With the unfortunate turn of events in Japan come the production shutdown of many imported devices, causing a shutdown of some of our production lines in the U.S. (auto industry first comes to mind). Maybe it's time to consider building our own "stuff" and put americans to work and not be quite so at the mercy of the world market.

Amen!
People over here need jobs too!

A novel idea. However, workers will want to be paid real wages. This brings the price of the product up. If the price of the product exceeds the price of the same product built overseas (assembled by cheap labor) nobody will buy the more expensive product.

That's the catch 22. Items get cheaper. We get poorer. Then, we can only afford cheaper items.

People are generally selfish. We say we will buy American, and support an idea like this, but when we are pushing the cart down the isle, nobody is looking, we buy whatever is cheaper.

Without getting into forbidden territory (topics) the enemy is us corporations and the us government. Thats the reason nothing is made here. Corps wanted cheap labor and no environmental laws. they paid THEIR congressman to write them laws to leave the country, not pay taxes, and now that we scream our stupid worthless leaders are making them tax deals to "please won't you open a plant here....?" its all C@#$P.

I'll be keeping a very close eye on this thead, if it gets too Political (possibly too late) I'll lock it.

You can discuss Politics to your hearts content at http://www.politicalchat.org/

Keep in mind raw materials and their availability. If they aren't available here in the US (no supply, not cost effective to start mining/refining), that in itself will severely limit what we can produce of our own "stuff".

One prime example is the rare earth materials used in CRT production. We couldn't produce the materials here, hence the mass-production in Asia, where the materials are naturally plentiful. CRTs were costly to ship to our shores, so the TV manufacturing went to where the CRTs were.

Reminds me of when I was in Dubai in 1995 - there was a ship in the Free Trade Zone that was UNLOADING sand. It seems the desert sands in the Arabian Peninsula were lacking some quality that made them unuseable in concrete manufacturing. They literally had to import sand to make concrete. Kinda like being adrift in the ocean - water everywhere, but not a drop fit to drink.

I'm no environmentalist, but it sure seems we should be the world leader in green technology, being the early adopter society we are. Asia once again trumped us in making Solar Cells - Kyocera, Sanyo, Smasung, and others outproduce us. We can't catch up either - patents are locked up, guaranteeing them global dominance. And we invented the solar cell!

Government regulation also would have to shift dramatically.
I read in the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704662604576202212717670514.html)a bout how Washington bureaucrats have killed the top-loading washing machine. Nothing partisan, just good lobbying by those that profit off the front loader machines.

To make stuff here, the whole supply chain would have to be present, without special interests or lobbyists, and would have to be spread among many states to come to essence.

Cheers,

I'm sure many U.S. suppliers will actually profit from the rebuilding effort in Japan.

The only way to fix things is to start building a time machine.

Society's gone down hill and all we get are excuses and p.c. double talk,things will only get worse.

"American Made" worked just fine in the 50's,there was no reason things had to change.
People today are brainwashed into thinking this is all for the best and the only way.

Most people simply don't care,the lower your standards are,the more easily they are met.
They are happy with Chinese Wal-Mart crap long as it's cheap!
Nobody expects anything to last or even be repairable,just make it cheap so I can throw it away and buy a new one.

Hi George,
I haven't read all you wrote yet but I plan to. I hope that we can write about subjects in a way that is sensitive and respectful to everybody so that, hopefully, we don't break any rules here that are established for logical reasons that are based on considerations to everybody and the primary purpose of this site.
There are many great men that visit this site regularly and I feel very privelaged to have the opportunity to write to anybody here. I think this is one of the greatest sites anywhere.
I have great difficulty in not writing things that make me seem like a genuine idiot or worse to people I wish I could make a positive impression on. So, can we please practice the most diplomatic ways possible? Most people are understandably sensitive and our words are very easily misinterpreted.
Thanks,
John

After reading this thread I am impressed by all who wrote. I hope the owners of this site will allow us to continue to discuss such things that some think are too political, etc.
Can we continue if we use wording that considers and respects everybody's interests?
I honestly believe that such chats are very good for this site's possibilities.