Here's an interesting take on what's actually holding back economic progress: it's not that manufacturing capacity is oversaturated. The real constraint? Most economies haven't built enough advanced service sectors.

Manufacturing is the traditional ladder—it's how countries bootstrap themselves out of lower income brackets. Every developing economy goes through this phase. But here's where it gets tricky: once you're out of poverty through manufacturing, climbing to high-income status requires a completely different playbook.

High-income nations don't compete on factory output. They compete on knowledge services, financial infrastructure, design, technology, and specialized expertise. The transition from "we make stuff" to "we solve complex problems" is harder than it looks. Some economies nail manufacturing but get stuck there, unable to shift into the service-based value chains that actually generate wealth at scale.

This matters for anyone thinking about long-term economic momentum and where growth actually comes from.