Have been in business for 35 years as service / support for U.S. manufacturers that use CNC equipment I mistakenly thought I had a secure customer base and mix of customers. I also felt that these companies were large enough and would not fail however I was sadly mistaken. The U.S.A. has lost a substantial number of major manufacturers and the general feedback from what is left is that the good ship U.S.A. should be renamed TITANIC as it is sinking fast and there are NO LIFEBOATS.

These facts indicate a deep Recession, or worse, a Depression is on the horizon.

Your statistics along with that of USBIC, Lou Dobbs, and a number of others continue to be ignored by this administration. They continue to push the FREE TRADE agenda as a good thing for the country. Seems its a good thing for only a few top ranking ELITE. Giving away our manufacturing technology and defense secrets surely will come back to kill many americans. Obviously our Political Elite ONLY CARE about themselves.

The auction notices I receive daily from once vibrant U.S. based companies are on a magnatude not seen since the Great Depression. With each business closure our country loses badly needed jobs, more tax dollars, and our dependence and debt grows. Yet George Bush and all of his cronies in Washington push for more FREE TRADE.

Another irritation is his statement that “Americans need to be retrained”. The big question is WHAT we will retrain for?

If the outsource trend continues much longer the starving middle class masses will revolt and our 545 so called representatives will hang from the trees like Christmas ornaments. This may sound extreme however history is filled with revolts caused by desperate times. It appears we are on that path. God Help America….

I’m not saying that our deficit with China isn’t a huge problem. It is. My point is that our trade policy was already a proven failure around the world. What did we expect when we suddenly applied it to a nation with one sixth of the world’s population? China gets all of the attention because of its sheer magnitude, but the same thing is happening with many other over-crowded nations.

It’s time to recognize that Ricardo’s principle of comparative advantage, dating back to 1815, the theory upon which free trade is based, is fatally flawed. It is flawed because it does not factor in the role of population density and what happens when two nations, grossly disparate in density, attempt to trade freely. While free trade in natural resources and free trade in manufactured goods between nations of roughly equal population density is indeed beneficial, just as Ricardo predicts, it is a sure-fire loser when attempting to trade freely in manufactured goods with nations that are much more densely populated than our own, tantamount to economic suicide. Our economies combine. The work of manufacturing is spread evenly across the combined labor force. But, while the more densely populated nation gets free access to our healthy market, all we get in return is access to a market emaciated by over-crowding and low per capita consumption (if we get access at all).

Decades of trade experience have proven that we can try to enforce trade deals, improve quality and cut costs until we’re blue in the face. It hasn’t made one iota of difference in our trade equation because none of these change this popuation density relationship. Only a tariff structure on manufactured goods that is indexed to the population density of our trading partners can offer any hope of restoring a trade balance.

Pete Murphy
Author, Five Short Blasts

While I realize, former President Clinton was at a high school, & therefore tended to reflect about education, No Child Left Behind, etc. He did make several references to other key “campaign battles” (The War in Iraq, economy).

The above article clearly shows what Pennsylvania residents are grappling with at they choose there next leader on April 22nd. Jobs moving to China, Mexico & off of US soil. Something needs to be done, before a one proud manufacturing state turns into a series of rusty, dilapidated ghost towns.

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you….