Building a better mousetrap - just not here.

by: yvette248

Thu Dec 18, 2008 at 17:37:28 PM EST

We don't really need to build stuff anymore, do we? It seems as if public pontificators have fancied us as being a nation of high tech gurus and retail workers - creating point and click jobs and building slick financial instruments that generates massive amounts of wealth for the few lucky enough to get in on the ground floor.

Yes, good old Yankee ingenuity, Ivy League smarts and private industry is the answer to all of our problems. Just look at our success record. Yahoo! Has done it. So has Enron. And Countrywide and AIG and... Oh, wait... never mind.

The truth is, get-rich-quick-schemes just don't last. American became the richest nation in the world because we made stuff here. We invented it, manufactured it, sold it, and then stayed around to service what we sold. You don't see that much around here anymore. Now things are invented in Europe, manufactured in China, sold on EBay and the customer service reps have a strong Indian accent.

We are a global, highly interconnected society - and there is nothing wrong with that. As long as we are one big happy family under the sun, we can buy and sell stuff willy-nilly from the cheapest source around. There is nothing wrong with getting our oil from Saudi Arabia, getting our goods from China and our technology workers from India. But where does that leave us?

We are America. Land of the free, home of the brave, baseball, apple pie and family values. But what do we do? What do we make? What area do we specialize in?

There is a difference between being interdependent and being totally dependent. If we become totally dependent on foreign suppliers for our food, our manufactured goods and our technology; how can we shelter ourselves from global instability and acts of terror that threatens to cut off the supplies we need for every day life? Where is our "break glass in case of emergency" plan?

But what happens next week, next month or next year when they come after YOUR job, your industry, your way of life?

This nation was founded as an agrarian society until someone decided that we didn't need farmers anymore. Then we became an industrial society until someone decided that we didn't need to make stuff any more. The next, hottest phase was technology until it was decided they could make that stuff cheaper overseas too.

Now we have certain quarters screaming lets get rid of government. Government is wasteful, bloated and inefficient. So tell me: are we going to get rid of our government now? What's next? Are we going to start dumping millions of teachers, police officers, postal workers and civil servants out on the streets too - all in an effort to eliminate the next obsolete industry? Isn't this really just a race to the bottom?

There's an old saying: When the enemy came after the Jews, I didn't say anything because I wasn't a Jew. When they came after the blacks, I didn't say anything because I wasn't black. When they came after the women, I didn't protest because I wasn't a woman. When they came after me, there was no one left to defend me.

One by one, they are getting rid of American workers, American industries and the middle class that these jobs created.

You tell me: What's next? Will America itself become obsolete?