NORMANDY, France – We needed a pair of good work boots; on weekends we’re fixing up an 18th-century farmhouse.

We’ve never found a French-made boot that fits well. So we went online to see if we could get a pair of American boots delivered.

To our great delight, an old favorite – Red Wing – has stores in several cities in Europe; it ships to France. They were absurdly expensive – $299 – but we figured we would have them for the rest of our lives.

The boots arrived on Saturday and were just like the ones we bought 40 years ago. Same stiff, solid construction. Same rich smell of leather and last. Same Minnesota simplicity.

But something was different. In with the boots was a magazine celebrating the history of the company. It was a stylish advertising piece; we wouldn’t have expected it from such a sweaty, shop-floor boot company.

Even more remarkable were the photos. They showed young people in various chic urban settings: Brooklyn. San Francisco. Berlin. They were all hipsters!

Not a single picture shows a man lifting, toting, turning, hammering, or cutting – the things you’re supposed to do in boots like these.

Instead, now, they are for hanging out… going to bars… and looking cool. They’ve become a fashion item.

A Manufacturing Recession

What happened?

How come America’s premier work boots are no longer pitched at America’s working men?

One reason: America’s working men don’t need them…

Here’s the latest from Alan Tonelson at RealityChek:

The headline job growth [the aforementioned 271,000 jobs] was overstated due to extraordinary and unreported seasonal adjustment factors.

Also suspect (or at least interesting) is the report that virtually all the job gains were accounted for by workers aged 55 and over. Since 2007, the BLS reports workers 55 and older have gained more than 7.5 million jobs, while workers younger than 55 have lost a total of 4.8 million jobs.

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