Domestic manufacturing stated being gutted wholesale in the 80's because the boomers were sold on the short-term economic gains that came at the expense of gutting major domestic industry. If you understand how boomers get scammed into reverse mortgaging their homes, it's not hard to understand how or why they effectively did it to the entire country. If this is something you struggled to comprehend, it's not because you're a smart person who figured out a particularly nuanced puzzle. You're just retarded.