harder.
This just isn’t true. Due to its still largely illicit nature these people just can’t claim they’re rich from cannabis. Cash rich, asset poor. It’s definitely got some large players, but because it’s not an industry that’s entirely legal, it hasn’t stratified wealth into a few players like a lot of the other industries you’ve mentioned. There are definitely those who very easily are able to provide for their basic needs and more because of that industry. They’re just not going to let you know. But there’s no country doing it as well as us I’d argue. Maybe the Dutch on a smaller scale?
Tobacco industry you’ve got a few major players like BAT and Swedish Match who are able to dictate how the industry unfolds. They were a step behind on the vape craze until just recently where they were able to muscle out all the small players via legislation. Tobacco isn’t in the same number of household that it used to be, but the ones who own the industry are nigh unassailable at this point. But US tobacco is still huge. Cigars aren’t as popular as they used to be, but anyone into them know US broadleaf tobacco is a coveted product by many outside the country. I know I’ve seen Europeans lament the choice we have stateside for anything other than Cubans.
On the growing food side, goto a farmer’s market. You’re not wrong that there’s a problem with monocultures. But step away from the box stores and you’ll find there’s some weirdo (I use that term affectionately) growing heirlooms that would have been impossible to find in the past 50 years. Thanks to the internet knowledge of these varieties has disseminated knowledge, seeds, clones, and cultures to an extent that didn’t exist for my grandparents.
Music industry has its problems on the financial side no doubt (looking at the monopoly that is livenation/ticketmaster), but I’d argue it’s more diverse and in a better place artistically than it’s ever been. Lines between genres are more opaque, and the general shit state of politics has put genres like punk in a good state. Your local mall might not have a record store, but that’s because malls are dying because of online distribution. Pay attention to Bandcamp though, and you can easily get vinyl presses of a wealth of new artists. I’d argue there’s so many the problem is parsing through all of them. No longer do you need a record label to produce your album. Maybe there’s fewer people getting rich off music, but that was never the point.
The bit about kids not playing I don’t get. I don’t have kids, but I frequently see the little ones in my family playing with toys. The thing is the legos are now three generations old. They’re unbreakable to small kids. But they definitely play. They for sure have a wealth of toys not made here, but I envy the breadth of choice/complexity they have compared to when I was a kid. But balls, blocks, and boxes still reign supreme.
Clothing has definitely been largely outsourced in the chase of profits. Won’t find many textile mills in the states anymore but we still are a leader in cotton production. There are still small producers who are making small batch stuff, but again you’re not going to find brick and mortar stores because of online distribution. Truce designs, FarPointe, Jolly Gear, Hilltop Packs, Hill People Gear, there’s plenty of small players in the outdoor scene making top of the line gear.