[Atlas Sneezed]

I can tell you with absolute industry insider authority that the limiting factor on production is machinery, which is a long lead time investment.

[familyop]

"I can tell you with absolute industry insider authority that the limiting factor on production is machinery, which is a long lead time investment."

Let's see. How can I go easy with this? Naw! Just look the other way, if it's too ugly. ;-)

Without the current regulations--even in the middle of nowhere--against new, small manufacturing shops, the folks who sign their lives away on the nifty girls' machines of today would be buried by real competition.

Everyone: avoid buying anything that you don't really need. Plan or do something each month to become more self-sufficient. Manufacture something useful as a hobby for now.

[familyop]

I should let you know, though, that I really do generally like contemporary U.S. manufacturers (manufacturing on U.S. soil—not only U.S. “based”) and hope that they do well (especially you, if you’re in it). We should see much more domestic competition, though, in my opinion. Competition is healthy for business and good for the economy (what our great-grandparents in business said: something we no longer hear). Bowing to foreign competition and surrendering, as we have as a nation, is abominable.