this reminds me of a comment a software developer made to me some time back: "face it, Bill Gates has won the war".

same with Jap cars: Face it: Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Subaru, Nissan and Isuzu have won the war.

our glorious leaders allowed them to sell their wares here. every dime they made was funneled straight back to Japan. they then took that money and came over here and bought up all our classic muscle cars and had them shipped back to Japan.

....funding our own demise one rice rocket at a time. smart......real smart.

Reduced labor costs are only the tip of the iceberg, you would have to change many other things are well. Would I like to change places with China today from a economic standpoint? You bet I would.

Your cavalry argument is interesting... you do realize it is an example of how the ability of one country to MANUFACTURE a new product on a large scale resulted in a paradigm change?

I certainly hope you are right but if you are it will be the first time in modern history where an ability to manufacture arms wasn't a significant factor in deciding who wins. I do agree that if things go nuclear its a whole new ball game but if this country ever again gets in a full-scale shooting war we are going to be in huge trouble. Do you remember how Detroit participated in WW2? As things currently stand that capability is gone.

The solution is either to get competitive (innovate and control operating costs), or to try to close your markets (which is a very bad plan for the long term). The domestic car manufactures made an inferior product for the price, they deserve to be gone. If the Japanese companies can't compete with the Korean manufactures, they will be gone too (of they will just outsource).

Bill Gates did win the war, he understood how to dominate a market; his replacement, not so much. BTW, I only use macs.

There's a project in Detroit, taking abandoned urban space in the residential parts of town and converting it to neighborhood based, small scale agriculture. In some areas the concept is working enough to expand the project to other areas of town.

I'm not saying it's good or bad, I'm just saying that's how it is today. As things stand the U.S. is not competitive in manufacturing and I don't see any practical way to change that in the near term. If we want to continue to have 7% of the world's population and 20% of the world's money, we had better be able to provide sufficient "value added" goods and services to support the inequality. If we try to compete "toe to toe" in manufacturing, we will lose.

I do think (hope) that the era of "world wars" is over. The world is to interconnected for large scale aggression to make sense for anyone. The current threats are different, and do not require a huge manufacturing base.