If you don't make anything, and you have to buy it from the global market ... do you really still think you're innovating and pioneering?
Yes. Innovation occurs during conception and design, not manufacturing. Apple makes hundreds of dollars for every iPhone sold, because they own the design. Foxconn makes ten bucks for manufacturing it.
But this is a silly discussion, since manufacturing is NOT declining in America. America is the world's second biggest manufacturer, with nearly $2 trillion in annual output. What has declined, is not manufacturing, but manufacturing employment, due to automation, and offshoring of the most labor intensive sectors. Since 1975, manufacturing employment in America has declined by 30%, while manufacturing output has doubled.