The term postindustrialism covers a bewildering variety of businesses in the so-called 'new economy' whose only obvious shared characteristic is what they are not: they are not manufacturing.  Broadly defined, virtually all service industries might be considered part of the postindustrial economy.   Some statisticians have recently started to classify computer software as a manufacturing industry.

The task is to weigh the economic merits of postindustrial activities (soft industries) against those of what might be called hard industries.

Hard industries-intended to denote capital-intensive, technically sophisticated forms of manufacturing.

Postindustrialists overlook that assembly is only the final, and generally by far the least sophisticated step, in the making of modern consumer goods.

The more important steps are making the sophisticated components and materials as well as the manufacture of the production machines that make the world's components and materials.

In the 1950's the United States led the economy due to higher levels of manufacturing. Now the United States has lost much of its manufacturing to other nations with carefully honed national strategies to boost their manufacturing prowess.

Japan is one example of how a nation can climb the ladder of manufacturing sophistication.