With production stoppages and reports of a lower volume of cars rolling off the Corvette factory line in Bowling Green, Kentucky, it’s no surprise to learn that GM has laid off some assembly workers.

When I was a kid, my elementary school had a program that let students shadow adults at their job for a day. The idea was to show us what working as, say, an architect was like. “Japanese assembly ...

We often romanticize the American industrial era—the “Arsenal of Democracy,” the sheer scale of production, and the promised opportunity. But for the millions of men and women who clocked in daily, ...