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The sad thing is that what all of you are saying is not only true, but its been going on for a long, long time. It didn't just happen during the last 3+ years of Bush 43, its been happening since the fifties. Cheap toys were imported from Japan by the boatload after WW II, then from China, South Korea and so on. The textile mills moved from the Northeast to the Southeast years ago to escape the Union shops and reduce labor costs. Since then there has been a steady migration to all corners of the globe (except the good ol' USA). Same is true for the tanneries and shoe makers. Look at the country of origin in your shirt, or in your shoes. More and more cars are imported every year, especially by the Big Three. If you drive a full sixe GM pickup its probably made in Canada, as well as many other GM products. When my old '84 Pontiac STE crapped its instrument panel, the replacement and failed original part were from Mexico-the car had been assembled in Canada. GMC Yukon XLs, Chevy Suburbons & Cadillac Escalades (long ones) are built in Mexico-yes the biggest, baddest Caddy is a Mexican import! All Chrysler LH cars come from Canada. At first I laughed and then got angry when Lee Iacocca spouted off in his book and in speeches against buying imported cars-esp. from Japan. (when he took credit for saving Chrysler) because every single Mitsubishi is a Chrysler product from -yeah Japan! And now the Germans own most of Chrysler. The American taxpayers bailed out Chrysler by the way. . . Automotive components are sourced-out all over the world. I'm now a self-employed furniture designer/cabinet maker and power tools that I purchase from Delta, Porter Cable,.Craftsman, Powermatic and Ridgid have moved all or most of their production of professional quality-not just weekend warrior stuff-to either China or Taiwan. This has been going on for years. We lost the entertainment industry-not Hollywood (although SONY owns a big chunk)-VCRs, DVD players, TV , stereo, etc. years ago; again to Japan and South Korea primarily. Kodak just got out of the instant camera business because the market died due to digital cameras: Kodak didn't think there was a market for them and failed to respond. Polaroid failed a decade ago. No cameras are made in this country any more. . .The computer you're using right now is either all or part from the Far East. And then there's our motorcycle industry except for Harley and a few specialty manufacturers that all went away a long time ago.. Kawasaki made fighter planes in WW II that sank our ships. (The Zero was a Mitsubishi product) Outsourcing of services-you know when you call up the customer non-service dept . for help and you can't understand the person who answers the phone - anyway thats the latest round of business going offshore. I spent years in sales and marketing management in the semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley (before becoming a self-employed furniture designer/cabinetmaker). Most of the fabrication production-silicon wafers, lead frames, etc. was moving off shore in the mid 70s, not something that just happened in the past 3 + years under Bush 43. Most of our test equipment and specialized production machinery was an import. It's not a Democrat or Republican exclusive thing - its big business catering to their bottom line and to their investors and/or shareholders. The Unions have been blamed for high wage and benefit costs, the American worker for indifferent quality, the US Gov't for high taxationand regulation and then deregulation, and the tree-huggers for strict and often absurd environmental craziness, like protecting snails, kangaroo rats and bugs. And to a significant degree, the blame is warranted. It's all about the cost of doing business. Yet we are the worst offenders because we buy all that stuff from overseas, especially from China. (If any President can be faulted for the onslaught of imports from China it's our 42nd one; someday all of the scary deals he made w/ China and North Korea will be made public-bet a lot of the trade issues we have know will come to light.) References were made to WalMart-it's not the same company founded by Sam, since he died (his kids are some of the wealthiest, greedy people in the world, however). What would Walt Disney think of the Disney organization if he suddenly arose from the dead?He'd be pixxxed! As far as model trains, it's a shame, in a perverse sort of way, that the Chinese imports--Broadway, Genesis, Proto1000/2000 and Spectrum, to name a few--are of such high quality. For the most part they are reasonably priced, and have, over the past decade, raised the bar for what we'll use to equip our layouts. What does one do? (I remove all references to 'made in China' just to feel better.) But I don't blame Bush, nor do I think he can necessarily correct it; nor does Kerry have a chance, either. You don't really think that Heinz is an American company do you? Some parts of the USA have been especially hurt by Chinese as well as other imports, ripping families apart due to financial hardship when businesses layoff or close down. Industry refers to it as down-sizing or out-sourcing. It's big business greed, and in a capitalist economy it's legal but not very nice. Tax breaks for business that do not source out production overseas, tax breaks for taxpayers at all income levels (and that is distorted election-year hype about how only the rich get a break-you got one didn't you?), and a hardline reassessment of our tariff policies are needed. The situations in Iraq and Afghanistan have no bearing on imports from China, jobs in the heartland, or US model train manufacturers not making their stuff onshore. Like I said at the start of this novelette, its been an ongoig, albeit worsening, scenario for over fifty years. It happened right in the communities we replicate on our model railroads-it wasn't just other modes of transportation that led to abandonment of routes by the railroads, but it was also changing economic conditions within those regions due to loss of market, consolidation of production facilities, gobbeling up of smaller competitors, and manufacturing moving to another locale, esp. offshore. Thanks for allowing me to vent my spleen , too.
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