History repeats it's self.Let's take a little trip on the time machine.Early on ,while the USA was just a bunch of colonies,mother England controlled all the iron imported this infant nation,for several reasons,but money being the biggest factor.That was somewhat changed during the revolutionary period,with the then new,US iron production.However the exportation of then production type equipment was monopolized .A few yankee inventors,Eli Whitney being one,helped solve that problem.Over several hundred years,instead of Sheffield England being the center of precision machinery,it became Cincinnati Ohio.The same thing with the textile industry,going from England,to the New England states of the US .These markets have changed,over the years.It now seems that the machinery has shifted to Germany and Japan,and the textiles ,to the Pacific rim countries.It seems to be an ever revolving wheel .It all makes for interesting conversation but there are no simple solutions,because it has happened before,historically speaking.In terms of quality products,I could cite the bone shaking Brit bikes of the 60's,BSA, Triumph,Royal Enfield .They would loose half their parts on a 100 mile trip.How about the oil leaking Harleys,always marked their spots.Then along came a little cheap scooter from Japan.Cheap,ran good,didn't leak oil. Not only did the US buyers embrace these little imports,the entire world did.Now,in that case,who shot themselves in the foot?