What Ike meant
I've noted before that the first step in offshoring US industry happened around 1958. We allowed Japan to take over the transistorized side of electronics.

This allowance didn't seem to be intentional and wasn't driven by the financial side of the economy, which wasn't dominant at that time.

I was looking through some 1957-58 periodicals at American Radio History, especially the trade journal called simply Electronics, which covered trends and tendencies in the whole industry. There's no single piece of evidence but a picture emerges from changes of emphasis. Electronics manufacturing was growing in some states and holding steady in others. Growth was specifically motivated by military and space research sites. New inventions were primarily going for military purposes, not for consumer use.

This emphasis was unusual for peacetime. It was clear that the major manufacturers were losing interest in the ordinary consumer end of the market and putting all their bets on the security of cost-plus contracts.

This is what Ike was talking about.

The Japs saw an opportunity and grabbed it. They started out with simple pocket-sized AM receivers and later expanded into television and hi-fi. The pocket radios faced no competition because US manufacturers were focusing their solid-state work on rockets and military computers. TV and stereo went up against US tube-based products which were still strong sellers, but by that time the Japs had mastered the art of building with transistors.

None of this wartime activity was necessary. Russia has NEVER ATTACKED US, never fired ONE FUCKING BULLET or sent ONE FUCKING BOMBER or flown ONE FUCKING JETLINER into skyscrapers. Only our Valued Fucking Allies like Japan and Saudi have attacked us. Our response to attacks is total surrender. Our response to a peaceful neutral Russia is invasion and destruction of our OWN economy as well as Russia.

WE ARE HOPELESSLY INSANE BEYOND INSANE BEYOND INSANE BEYOND INSANE BEYOND INSANE.

Labels: infinite infinite infinite infinite evil, infinite infinite infinite infinite lunacy

  ¶ 11:05 PM