[John H K]

You didn't answer my question......

Would you have banned the import of foreign cars in the early 80s? (Or "de Facto" banned them by the imposition of ENORMOUS tariffs.) Honestly?

People were going far more nuts about the country being destroyed by the Japanese then, then they are about the Chinese and Indians today.

[oceanview]

What Japan did in the auto industry is quite different then what is happening now. Japanese businessmen didn't stand outside GM and Ford corporate headquarters and coax upper management to move their US plants & jobs to Japan. They developed their own industries and competed fairly (to some degree, they did engage in dumping) and took market share.

What is happening now is that our own US companies are selling us out. US top management is teaming up with offshore interests to sell us out, and we aren't structuring our policies to stop it. China isn't developing their own semiconductor industry, Intel and Motorola are sending the US semi industry to them. India isn't developing products to compete with Oracle and taking market share from them, Oracle management is sending the company to India 1000 workers at a time.

Its totally different then the 80s. We must open our eyes and see what is happening. Globalism changes the economic equation, we cut taxes in the US, and a large portion of that fiscal stimulus goes to foreign countries, we lose the multiplier effect in the US. That's why this recovery will be nothing like the Reagan recovery.