Gosh, this is a tough one. I heard a similar comment about Toyota dumping on America to ruin our car industry in the same way they killed our electronics industry. In theory, our steel industry was revived by restrictions on imports after dumping was proven.
I believe that a free market is a good thing. The difficulty comes when one doesn’t really have a free market. It’s clear we have restrictions placed upon the US by other countries, that we don’t impose upon them.
More importantly, to me, is the idea of a quality restaurant. In order to eat there...and folks do want to eat there....they are more than willing to pay double for what is sold for far less at lower end restaurants. Moreover, these places CHARGE waitress/waiter employees to work there because tips are so large for those who do a good job. Nonetheless, they get applicants.
We are the world’s best marketplace. Why shouldn’t we charge people to do business here? No one says they have to comply. They can take their business elsewhere.
The danger is complacency in our stellar market to the extent that the customer base gets taken for granted by the manufacturers who increase their profit by turning out lower quality goods. The only way to remedy this is by allowing competition.
In the long run competition is the best answer, but that always assumes a 2-way street when it comes to free markets.
If we remove all our labor protections and import enough illiterate illegal aliens to work for next to nothing, then eventually our economy should be able to compete with those third world countries that produce all the cheap crap that we are so willing to mortgage our future to buy.
Competition is the best answer, but giving every other country but ours a head start in that race by placing regulations and restrictions upon our own companies that our competition does not have is hardly the way to ensure that we come out ahead when the race is finished.
True competition requires a level playing field. Unfortunately the only way to level the field is to lay tariffs on goods imported from countries that essentially "dump" their products by non-compliance with the same regulations that apply to US Companies. But we will not do that until it is too late. Global Companies will do all within their power to ensure that goods made by their companies in third world snakepits will have free access to American markets until such time as America can no longer afford to import anything. At that point we will be one of those third world countries and the playing field will be leveled, as will most of our domestic industries.