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One now has to wonder why the liberal governmental policy post-WWII worked so feverishly to destroy that industrial capacity and leave the US so dependent on other nations and “outsourcing” that we can’t even build our own refueling planes but give the order to Airbus, and buy Eurocopters too. Never mind all the bogus computer chips from China that infect our military hardware . . .

Rush Limbaugh is Free Trader so its OK. /sarc

All of the "right" wingers who are "Free Traders" should really re-evaluate their position. The private sector unions are already dead, which is a good thing, participation is 7% and falling. The Free Traders need a new canard.

“All of the ‘right’ wingers who are ‘Free Traders’ should really re-evaluate their position”

Only if all the saber-rattling Big Government “conservatives” really re-evaluate their implicit faith in the efficiency and honesty of the federal government as regards the defense department and nothing else.

“The private sector unions are already dead, which is a good thing, participation is 7% and falling. The Free Traders need a new canard”

If private unionism is dying, the fight against the public sector has only just begun. Protectionism, anyway, survives the unions. It lives on in the hearts of Big Government advocates of all parties. It lives on in the addled minds of those who are afraid that somehow we won’t be able to fight if China shakes its head and says “Not this time, Joe.” This at a time when we’re fighting at least two wars, when our military is so much bigger than it was in 1941 that it’s misleading to call them by the same name, and when we have a larger productive capacity by far than before WWII. Likely story.

“their implicit faith in the efficiency and honesty of the federal government as regards the defense department and nothing else”

I should say more than anything else. Neocons trust all sorts of things, like the entire New Deal superstructure and especially particular favorites like corn subsidies. But defense is their favorite part of the welfare/warfare state, and they will die before China takes it over, even if the Yellow Peril is a phantom.

There’s a big difference between a free market and so-called “free trade”. The latter allows those that do not believe in a free market to participate, and by so doing to undermine those who do believe in a free market. Mercantilists can walk away with the whole store . . .

One now has to wonder why the liberal governmental policy post-WWII worked so feverishly to destroy that industrial capacity and leave the US so dependent on other nations and “outsourcing” that we can’t even build our own refueling planes but give the order to Airbus, and buy Eurocopters too. Never mind all the bogus computer chips from China that infect our military hardware . . .

Rush Limbaugh is Free Trader so its OK. /sarc

All of the "right" wingers who are "Free Traders" should really re-evaluate their position. The private sector unions are already dead, which is a good thing, participation is 7% and falling. The Free Traders need a new canard.

The ONLY reason US manufacturing was so dominant and prosperous after WWII was the fact that most of the manufacturing capacity in the rest of the developed world was destroyed by the war itself. The US was just about the only source for heavy industry and manufacturing--the last man standing so to speak--the rest of the world had to buy US exports. Once the war was over, and rebuilding of foreign basic infrastructure was well on its' way, it was only a matter of time before international manufacturing was on the mend, and the US lost market share.

IOW, after the war, there was only one way for US manufacturing to go...DOWN. The exact same is true today, as more third world countries evolve and develop their own manufacturing base.

BTW...manufacturing is alive and well in the US now...contrary to conventional wisdom as pushed by populist rhetoric. The US is the number one exporter in the world, manufacturing included.