I still remember the "all hands" meeting in the large auditorium where the CEO at the time, Antonio Perez, was describing the changes. The execs still had a corporate jet. (I got to fly to a conference once with a VP). The jet became a symbol of unwillingness to cut executive perks. In the meeting, Perez told us they sold the jet. He said, "I know you want to applaud". It was the only standing ovation he ever got.
I worked in consulting for a period. in 2006, I was tangentially part of a team that worked with a manufacturer of speciality chips-sets and circuit boards, for military and various industrial uses.
When I actually visited the factory in New England, there were already 40 Chinese workers on site - literally being trained by the small-town, mostly middle-aged Americans at the plant - to take over when the production lines were packed up and shipped to China. It blew my mind.
What most shocked me was how gracious, friendly and generous these American factory workers were to the young Chinese who were there to take their livelihood (to be fair, the Chinese also were very polite and had no idea of the greater import of the situation). I was also blown away how responsible these Americans remained to these tasks at hand, and especially to the company management who were putting them on the street!
Maybe I’m a cynic, but I’m pretty sure anywhere else in the world, the workers would be protesting, destroying machinery or quietly throwing sand in the gears to sabotage the whole operation. And I thought, maybe they should….
My respect, and deep concern for, “fly over” Americans grew about 1000% those few days and the scales about America’s globalist “deep state” really started to fall from my eyes.