Manufacturing in the US

This shouldn't be news -- this should be obvious. Manufacturing is down in the US (and most first world countries in general). Well stop the presses. The politicians love to rally behind saving jobs, subsidizing manufacturing that can't compete with cheaper more efficient foreign competitors. But it's a losing battle -- it makes no sense to even try and win those battles. While the world's new manufacturers (the Asian countries) tuned their manufacturing for efficiency by employing technology, the first world countries let their manufacturing prowess slip by not investing in production capabilities. We're reaping the results now. Businesses that were not strategic, but kept a short-sighted eye on the bottom line have allowed this to happen. We let this happen.