[rogue yam]

There is no such thing as “making nothing”.

So long as people are working and investing they are making something.

You have not defined “manufacturing”, nor have you demonstrated why any certain amount of it is necessary to an economy.

And all of your hand-waving about the insufficiency to our national purposes of various other classes of economic activity is utterly worthless.

So long as private firms are turning a profit then they are doing what they should.

Neither you nor I nor anyone else knows what the American businesses of tomorrow should be. Let each individual business owner decide for himself where his opportunity lies.

[central_va]

Notice I did **NOT** say I oppose trade with China. I believe trading with China is a good thing and needs to continue. I do, however, believe we have an important national security issue if we completely export all of our manufacturing capability overseas. To argue that free trade ends wars is simply naive, speaking both historically and pragmatically, because some people simply will not view their self-interest in purely economic terms.

Worth repeating.