Don't churches form groups the same way? Better not hold any form of religious meetings in prison either!

Ok, you are absolutely correct. I'll admit my flimsy one paragraph reply is not an epic, peer-reviewed textbook on economics (Please read that as sarcasm aimed at myself and not an assault on your comment). Service oriented jobs move an enormous amount of money around. This is good and it stimulates the economy as long as that service provides a cost effective solution. You are correct that manufacturing sends built goods out of the immediate area, but if we are sending those goods out, then we are bringing in foreign money at a price that is greater than the manufactured product and the resources used. I will not argue about resources. That is the price of manufacturing. An unused resource is useless. An irresponsibly exploited resource is criminal.

Money paid for goods built in the United States have a tendency to stay in the United States. The majority of the $10 you pay goes to the country that manufactures the product. How much of that money do you want to stay in the United States? I think the goal of increasing manufacturing in the United States is to drive the quality/price to be equal or greater than foreign made goods and keep the money inside the country. Virtual goods, such as your data plan or broadband connection, do not provide as many jobs per dollar as manufacturing jobs do. One thing that will help is if we buy more guns.

Car analogy time. My car comes with part-time 4x4. Now most people will never have to use this. Most people are lucky enough to buy, use and then sell a car without ever having engaged the 4x4 feature. Now, if the car manufacturer decides during a scheduled service that they're going to remove the feature(and the feature of everyone else that comes in for a service) then it will only affect a small part of their userbase, but it doesn't matter. The car was sold and marketed as having part-time 4x4, and they can't just take that away.