Michael Anderson wrote:


> We do have lots of OT posts on this list; I never thought I'd take part
> in it. However, because of the wealth of intellectual Intelligentsia on
> this list, I feel a strong urge to post this here.I really do want the
> opinion of persons on this list in reference to:
> http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/unmade_in_america.htm And
> http://www.uscc.gov/analysis.htm Both are very lengthy articles, and
> will require some study time. What is going on in the US economy, and US
> Mfg industry is so complex; I don't think it was thought-out at all.

My thoughts:

(1) Proponents of trade consider global interdependence to be a good thing,
not a bad side-effect of trade.  They think that it can deter war.

(2) The concern about strategic dependence on foreign suppliers is not a new
thing.  The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was established in 1975 and the
Federal Helium Reserve long before that.  I remember many reports about
technological, industrial, or transportation dependencies over the past
couple of decades.  Some are available at:
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/~ota/ns20/cattB_n.html#Business_and_industry

(3) The predictions of American technological or industrial decline that
were made in the 1980s mostly turned out to be wrong.  Compare the OTA
reports linked above to the STEP reports from a decade later:
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/step/STEP_Publications.html

(4) American manufacturing HAS NOT DECLINED!  Manufacturing output increased
30% in real terms during the 1990s.  The U.S. is by far the largest
manufacturer in the world and by far the largest exporter of manufactured
goods.

(5) The concerns about China sound just like the concerns about Japan 20-25
years ago.  I doubt they will prove to be any better founded.

(6) The military regularly analyzes its supply chain for vulnerabilities. It
also analyzes sources for emerging technology. One in particular that I
remember from a decade ago was flat panel displays being identified as a
strategic technology.  This led to the billion-dollar boondoggle of the U.S.
Display Consortium (http://usdc.org/).  In spite of this, the U.S. market
share is substantial
(http://jonescenter.wharton.upenn.edu/BE/Lenway-Murtha.pdf).

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