Post WW2 a lot of stock was put in scientism in industrial nad manufacturing jobs, which has led to the rise of new public management, cementing the dissolution of the bond between identity and job. The basic principle is that everything can be quantified and measured, and that every step carried out by a master craftsman can be exactly described and distributed. The replacement of actual manufacturing with the menial task of carrying out a single, repeatable step hour after hour after hour, day after day. Like a robot.
That's the death of skilled jobs, and it's driving the collapse of the uneducated man, according to Richard Reeves among others. A shift towards cognitive work instead of labor has taken place, and a lot of the jobs that previously carried a large segment of the lower strata has simply moved to asia and lower wage countries.
I agree and disagree, I guess. It's sad that so much money is invested in the military industrial complex, but since those weapons are used to fight an opressive and dictatorial regime in favor of democracy, I guess its better. Both Sun Tzu and Clausewitz refer to the use of an army as the continuation of the political process, and democratization of Ukraine is to many a worthy goal, as opposed to the growth of the Russian sphere of influence. Opposing Russia now might lead to a lower overall negative impact than if the same figth is had after Ukraine is annexed and Poland is next in line, but that's just a hypothetical.