The by word of the day is, "Buy American." Well it is if your an american and your livelihood is wrapped up in whether or not people buy what your making. For the most part I agree that we are getting screwed. NAFTA, and whatever other _AFTA there is out there. Foreign countries don't want what we're making, corporations would rather build equipment overseas where a living is cheaper on their bottom lines.
On the other of the coin however, is the stupidity of american business. Sure we could pin point certain parts of the world that stop buying our gear because they're mad at us, say like Arab countries and Coca Cola. This doesn't come close to the Detroit mentality, in the '80s Japan's economy cars took the market by storm. People were buying foreign cars for gas milage. Detroit resisted change until the all hope was lost and the federal gov had to step in and rescue certain companies from the trash heap. Of course by then the boys in Detroit were playing catch up. They had to make their cars more economical, game japan had been developing since the early '70s.
For awhile it seemed as if the big boys of Detroit had learned they're lesson, by the end of the '80s discovery magazine published a story of GM research new tech in electric automobiles. Unfortunately there was and still is a problem in power output between electricity and gasoline. So I guess GM just quit and continued building vehicles that got less and less MPG. Oh there are a lot of bumps in the road, mostly emissions regulations whether it was placed on fuels or engines. In the short who cares in business one must continually reinvent oneself or die. Diesel was to dirty so detriot made more gasoline burning vehicles, BMW just pressurized they're fuel so it would burn cleaner. In the end it's the same, Detroit works for the short game and get trumped by other companies working 10 years out.
GM is the recent example of this. While in the middle of restructuring they
plan on adding 350 jobs to the payroll. Keep in mind that in the end they have to shed 130,000 in less than 2 years. They also plan to invest $545M. What do they plan in "investing" in? Factories that make the same old tired crap that nobody is buying. Doesn't invest mean to spending expecting a return. If america wants to stay in business they're going to have to start thinking 10 years out instead of the next quarter.
Kodos to Ford and Boeing though, they're exploration into nanotech to make lighter stronger building materials is a good start. But will they come with something marketable before they're bought out by a foreign company, or will they hit a snag and quit. So far the track record of this modern america is the latter, and until they learn to make quality and stay in front of the game the term Buy American will never pass over my lips.

Wow I love Mondays

It all started simple enough, all the boats that we needed were already in the water. All we had to do was deliver some old T.V.s that we found while cleaning out the skid box to the E.T.. Of course towards the end of the day when our only truck was stuck on the beach, again, I learned that the dept. Chief decided that he wanted all the items salvaged from the ASDV sent to the dumpster in the compound.
At least this time the truck wasn't stuck in the sand like all the other times this year. Nope this time it was the gas gauge. It would seem that it shorted, and unlike when one turns off the power in their car, the needle pointed to full. So we waited and at 1130 the truck returned was loaded up and sent out on trash duty. But, who ever gave the directions to the dumpster wasn't clear. Because at 1200 the truck was back still loaded with cargo and irate delivery men. The directions that they said they received from the dept chief was complete different than mine. To confirm this I pulled up a satelite photo of the compound on Google, much to their amusement of having a geek for a boss. I didn't want to keep these guys hanging around so I sent them home, and called the dept chief to ask him WTF. In answer he directed me to an email stating the where abouts of this elusive containment system and that I did not have tomorrow to dispose of the garbage in the back of the truck. So with this new information in hand I gathered up the personnel that had not yet learned to become vapor when the boss knocks off for the day and we headed complete this simple job that was turing into nuclear science.
We received more complication upon returning to the compound. We couldn't find a way to get to the area where this mysterious dumpster lay. There had to be a way of course, otherwise all the vehicles that were parked in this courtyard could not have been there. We try going through the front gate but it had a combo lock that no one had the combo for, not even the Duty Officer. In the end the path that led to out goal was a simple drive between buildings, duuuhhhh. All in all it finished with the second last load by 1300. More than enough time to get a cardio in.