Sorry Stewart, I hate to say it, but as long as it is cheaper to make stuff over there, and our Congress kowtows solely to business, and people continue to be apathetic to such things, it won't stop. When gas prices shot up to 300% of their prices just before 9/11, did people stop buying SUV's or driving less? Not really. There was a brief hiccup in SUV sales and people reduced unnecessary driving for a while, but then it seems everyone has become acclimatized to paying $3 a gallon (or resigned to it), and now people grouse, but have otherwise gone back to old habits. I hate to sound like a pessimist, but human nature is to take the cheapest/easiest way out. If we hated how much the Chinese pirate stuff, ship tainted stuff in, or abused human rights, we sure show it by awarding them the Olympics, modifying policies to suit them (for instance with Yahoo basically kowtowing to the Chinese Politburo on providing the names of e-mail account holders to the Chinese authorities, so that dissidents could be arrested), and stuff like that. Shoot, after the last recall by Mattel, the President of Mattel APOLOGIZED to the Chinese government because a couple products were affected by the recall that weren't really defective (that we know of). That tells me right there, where Mattels (and other company's) priorities are. I just don't see this trend changing. It's like we see this freight train coming, but we don't want to, or can't move out of the way. People see more and more jobs being outsourced to China or Mexico, and you hear the talking heads talking ad nauseum on TV about it, so it's no secret, but no one seems to flinch when Maytag shuts down it's plant and moves it to China. People still flock to buy Maytags. We are pretty much making ourselves a 2nd rate power just to satisfy Wall Street. OK, enough, my blood is boiling now (as it is every time I get on this subject..)
