JohnLodge, when you posed the question about "thriving without manufacturing" were you thinking in terms of manufacturing workers or manufacturing output? The reason I ask is that the number of manufacturing workers has steadily decreased even as the value of our manufacturing output has risen, in real terms.
This parallels what happened with the shift from agricultural jobs to industrial jobs a century or so ago. We produce record amounts of food with fewer and fewer workers. Has it impoverished our country? No. Will a similar shift in industrial jobs have the same result? I think so.
Now, if you were asking about our future if we no longer do any manufacturing then that may be a different matter, but perhaps not. There are countries that prosper yet lack a strong internal sector in commodities, agriculture or industry.
In any case, the common complaint by some that "we don't make anything any more in the US" is so far from being accurate as to be useless as a starting point for discussion.
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/04/...ith-fewer.html