Ray Dalio summarizes the driver of U.S. realpolitik

In an extensive CNBC interview, Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio summarized one of the key drivers of the realpolitik within the United States today:

I mean, I agree with the problems, okay, that we don't manufacture. There is a problem with that. But there's a structural problem of whether we can manufacture.

We have a population of basically 3 million people—1% of the population— who are incredibly brilliant. I mean, they go to the best schools and come out and make the unicorns. Half of which, by the way, are foreigners.

At the same we have 10% of the population around them [the 1%] that's doing very well. But 60% of the population has below a sixth grade reading level. And they're ... it's tough to be productive.

The days of well paying jobs for people with a sixth grade reading level in the United States are long gone. Offshore. Which opened the door for a populist politician to promise middle class jobs to folks with barely a middle school education.

Here we are.

But those people need jobs, should have good jobs, and those jobs must secure a middle class living. The serious questions being asked by serious people include in what type of manufacturing should America excel?

It's clear that we need self-sufficiency in ship building, modern warfare systems including short-range drones, automated agriculture platforms to ease the reliance on not-so-cheap imported labor, and so on. The list is long.

Another question being asked is whether our people, given their education, have the right skills for advanced manufacturing? Vocational education and reskilling is critical, right at the time that the current administration is dismantling the Education Department.

These are complex questions with complex answers. What I do know is that tariffs are not the answer. Erosion of America's soft power is not the answer. Bullying allies is definitely not the answer. We need serious people to "make America great again." Right now, they're in short supply.