It just gives me a sick feeling in the pit of the stomach,,,
WE used to be the technology giant of the world... Due to insane and unsane laws - labor, social, union, environmental, manufacturing, liability, and many others - enacted by a Congress hostile to manufacturing and industry, we have lost our manufacturing base and are rapidly becoming just another Banana Republic, albeit huge...
QUOTE:
On June 26 2009, Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, called for the United States to increase its manufacturing base employment to 20% of the workforce, commenting that the U.S. has outsourced too much in some areas and can no longer rely on the financial sector and consumer spending to drive demand.
UNQUOTE
A case in point: When the battleship IOWA had an explosion destroying gun turret 2, the decision was made to make cosmetic repairs enough to allow the gun to rotate for show... The turret sits on a ring gear some 20 feet across... The Navy found that there was no manufacturer left in the USA able to fabricate and machine such a gear... A foundry joined up with a firm in Canada to bend a ring and machine the inside teeth into a new ring gear... That's right: The government of the USA had to go begging in Canada to find a company that had a lathe large enough to do the job (it was a WWII lathe in cosmoline that had been gathering dust in a shed for 40 years)
How far the mighty have fallen...
denny-o