ManufactureThis has been giving voters a chance to sound off on the job and manufacturing issues of greatest concern to them.  We’ve also invited people to ask questions of John Ratzenberger at our upcoming Town Hall meetings.  You can email John at AskJohn@aamfg.org

Today’s blog entry was submitted by Stephen Schoonmaker, a mechanical engineer in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.  Stephen is greatly concerned about China’s ongoing currency manipulation which he sees as running counter to the free market philosophy that informs free trade: 

From: Stephen J. Schoonmaker, Chambersburg, PA

“How about China?  Isn’t it great how they have embraced free enterprise!  Every single politician in our land says we need to have everything at WalMart say Made in China since we are letting the MARKET-FORCES decide everything.  Does “pegging” your currency sound like free enterprise? 

“It turns out the Chinese government is even better at the rigged game than Japan.  The Chinese lend vast sums of money to America (by buying US Treasury Bills they know they will never get money for); this keeps their currency from rising; it also floats our deficit spending.  Now since Wall Street has already declared that China is the real tech-manufacturing power of the future, I am forced to teach China all our remaining secrets (something I personally have been told to do). 

“When our remaining factories close (as they will), then we can humbly bow before the Communists and hope they’ll be nice in places like Burma, North Korea, Hong Kong, or Tibet (and soon Taiwan).  Just imagine what would have happened to a US factory if high levels of lead had even been rumored on the toys that used to be made in East Aurora, New York, or Minnetonka, Minnesota, or Pawtucket, Rhode Island?  Is handing out Most-Buddy-Buddy-Nation status really the same as the healthy competition we used to have in aerospace which resulted in our being the premier superpower?

“I want desperately to develop safe, clean, beneficial, and valuable products that can be made by people in a safe manner so that the people that own my company can make a reasonable profit.  Why must I instead face ridiculously unfair and dangerous competitors while getting no support at all from the people we elect to make our country a place you can be proud of?  I guess I should just be calm and trust the professors that write all the books about MARKET-FORCES.”

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 11:06 pm and is filed under Manufacturing in the U.S., Holding China Accountable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.