Baloney. I've worked for several companies that have gone from zero to selling products in 2 years. Economies can't stand a vacuum. There are plenty of investors and entrepreneurs out there that are looking for any sign of exactly that to throw money at and jump into.

As soon as you create a level playing field by effectively reversing the subsidies that the Chinese government gives all those chinese factories for exporting and selling their crap for cheaper than it costs to actually make, then US manufacturing will grow again.
Yes even in a couple of years that you think is not possible. I've worked for several companies that have gone from zero to selling products in 2 years. Economies can't stand a vacuum. There are plenty of investors and entrepreneurs out there that are looking for exactly that.

Slaves don't have a choice. You do.
Nobody is forcing you to work for someone else. If you feel so strongly, go start your own business.
I guarantee that as soon as you did that, you will suddenly figure out that no-one actually owes you anything.

Now take how much Elon is paying in tax as $ vs how much you pay in tax as $.
Also consider how many paid jobs Elon is directly responsible for creating, and how much tax those employees pay.

The alternative is to become entirely dependent on China for everything. You do realise that the Chinese government are subsidising all that cheap chinese imports right?
I mean without those subsidies even the Chinese cant make stuff anything like that cheap either.
Now ask yourself why the chinese gov. would do that.

...and all you bought are a handful of hypotheticals.

I hate to generalize, its not all Gen Z'ers, but you're making it sound like they all have an actual clue which by and large they really don't.
Otherwise (assuming they do actually want/need the job they applied for) they wouldn't be making it harder to hire them than others with less reqiurments.

>> Companies taught their parents that employees are not valued as human beings, and are treated as disposable cogs.

Yes of course. They're not your family. They owe you nothing. You're going to be a lot happier once you just face the truth that companies are required by law to have other priorities than your personal preferences.

Elon already has the brain interface thing figured out. I for one welcome our new AI overlords using us as meat robots.

I don't get who they are aiming this at, especially as if you already have a PC, a 5090 will be about $1k cheaper than a digits box and will apparently result in a significantly more powerful AI experience for both inferencing and training.

>> Nvidia is *horrible* with Linux today.

I have to say that's a complete 180 from my own experience.
Nvidia has always just been plug and play for me. Admittedly I mostly just use Ubuntu and throw the factory drivers on, (I can't be bothered to waste my time dicking around with Arch and Nouveau or whatever).

Meanwhile AMD GPUs have for me multiple times been a giant headache to get working stably under Linux, even just 2D/desktop stuff.

As someone that makes a 2nd income playing in a band that includes our own written songs (not using AI) that we've played 100's of times to just as many different large audiences, I think you're clearly missing something.

If you would just stop with the sensationalist crap and look at actual facts/data, you'd see that Trump wants to lower taxes on working people, such as (but not only):
Exempting tips from income taxes.
Exempting Social Security benefits from income taxes.
Exempting overtime pay from income taxes.
Creating an itemized deduction for auto loan interest.
Making the individual TCJA expirations permanent (set to expire in 2025) thereby effectively doubling the Standard deduction and Personal exemption.
Allow parents with up to four children to deduct child care expenses from their income taxes.
Adding tax credits for other dependents.

>> We were used for profit.

Did you really not know that's how all for-profit businesses have to operate? I.e. Employees adding more value than they cost to employ == profit == continued existence.

As a hiring manager, I've found time and again that US gen Z applicants/employees come with a laundry list of massively unrealistic entitlement and expectations/demands that applicants from other generations or countries simply don't have.

The worst seem to genuinely believe that companies exist only to support their required lifestyle, and that they should continue to be supported even when their average productivity approaches zero.