Similar story for other technology that has been sold off overseas for a quick buck. I was developing advanced sensor technology for nuclear power plants a few years ago and needed some specialty materials that used to be made by a high-tech firm in Oak Ridge. Turns out they sold out to a US conglomerate, which was subsequently bought out by a European firm. They took a look at the business units and right away closed down the US operation for this specialty material and moved everything, lock stock, and barrel (but no people) over to France. I could get the materials shipped here, if I wanted to wait two years, get an export license, and sign an agreement to share the technology. The sponsor pulled the plug on that project. Ironic that it was technology we developed here, sold out, and had to pay a steep price to get back.
This country is selling out a lot of its strategic capability to the highest bidder in the foreign marketplace, just to make a quick buck and put a few more pennies on the quarterly bottom line.
I agree. the single best thing we could do to stop that is to rewrite our tax laws to encourage manufacturing here. The WTO is an impediment to that.
Neodymium magnets. The best and I have lots of them. So the Chinese are the only mass manufacturers of them?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium_magnet