by Jack Lee
Somewhere back in the 70’s, ever increasing government regulations, taxes and unions squeezed American businesses to the point they began a slow exodus either out of business or to foreign countries that offered a friendlier business invironment.
The past 40 years of this transition have taken a noticeable toll on our economic strength; it’s also led us into the great unknown we call globalization. This new business model is off to a rocky start with a global recession for which there is no past model.
Most recessions last about 8 months, but this global recession has already exceeded that and there are no signs of it letting up. It is inevitable we will become a global economy, this is the unstoppable tidal wave of the future and it’s not a bad thing in and of itself, however there will be pitfalls, as we are now experiencing.
The thing we must focus on to make the most our potential is a long-term world view and then follow through by taking proactive steps to insure our continued leadership in all areas of education, business and science.
We tend to plan for a generation, but we better be planning much further out if we are going to have any chance of keeping pace with our competition.
The short term gains that came from American companies abandoning America for “greener pastures” has weakened us in areas that are part of our national security and our infrastructure. Heavy manufacturing and steel production are two examples among hundreds.
Over the past 4 decades too many companies were faced with the choice of innovating to become more efficient and thus competitive or going for the short term gains by moving their operation to countries with abundant low priced labor in order to keep their profit margin. This was incredibly short sighted, but a hostile work invironment often made this choice a matter of survival.
It’s time to recognize our past mistakes. Too often companies failed to fight back with what we do best…innovation and efficient production. In a sense, we allowed our businesses to be pushed out the door by foreign deals, green zealots, rampant litigation, mob run unions and big government regulations.
We must bring balance back and slow this now unrestrcited exodus, otherwise this becomes nothing more than a run-away train looking for a place to wreck. We need to bring back control to the train by developing a new paradigm for protecting our assets. This begins with you…by voting in a government that understands the problem and is up to the challenges of the next century and globalization.