The purpose of this article, which is tradition of critical theory, is to present a number of reasons for preserving a strong production economy given that the aim of the nation state is to work for improved competitive advantage. The critical theory approach is used in this paper. The paper is also an attempt to show why a majority of Western countries have defended the transformation from a predominant production economy to a service economy by explaining the shift as a result of class interests, using new class theory. It argues for why a materialist perspective in economic theory is relevant today. The Western world should focus more on the production economy and less on the service economy. To the author's knowledge, no other paper has gathered as many arguments on the issue before. © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited