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"The consumer products industrial infrastructure is gone."

So basically it is your contention that because a so-called "free trade" agreement was enacted in the late 80s/early 90s that it is responsible for empty factories in the USA.

It wasn't excessive taxation and ridiculous over regulation by the government with things like EPA regs that say you can't build somewhere that might be a wetlands without massive amounts of litigation and haggling when the EPA can declare any mud puddle a wetland?

Or OSHA standards that say every workstation in your plant must be wheel chair accessible even though the work required would be impossible for someone in a wheel chair due to the need of leverage only a set of human legs can provide, but that doesn't matter so you still have to pay for the infrastructure to comply with this idiotic rule?

Or the need to have 2 or 3 people (Or more) dedicated solely to administering and instituting a Health Plan that the Union has forced through because they have that power given to them by the Federal Government not to mention the huge cost of paying for a plan.

Or having to employ countless lawyers accountants and book keepers to comply with the endless tax regulations forced on a business located in the USA by the Federal Government the State and the Municipality?

Or Dealing with a Union that the Government sez has the right to strike because they want to and must submit to Government run negotiations and even when the government sez they are in the wrong they still have the right to continue the strike and send the business into receivership? (See the Hostess strike for details)

But none of these things are the real culprit instead in your mind it is a Trade deal that reduces the red and promotes trade between Nations?

Do you understand why most people who have run businesses look at you union loving protectionist yahoos as "useful idiots" for furthering the leftist/progressive cause?

But none of these things are the real culprit instead in your mind it is a Trade deal that reduces the red and promotes trade between Nations?

Very well stated. It is astounding how some people solely latch onto the Free Trade angle.

The singular cause of businesses leaving and shrinking is the increasing number of sadistic parasite workers at all levels of government fanning out across our land seeking to destroy capitalism.

They are indeed sadistic; they truly enjoy bringing misery to those just trying to earn an honest dollar.

Government IS the problem.

“Do you understand why most people who have run businesses look at you union loving protectionist yahoos as “useful idiots” for furthering the leftist/progressive cause?”

Name calling is an immature response, particularly when you don’t know anything about the person you are addressing. Sorry to bust your bubble but I was a Fortune 500 corporate executive who ran large corporate divisions and was highly involved in outsourcing and offshoring in the 1990’s. For me it wasn’t academic theories and free trader talking points.

I worked in an industry targeted by the Chinese government. Government controlled banks loaned the money at zero interest for 20 years to build the factories in China. The Chinese government paid the factories 15% of the value of goods shipped for export. The work day for labor was 10 hours at $1.00 per day. Effluent was pumped into the streams outside the factories, including heavy metals and toxic chemicals. Once our proprietary manufacturing processes were put into our “partner” factories, they suddenly appeared in the factories of our competitors because there is no respect for intellectual property.

There are always two sides to every story. Have you ever been to a Chinese factory? Have you ever pulled a Chinese worker from the production line who looks like a 10 year old child and then reviewed the government identity information that says the child is 19 years old? Have you ever stood outside a Chinese factory and smelled the raw sewage in the river behind the factory or looked at red color of the water because the dye house next door is dumping its untreated chemicals into the water? Have you ever made the decision to close a factory? Ever sat in a boardroom with consultants from McKinsey and young Harvard MBA’s from Goldman Sachs telling the board of directors they can pop the stock price immediately when they announce a major offshoring no matter what the economics? Have you stood in front of a board of directors and showed them their US factories could be competitive if given the same capital investment dollars as Goldman Sachs proposed putting into China and then seen the board vote to go to China because the announcemnt would pop the stock price? Have you ever stood in front of 2000 nonunion, highly productive, factory workers in a small southern US town and told them their jobs are going offshore, knowing the entire economy of the town will be destroyed? Have you ever introduced a proprietary new product, produced in a Chinese factory, and had your competition ship a knock-off within weeks knowing the only way the competition would have gotten to market so quickly is to obtain the specs from your Chinese factory?

When you’ve actually done all of the above you are not a “union loving protectionist yahoo.” My real experience came from actually overseeing manufacturing operations around the world and being responsible for delivering P&L’s. Now, tell me about your real life experience that makes you an authority on this issue.