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What is being missed in all of this is the fact that we have lost our industrial base and are now dependent on foreign manufacturers and business for a huge majority of all materials we use in our daily life.

Correct. It's shameful that we only made $3 trillion worth of stuff last year.

I give up! I cannot believe that this graph answers all!

What types of products? What was the cost of doing business in 1990 vs 2006? Just what does this gross amount mean? Are the businesses surveyed and represented in this graph industries that manufacture durable goods, foods, clothing, steel, aluminum, etc...

The big question is: Are these companies manufacturing or assembling? Are their products made from raw materials or simply parts from other countries shipped into this country so that a "made in America" or "assembled in America" tag can be attached to the completed unit?

Simply showing a graph with a gross figure is nothing more than manipulated numbers to make something look good or bad.

I've been in the manufacturing business since 1979 and always get a chuckle when I talk to a salesman. In every case they always throw out GROSS sales figures and have almost no understanding what GROSS PROFIT is. Worse yet, they have absolutely no conception of what NET PROFIT is!

Did this graph take in consideration that in 1990 the cost of doing business was substantially lower than it is today? Did it also take in consideration that gross sales are increased to maintain gross profit due to increased costs of operation?

>>> It's shameful that we only made $3 trillion worth of stuff last year.

Define "we." You're clearly counting Toyota and other foreign-owned businesses "manufacturing" in the US but taking the profits offshore. I

f you count all the ownership of American debt we have today, even less of what we do is really "ours."

But you keep right on living in a fantasy world with America on the top and dominating the world with its free-trade glory. Live it up! Live up the fancy life you have now, based on the sacrifices of millions of Americans who built businesses and plowed farms here over the past 200 years, only to see their dreams crushed by fancy financing and lost nest eggs. Live up the comfy life you have, based 100% on the blood of those who died for you on foreign beaches, deserts, and mountains, so that you could continue touting "free trade" at the cost of America's future.

Didn't you ever stop to think that those countries we once liberated with the blood of those who came before us are now just out to take what they can get from us? No, you think it'll all come out in the wash. You think that enlightened self-interest works on both sides of this equation. And you're dreaming.