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You said: "iirc the old line is "the US shipped its manufacturing base overseas." The facts are there, but anyone married to an opinion isn't going to let reality get in their way. " It sounds like you're arguing that because productivity numbers are up that we didn't ship our manufacturing base overseas? When I was kid, I wore clothes that were made in America, I ate off of plates that were made in America with silverware that was made in America, my bicycle was made in America, my lunchbox was made in America, etc etc etc. Where is all that stuff manufactured now? Rhetorical question, it's made in China of course where some of the most productive workers on the planet work 15 hr days at about $.64/hr. Productivity may be up but you can't logically conclude from that that we haven't shipped our manufacturing base overseas.

"No matter who you blame, it's a fact that higher import taxes hasn't help us." what has helped us even less was ousourcing our manufacturing base.

You said: "iirc the old line is "the US shipped its manufacturing base overseas." The facts are there, but anyone married...

Whoa, we know this is important stuff that's easy to get exited about, but flying off the handle gets in the way.

What are you saying, that the US shipped it's manufacturing base overseas and that the US doesn't make anything anymore?

These people are masters of ill-logic. Sure US manufacturing is up over the last 20 years but not enough to cover what American consumers are buying. Otherwise there would be no trade deficit.....

We ran trade surpluses prior to 1982
Also in 1982 we were not relying on energy imports so much

We manufactured so much that was in demand abroad that imports were less. Resulting in trade surpluses which is the best position to be in. The Japs and Koreans always run trade surpluses. same for China. Then you have Canada and Australia that run trade surpluses because they export so much energy and commodities and mined materials. They are raw materials suppliers