"Free Trade" is a SCAM. It always has been.

[Scruffy1]

70. You are right.

One of the political spins on the free trade of the early fifties was it was important to keep it in place to prevent countries like Japan from "going communist". The first industry that the Japanese completely took over was sewing machines. They ran the Americans and Germans out of the business by the 70's. after they had developed their industry the machine tool industry was next. They succeeded by building high quality machines that were accurate and reliable. The American companies were slow to change to modern technology and their electronics sucked big time. I remember trying to get an American electronics company that would partner on a new control system for web printing in the 70's. No dice. I had to go to Japan. Looking back I think the failure of American industry was caused by a system that rewards very short term gains at the expense of long term success. I watched industry after industry topple because they didn't keep up with technology. It's actually very complex and there were a lot of reasons but a good example would be when Sears switched to Japanese sewing machines and White, their previous provider found it more profitable to rebrand Japanese machines than manufacture their own.