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If the nation and our government belong to the people, then the economic system also belongs to the people. Corporations are chartered by the government (i.e. the instrument of the the people) and corporations are regulated by that same government. The "free" trade policies contributing to the destruction of our manufacturing base are also negotiated by the government in the name of the people.

As long as the government continues to pursue one-sided "free" trade policies with slave labor nations such as China, continues to permit open immigration from third world nations, and persists in running an education monopoly that puts political correctness ahead of providing skills the culture and the middle class will continue to decline.

I once headed the division of a large corporation that decided to outsource in Asia. We shut down US factories providing good middle class jobs in mostly rural communities. Almost all of those communities were devastated by the loss of the factories and still have unemployment rates approaching 20% a decade later as the trickle down impact on other local businesses was harsh.

The Asian factories that now have the work look like something out of Upton Sinclair's epic novel "The Jungle". Employees work six days a week, 10-12 hour days with no overtime pay and no social benefits. They "live" in crowded dormitories packed 8 to a room. Many are under-aged with fake ID cards for the occasional inspection. The rivers behind the factories are filled with the toxins and human waste dumped into them without treatment. The air is thick with smoke belching untreated from chimneys as well as the exhaust of automobiles unregulated by the EPA. There is no OSHA to enforce workplace safety and no Social Security disability payments if a worker gets injured and can no longer work. Certainly no tort lawyers to sue when an employee is blinded by acid splashing out of an uncovered vat or has his hand cut off by a blade with no guard on the machinery. In fact the only "guard" an employee is likely to see is the soldier from the people's army who patrols the factory to make sure the employees stay orderly and don't steal anything at the end of the day.

I tried to save our US factories, pointing out that even with all of the direct labor cost and regulatory disadvantages, our higher productivity per worker allowed us to produce within 10-15% of the Asia cost. I argued that we had a moral obligation to our workers and communities and pointed out the social risk factors and possible future political risk factors of outsourcing. I lost my job for not playing ball and tens of thousands of Americans saw their middle class jobs evaporate. The corporate financial wizards who graduated from prestigious MBA schools and never walked a factory floor made big bonuses that year. The Wall Street financial institutions who speculate in the stock were pleased with the earnings. While the quality of the product decline, the company's major customer liked the additional promotional dollars it received as a result of the increased margin.

The most fortunate of the discarded employees were able to retire, the rest drifted away or remained in a state of underemployment as the communities had no equivalent jobs to provide them. To add insult to injury, the retirees received an unexpected Christmas (or should I say "Holiday") surprise from the parent company. The company was giving them 30 days notice of its termination of the retiree medical plan as it could no longer afford the cost. Unfortunately, these southern workers had chosen to remain nonunion in their "right to work" states. Their cheap labor allowed the company to prosper from the 1950's through the 1990's. However, they were easily discarded once the "free" trade policies of Clinton and Bush II gave the company access to slave labor in Asia.

From my experience, most American corporations are run by financial wizards who have never created or built anything tangible. To them, life is about numbers and their annual bonus. They move factories and companies around on a spreadsheet. They have no interaction with customers, employees, or the products the company makes. They worship Wall Street and win maximum bonuses by downsizing and restructuring in the name of efficiency. Factory shutdowns are "one time" charges that Wall Street forgives, even though the lower costs realized from the Asian factory will not offset the one time write-off for over a decade.

While the historical American titans of industry (Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie) may have been ruthless businessmen, they did produce real products and real jobs that allowed this nation to develop a healthy middle class. Today's corporate leaders are just as ruthless and self-serving. However, they don't create anything, they earn mammoth salaries and bonuses by exporting the wealth creating industrial base that took over a century to build.

Once the factories are gone, America will be a third world nation. Factories are a vehicle for upward mobility for poor, undereducated people who have a strong work ethic. Many of my relatives were high school graduates who worked in factories and achieved the American dream by developing their skills on the job and increasing their wages through hard work. Today's high school graduate has fewer alternatives for upward economic mobility as the factories do not exist and the obstacles to starting one's own business have become almost insurmountable due to regulation, taxes, and high real estate costs.

Our corporate and government leaders are making the wrong choices with respect to the economy. Free trade with nations that do not share our values and do not respect their citizens will only result in short term financial gains for a few individuals and politicians while destroying our industrial base. With that industrial base goes our middle class, our common values, and our ability to defend ourselves. In World War II we prevailed because we were able to ramp up our industrial base to supply our allies and our own forces. Once that industrial base disappears, so does our ability to defend our freedom.

While free trade may be profitable in the short term, its long term implications are catastrophic. For those believers in the efficient market I might remind you. The company that closes a US factory and outsources the production to China does not incur the full cost of its economic decision. The displaced workers have a negative economic impact on the communities and government which are not borne by the company. The air and water pollution generated by the Asian factories eventually impact the health and well being of Americans. The loss of American's industrial infrastructure resulting from thousands of individual decisions is a burden on every citizen the company does not incur.

This nation is committing cultural and economic suicide.