"Yes, there was a day when our national treasury was gladly filled by foreigners paying for the opportunity to do business on American soil. But this was when members of Congress, and those running for Office, put American interests first and would have considered the NAFTA, GATT and the WTO as acts of sedition, and would have tarred and feathered those participating in the surrender of America's sovereignty. "-from above link
"The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles, is paid cheerfully by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboards and frontiers only, and incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile citizens, it may be the pleasure and pride of an American to ask, what farmer, what mechanic, what laborer, ever sees a tax-gatherer of the United States?" - Thomas Jefferson-from above link
imho the lousy thing is slightly different.
every big box store you see in every town in america also has big box stores in every country all around the world.
that means that all these big boys have global interests and not american interests.
which means the wealthy and powerful are generally not really on our side.
we’re just a province in their global empires.