Why was the rust belt slow to expand and change? 

Have you ever watched "Ford Vs Ferrari?" It's the story of Carol Shelby and the Ford GT. It's kind of a story about how the CSuite was strangling U.S. manufacturing, actually. Capitalism certainly made us good. But being the only power standing after WWII made us great. Without understanding that, you really don't understand much. There's a book called "The Accidental Superpower" that I probably should read. And what we call "Capitalism" today probably wouldn't be recognized as Capitalism 100 years ago. Think about Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway. They make so much money they pay a million dollars in taxes - a minute. But they don't manufacture anything. They don't manage - anything. They just move money around. Is this really Capitalism? Is all the "Venture Capital" stuff really capitalism? Or is it just accumulated Capitol looking to make more Capitol? It's more about an easy buck now, than producing a fair product for a fair price. The companies that believe in such an antiquated notion of Capitalism are - well - gone. Why are there Billionaires? Because they charge too much, or pay too little. Under Capitalism, Billionaires really shouldn't exist. They're just extracting the maximum amount from the system. And we think that's "good". I think it means the system broke down somewhere.