It would take us a year to tool up again and probably five years to really pick up steam in many of these basic industries. You know, it really doesn't matter if we get all of our plastic hair curlers from China or not. We can do without those. But it does matter who makes our machine tools, because we can't do without them. We need to keep all of our essential industries, all of the industries on which our autonomy is dependent, in this country, even if that means that the yuppies and the couch potatoes can't afford to buy as many VCRs, even if it means that the cost of clothing goes up a bit.
Competition is a good thing if it keeps efficiency up and prices down.
But it is not a good thing if it drives an essential industry out of the country. Undoubtedly there has been much inefficiency in American industry. Labor unions and their sometimes unreasonable demands for higher wages and more fringe benefits have been responsible for part of this inefficiency. Monopolistic business practices have been responsible for part of it. Competition between Asia and the United States is not a matter of efficiency.