Note to Ducknwork

[Roger Perry]

That’s the problem. We look short term on everything. We will buy goods at Walmart to save a few dollars. In order to supply those cheaper goods to Walmart, some U.S. manufacturer shut down their plant here and moved their operations to China. The workers terminated at the U.S. plant is now forced to take a service job for almost ½ the pay, if they can find a job at all. The displaced workers can no longer afford to buy the goods you produce, so your plant shuts down, or they move operation to China to reduce costs, so they can sell at lower prices. Now, you’re out of work and forced to take a lower paying job too. They cycle continues.

Case in point, in my hometown of West Bend Wisconsin, the West Bend Company which employed over 3,000 people and had a 1st, 2nd and 3rd shift closed it's doors and moved it's product line to I believe China. The property where the West Bend Company once was is now a Condominimum community. From what I hear the Geil company also shut down. The Geil company manufactured farm and machinery equipment. Those jobs are hard to replace.

[dnf777]

Does anyone here disagree that you need to have a strong manufacturing base in order to have a sound economy?

Experts tell us that's not so. Then again, experts got us into this mess!

But can technology and service sectors maintain and grow a solid, secure economy, without factories?