It’s often heard that in America, we simply don’t make things anymore. And yes, if the barometer for such a statement is that we don’t mass-produce and export like we used to, it would be accurate. But quite a few Americans are still making things, and the way it’s happening today may usher in a transformation of our economy in the coming decades. And it’s possible that transformation may be most apparent in America’s Rust Belt.
Welcome to the Maker Movement. It’s probably best understood as an extension of DIY (do-it-yourself) culture into the realm of technology, intersecting with the hacker culture that undergirds much of the explosion of technology itself. But the Maker Movement comes with an emphasis on building things, rather than building code.
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