WOW. This guy knows what's happened to America

[Leatherneck]

From here: http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/08/0930/commentary.html

TC

It is sad what has happened to the United States.

For years, as editor of Manufacturing & Technology News, I have heard dozens of domestic manufacturing company CEOs talk about an impending "collapse" of the U.S. economy. These were the men who were in the unenviable position of having to close their companies or shut down factories and watch as most all of their competitors did the same thing.

These were the men who implemented Six Sigma, lean, ISO 9000, and the Baldrige National Quality and Shingo Prize criteria. They were leaders who agonized over having to move the world's most efficient production capacity from the United States to Mexico and China in order to stay in business, because no matter how good they were, it wasn't good enough to survive. They could compete with other companies, but they could not compete against other COUNTRIES -- countries that cheated in every way imaginable.

These manufacturing company CEOs were men who loved their employees. Who grew up with their employees. Who knew their families. Who knew in their hearts the economic, cultural, moral and physical destruction that was being wrought upon their communities.

U.S. manufacturing company CEOs died many deaths, watching as Wall Street mavericks and their economic ideological apologists in the U.S. federal government, in Congress and their high-paid agents in Washington, D.C., forced hundreds of thousands of dedicated, hard-working Americans into the street, to fend for themselves in a game that was rigged against them.

Has the financial class driven through the heartland of America lately? Have they not taken AMTRAK between New York City and Washington, D.C., passing through the industrial back lots of Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Trenton and Newark? Have they not seen an American landscape stretching for thousands of square miles that looks like it has been bombed out?

[Grandpa Shooter]

Have you read "Atlas Shrugged?"  If not, I highly recommend it.

[zahc]

Why do you recommend it in this context?

just wondering.

[Physics]

Have you read "Atlas Shrugged?"  If not, I highly recommend it.

I find myself referring to this book a lot lately.  Of course, it could be that I recently read "Atlas Shrugged" for the first time.  Damn good book, except for one thing: in page one, she shoots the horse, and she doesn't stop beating the crap out of it until the end of the book.  I think I get her point now.   

[Grandpa Shooter]

Ayn Rand understood what happens when you cripple the productive ability of business and incentive to produce by stifling the creative instincts of the people.  When the ones who produce are robbed of the rightful rewards of their labor, they lose the desire to produce.

[Manedwolf]

Have they not taken AMTRAK between New York City and Washington, D.C., passing through the industrial back lots of Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Trenton and Newark?

To be fair, that's mostly because of Democrat "leadership" in those cities.

Lots of other areas have re-invented themselves, but you don't hear about that.

Manchester right near me used to be a mill city...the textile capital of the US, at that. Tens of thousands of people worked all day and night in the waterpowered mills. The mill industry completely collapsed. But...the buildings aren't "bombed". All those massive brick mills along the river are brightly lit at night, they're office parks, restaurants, multi-level lawyer palaces, hotels...and a former meatpacking property is being rebuilt as a huge research and medical complex. 

Some means of manufacturing get outdated, and get replaced. Fifteen years ago, my "computer" was a big, clunky beige box that made noise, with a big CRT sitting on the desk. Now it's a 1" piece of aluminum that's thousands of times more powerful. The old, clunky one is junk.

You have to figure out what to do with the junk. Recycle it somehow, or leave it there gathering dust and falling apart.

Some cities are well-managed, and do it right. Others do not.

[RoadKingLarry]

Irecently finished "Atlas Shrugged". I find the parallels to today's issues almost amazing. Not the exact same  but close enough to do a double take.
It is almost like the Socialist Dems are trying to use it as a playbook for disaster.

I did some looking on Ayn Rand, she has an interesting history.

http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=index