Working Against Our Own Best Interest

An ongoing exploration of how America is working against its own best interest.

Does anyone know what our Industrial Policy Is?

Part 3

Doesn't it strike you as strange that most of the big problems in America today are of our own making. Too many times we act as a nation or as a people in ways that are not in our own best interest. We Suboptimize* the public good  by optimizing our personal, professional, or corporate gain.

Exactly what are our guiding principles, our goals and our core values. Lets start with something basic.

So what exactly is our Industrial Policy? Hands up anyone. You in the back row, no, ok you were just stretching your arms.

Ok that was a trick question because as nearly as I can figure we have no Industrial Policy. There are no industries our government is willing to protect by declaring them in our national interest. As all forms of manufacturing flow from our shores to low cost centers in other parts of the world, we have lost the garment industry, the shoe industry, the steel industry, the electronics industry, and now stand on the brink of losing our automotive industry.

Are any of these Industries worth saving? What is in our best national interest? Try this test. Is it in our best national interest that we allow millions of Garden Gnomes made in China to flow into our country? Does saving a few cents on a Garden Gnome threaten our nati0nal interest?

Now try this test. Is it in our national interest to allow millions of Automobiles made in China flow into our Country? Does saving a few hundred or thousand dollars threaten our national interest?

How you answer that last question may decide whether the middle class survives. Whether America provides good paying jobs and benefits for its citizens, or if we become a nation of have and have nots; a nation of 300 million competing for that last penny of cost with 2 billion Chinese and Indians.

I know what you're thinking, market forces will take of all of these issues. Let the market do what the market does best, squeeze out inefficiency and reduce costs. let the chips fall where the chips fall.

But is free trade really free? Do low prices tell the whole story; are we blinded by the free trade mantra into believing that our trading partners are fair? Do you think that the rise of China and India as industrial powers happened by happenstance?

Don't you think that they have an Industrial Policy, do you think that they maybe they have targeted Industries and then tied one arm behind their backs? That would not be in their own best interest would it?

I pose this question to our next president and congress. What is your Industrial Policy? Please I beg of your for our own best national interest have one, because from where I sit we are building the Chinese military one always the low price at a time.

*Suboptimize

The act of committing energy and resources to maximize a portion of a process or system that undermines the effectiveness of the overall process or system. http://www.electronictrainingsolutions.com/glossary/suboptimize.htm