By sending manufacturing jobs overseas for decades, America sold out blue collar families so that the rich could get richer. After if/when AI will do the same to middle-class white collar workers, maybe people will realize that it's long overdue that we eat the rich.
For a short story that explores both scenarios, check out "Manna" by Marshall Brain:
Manufacturing as a percentage of gdp had been flat since the late 1940s. Automation has eliminated a lot of jobs.
"Manufacturing's share of real GDP has been fairly constant since the 1940s, ranging from 11.3 percent to 13.6 percent. It sat at 11.7 percent in 2015."
https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2017/april/us-manu...
If the collars are IoT then the hackers will mount a coup
While some labor intensive jobs did migrate overseas, most job losses were to automation, not other countries. Today 2% of people are in agriculture and production is higher than its ever been. This pattern is reflected across the spectrum. Overall American production in 2024 is up there with the best production years ever.
And yes, automation improves profits thus enriching the owner class.
Overall the value of production is still there. America is still the richest country. It's not the amount of richness that is the problem, it's the distribution of riches.
Europe for example followed a path of high taxation, high benefits for all. People work less, but get more. Sure, it's harder to be a billionaire but it's also harder to be completely destitute or medically bankrupt. (Not impossible obviously, just harder.)
AI will be a net gain in Europe. Productivity per man hour increases, and society is already primed to pass that saving onto the public - perhaps shorter working hours, perhaps more leave, perhaps more benefits.
Unfortunately the US is not going to adapt to AI as well, because culturally the US treats thr unemployed badly. Unemployment is the intimate Calvanistic sin, and has connotations of laziness. The concepts of universal health care, unrestricted unemployment grants, taxing the rich to fund the poor are against the very ethos of the American way.
The ease with which social programs are gutted, unions disparaged, taxes on the rich reduced would suggest that the public still sees wealth and worth the same. This is cultural, not political, and it will take generations to change.
So no, there are no "blue collar manufacturering" jobs coming back. And white collar jobs are just as susceptible to automation. Indeed computerization has already gobbled up a bunch of those.
But perhaps, maybe, hopefully, we can start moving to a place where we disassociate 'job' from 'worth' to a place where the excess of plenty can be shared.