The West needs to be more productive and increase atomization. Technology and innovation creates jobs.

True enough, but to achieve this you're going to need a very highly educated workforce, and very good high-school education. That means more state expenditure in schools and the military (the cutting edge of new tech) - basically, a bigger state.

One other point. The pace of change in China is staggering. I went back there last year for the first time since the early 80s, and it's unrecognisable.

It's all very well asking blue-collar Midwesterners to adapt just as quickly, but how can they? Instead, you'll get hundreds of ghost towns and a wave of human misery.