The decline in manufacturing jobs in the United States left a cultural vacuum that the rhetoric of the Internet filled. Changes in the economy, in markets, and in political rhetoric all supported the idea that the growth of dot-coms would continue indefinitely and that these new technologies could salvage an economy. The Internet industry in many ways represented the purest of these technological fantasies—unprecedented economic growth without the messiness of hardware manufacturing, industrial start-up investments, or slowness of the “old economy” ways of working. The prevailing message: the creation of a communication medium—the Internet—could drive economic growth and security, create wealth, and revitalize the economy.