Well said, Mark, and I agree. Most of the products purchased in my industry (high end music) are made outside of the USA — not because the manufacturer didn’t try to seek out American manufacturers, but the reality is either A) the products aren’t made here or B) products made outside of the USA are cheaper and of better quality. That’s a sad reality.

I see it in our intern program where students come from outside of the USA with more focus and dedication. I wonder about how parenting is influencing our next generation who seem to believe they are ‘owed’ a job without an effort. It leads to misplaced anger feeding into “cut off trade and the jobs will come back.” NOT! Quality and price will bring jobs back.

In many ways, the USA has already isolated itself from the rest of the world. When I try to gather stats or trends, most of the reports only reflect USA stats. I wonder why it’s so hard to consider a global market. It’s there. 80% of our sales are outside of the USA. Restricting imports or exports is the wrong way to go.