The United States can substantially increase GDP even if traditional manufacturing employment continues to decline. The key is to stop thinking of GDP growth simply as “more factory jobs” and instead focus on productivity, investment, exports, entrepreneurship, infrastructure, energy, and high-value manufacturing.
Manufacturing is still significant: BLS estimates it represented about 13.7% of U.S. GDP and roughly 13 million jobs in 2025. Manufacturing productivity increased 2.0% in 2025, and manufacturing productivity was up at a 1.9% annual rate in the second quarter of 2026. So I would not abandon manufacturing. I would change what America manufactures.
1. Move from mass manufacturing to high-value manufacturing
Trying to compete with the lowest-wage countries in basic apparel, toys, furniture, and commodity goods is difficult. Instead, America should dominate industries where technology, intellectual property and capital matter more than cheap labor.
I would aggressively expand domestic production of semiconductors, robotics, aerospace equipment, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, electrical equipment, nuclear components, defense technology, agricultural machinery, data-center equipment, batteries and advanced materials.
A $500,000 industrial robot, aircraft component or semiconductor system contributes dramatically more economic value than producing hundreds of inexpensive consumer products.
That is the manufacturing model I would pursue: fewer workers producing vastly more valuable products.
2. Launch an enormous private-investment boom
Remember the basic GDP equation:
GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + Net Exports
The component I would concentrate on is investment.
America needs trillions of dollars of additional productive capital going into factories, housing, electrical generation, transmission lines, data centers, ports, railroads, robotics and new businesses.
Instead of merely stimulating consumer spending, tax policy should heavily favor productive investment.
For example, I would allow businesses to immediately expense investments in machinery, automation and productive facilities rather than depreciating them over many years.
That changes the incentive from:
“Spend the money.”
to:
“Build something with the money.”
3. Make America the world’s energy superpower
Cheap and abundant energy can become one of America’s greatest competitive advantages.
I would aggressively increase nuclear power, natural gas, geothermal, solar, wind, grid storage and electrical transmission.
The objective shouldn’t be an ideological argument between fossil fuels and renewables. The objective should be:
Make American electricity abundant, reliable and inexpensive.
AI data centers, aluminum plants, chemical facilities, semiconductor fabs and advanced manufacturing all consume enormous amounts of electricity.
Cheap power attracts capital.
Capital creates production.
Production increases GDP.
4. Turn artificial intelligence into a productivity revolution
This could ultimately be considerably more important than bringing back millions of traditional assembly-line jobs.
Suppose an accounting firm employing 100 people can eventually produce the same amount of work with 60 people using AI. The remaining workers can move into other productive activities.
That is painful during transitions, but it is fundamentally how economies become wealthier.
The objective should be to increase GDP per worker, not simply the number of people employed.
America already has evidence of the importance of these industries. In the first quarter of 2026, BEA reported that information and professional, scientific and technical services were among the leading contributors to GDP growth, alongside durable-goods manufacturing.
AI applied to agriculture, construction, finance, logistics, medicine and manufacturing could produce an enormous productivity increase.
5. Build far more housing
This is one of the most overlooked GDP strategies.
America has numerous metropolitan areas where zoning, permitting, financing and construction constraints make housing extremely expensive.
I would encourage states and cities to allow greater housing density and faster development.
Imagine a national construction program driven primarily by private capital producing millions of homes, apartments and mixed-use developments.
That creates economic activity in construction, banking, insurance, building materials, real estate services, utilities and transportation.
And unlike simply handing consumers stimulus checks, America ends up with a productive asset afterward.
6. Become an exporting powerhouse
The United States runs persistent merchandise trade deficits.
I would want America exporting considerably more:
- aircraft and aerospace technology
- agricultural equipment
- financial services
- software and AI
- pharmaceuticals
- engineering services
- energy
- agricultural commodities and processed foods
- medical technology
- industrial machinery
- intellectual property
There is a major distinction between protectionism and industrial strategy.
Tariffs alone do not make an economy competitive.
Productivity does.
If tariffs increase the cost of components American businesses need, they can actually make American exports less competitive. Any tariff policy therefore needs to be paired with investment incentives, inexpensive energy, infrastructure improvements, workforce training and regulatory reform.
7. Turn America’s universities into commercial engines
American universities generate extraordinary research, but more research should become businesses.
I’d create stronger incentives connecting universities, venture capital, national laboratories and entrepreneurs.
Think:
University research → patent → startup → venture funding → factory → exports
Places beyond Silicon Valley and Boston should participate.
Cities throughout Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could develop specialized technology/manufacturing clusters around their existing industries.
Agricultural states, for example, could become centers for agricultural robotics, autonomous machinery, precision agriculture, bioengineering and commodity-risk technology.
8. Dramatically increase entrepreneurship
New companies are economic multiplication machines.
The government can make starting and expanding businesses easier by simplifying licensing, reducing unnecessary permitting delays, making capital formation easier and improving access to financing.
I’d particularly encourage businesses capable of becoming exporters.
A barber shop creates useful local economic activity.
A software company selling a product worldwide brings money into the United States from worldwide customers.
An advanced manufacturing company exporting machinery does the same.
Those scalable businesses deserve particular attention.
9. Rebuild infrastructure based on economic return
Infrastructure spending can increase GDP twice:
first when infrastructure is constructed, and later when it makes the economy more productive.
But the projects should have measurable economic benefits.
Priorities would include ports, freight rail, airports, bridges, electrical transmission, broadband, water systems and logistics corridors.
Moving a container from Los Angeles to Iowa more cheaply increases the productivity of practically every company using the products inside it.
10. Transform worker education
This may be the most important long-term reform.
The economy needs fewer people trained solely to perform repetitive tasks and more people capable of operating sophisticated systems.
I would massively expand apprenticeships and vocational programs in electrical work, robotics, industrial maintenance, HVAC, machining, construction management, welding, data-center operations, semiconductor production and automation.
College would remain important, but college should not be treated as the only route into the middle class.
And there is an important distinction between manufacturing employment and manufacturing production.
America could theoretically employ fewer manufacturing workers while producing more goods if productivity rises sufficiently. In fact, BLS reported that manufacturing output increased 1.1% in 2025 while hours worked declined 0.9%, producing a 2.0% productivity increase.
That is the economic transformation I would pursue.
The larger strategy
I’d organize national economic policy around five words:
Produce. Invest. Innovate. Build. Export.
Rather than trying to recreate the industrial economy of 1965, I would try to make the United States the world’s dominant economy in AI, energy, advanced manufacturing, finance, agriculture, biotechnology, aerospace, robotics and construction.
If America simultaneously raises productivity, increases capital investment, expands energy production, builds housing and infrastructure, creates new companies and sells more high-value products overseas, GDP can grow substantially even if traditional factory employment never returns to historical levels.
In fact, the ideal outcome isn’t necessarily 20 million people standing on assembly lines.
It’s 13 million manufacturing workers producing what once required 25 million workers—and millions of additional Americans creating valuable products and services in entirely new industries.
That is how you increase both GDP and GDP per person, which ultimately matters more for national prosperity.