U.S. politicians and corporate management have either given away the country's manufacturing jobs or allowed cheap imports to replace U.S.-made products.
The balance of trade is way out of whack and the jobless rate is staggering.
But I'm also at fault.
What prompts this?
I was just ironing some shirts. One, while relatively new, already is in sad shape.
I checked the label.
Made in Korea. (So is my car, by the way.)
I decided to check all my "dress" shirts.
One from Korea.
Several from Honduras.
A few from San Salvador.
A couple from Bangladesh.
Not one made in the USA.
It wasn't so long ago that the late Sam Wahl, owner of Wal-Mart, bragged that his stores carried "American made products."
Sam died and, apparently, US made products in Wal-Mart stores also died.
What's a country to do?
The first thing the United States should do it look at tiny Israel.
Israel is truly a "revolving door" country. It's natural resources are few - it's the Japan of the middle east in natural resource riches.
So how does it survive.
OK, it gets a lot of support from Jews outside of Israel and it does get annual welfare checks from Uncle Sam.
But what sets Israel apart - and what used to set the U.S. apart - is its inventiveness.
It invents things.
Across a broad spectrum of interests - medical, military, social, and much more.
The Japanese "enhance" products others invent.
The Chinese simply steal patients and blatantly make inferior copies of someone else's product.
The U.S. needs to return to its inventive roots.
The jobs are gone to satisfy "political correctness."
Tariffs are low on goods from our "friends du jour," countries that will turn against us in an instant.
I'm in favor of international trade and cooperation, but not at the expense of my countrymen.
Why should it cost more to buy a quality shirt made in the USA than it does to buy a quality shirt made in, say, Honduras?
Labor?
Where is American inventiveness when we need a way to increase productivity without increasing personnel requirements? Put robotics to work on the manufacturing line as the car makers do. Then retrain the seamstresses to assemble the robots that replaced them.
American must put its focus on education - a complete education including PE and arts. We must develop American youths' minds and bodies.
When I was in school, we had PE for a school hour every day.
We had, in high school, either a school hour of study hall or a school hour elective.
I think I was lucky to have perhaps 5 really good teachers during my public school career, teachers from who I actually enjoyed learning the subject. The rest seemed to be "marking time" toward their pension and "teaching" by rote.
American needs to once again put a premium on mental exercises.
It's not entirely a matter of money. Florida has a low dollar/student ratio yet it graduates some outstanding students.
It's not entirely a matter of environment. Several schools in less enlightened neighborhoods have become stepping stones to higher education for the majority of their students.
No, I do not believe everyone should go to college or university. We need plumbers and mechanics and all manner of tradespeople and they deserve our respect even when we are not pleading for their experetise.
We DO - in big bold letters - need people who
T H I N K
People who invent, who challenge, who won't settle for "the old way."
Our politicians will continue giving away our jobs and corporations will continue to send jobs overseas, and being "politically correct" will continue to be the watchword for many, so we need to do what we do best, and what cannot be imported from an off shore factory.
In the meantime, when I go looking for a shirt to replace the Korean one that is defective I'll be looking for one with a "Made in the U.S.A." label.
