PJ Vogt

I've been doing this for 47 years. Wow. And do you remember when the business first started moving to China?

Chris said there used to be lots of tool and die makers back where he's from in Erie, Pennsylvania. They're mostly gone now. Many of them were his competitors, but also his friends. And with them, this whole part of the chain, parents teaching their kids, adults teaching their apprentices, Chris has watched as that chain's been broken. And why is that happening now?

Chris said there used to be lots of tool and die makers back where he's from in Erie, Pennsylvania. They're mostly gone now. Many of them were his competitors, but also his friends. And with them, this whole part of the chain, parents teaching their kids, adults teaching their apprentices, Chris has watched as that chain's been broken. And why is that happening now?

Chris said there used to be lots of tool and die makers back where he's from in Erie, Pennsylvania. They're mostly gone now. Many of them were his competitors, but also his friends. And with them, this whole part of the chain, parents teaching their kids, adults teaching their apprentices, Chris has watched as that chain's been broken. And why is that happening now?

Like, why is that sort of family chain getting broken at exactly this moment in time?

Like, why is that sort of family chain getting broken at exactly this moment in time?

Like, why is that sort of family chain getting broken at exactly this moment in time?

You can see this in the numbers. Nearly half of the remaining workers in American manufacturing plan to retire in the next 20 years. And they're not being replaced by some wave of Gen Zers. The average American manufacturing worker is 44 years old. No one on the line, presumably, is calling anything goaded. There's very little rising up transpiring.

You can see this in the numbers. Nearly half of the remaining workers in American manufacturing plan to retire in the next 20 years. And they're not being replaced by some wave of Gen Zers. The average American manufacturing worker is 44 years old. No one on the line, presumably, is calling anything goaded. There's very little rising up transpiring.

You can see this in the numbers. Nearly half of the remaining workers in American manufacturing plan to retire in the next 20 years. And they're not being replaced by some wave of Gen Zers. The average American manufacturing worker is 44 years old. No one on the line, presumably, is calling anything goaded. There's very little rising up transpiring.

Destin told me before he'd started working on the scrubber, he'd had one understanding of why people did not manufacture in America. But as he worked on it, he understood a different logic, one which he found much bleaker.

Destin told me before he'd started working on the scrubber, he'd had one understanding of why people did not manufacture in America. But as he worked on it, he understood a different logic, one which he found much bleaker.

Destin told me before he'd started working on the scrubber, he'd had one understanding of why people did not manufacture in America. But as he worked on it, he understood a different logic, one which he found much bleaker.

I asked Chris Robeson how he felt about all this. You'll have to forgive the corniness of this question, but does it make you feel sad just to be a person who has this knowledge without an immediate person to be teaching it to?

I asked Chris Robeson how he felt about all this. You'll have to forgive the corniness of this question, but does it make you feel sad just to be a person who has this knowledge without an immediate person to be teaching it to?

I asked Chris Robeson how he felt about all this. You'll have to forgive the corniness of this question, but does it make you feel sad just to be a person who has this knowledge without an immediate person to be teaching it to?

When Chris was in college, he spent a summer working at a machine shop because he just wasn't enjoying school anymore. In the shop, he discovered the joy of working with his hands, of creating things that wouldn't exist otherwise. He and I talked for almost an hour, and the subject of tariffs never came up, or really politics at all.

When Chris was in college, he spent a summer working at a machine shop because he just wasn't enjoying school anymore. In the shop, he discovered the joy of working with his hands, of creating things that wouldn't exist otherwise. He and I talked for almost an hour, and the subject of tariffs never came up, or really politics at all.

When Chris was in college, he spent a summer working at a machine shop because he just wasn't enjoying school anymore. In the shop, he discovered the joy of working with his hands, of creating things that wouldn't exist otherwise. He and I talked for almost an hour, and the subject of tariffs never came up, or really politics at all.

Chris did say if he was in charge, the change he'd want to make would be more education, support for young people looking for apprenticeships, maybe trying to remove some of the stigma we've attached to the skilled trades. It made me think about the friends I have raising teenagers who've told me how much they wish there were just more options for working with your hands in America.