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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> Isolationism won't work for the USA of today, the world is getting 
> too small and we are too big.
> 

Right, in the WalMart for all your needs, retire at 45 from your stock 
earnings USA isolationism won't work.  Thing is, globalism won't work 
indefinately.

Your point about 'next quarter' is at the heart of it.  A storm threatens and 
the stock market drops, what does that mean.   Ever teach a teenager (or 
anyone for that matter) how to drive.  Experienced drivers are looking 1/4 
mile 
ahead and adjusting to what they see.  Neophyte drivers have a tendancy to 
look 
right over the hood to 10 feed in front of the car.  That's us now of days, 
an 
investment this morning is made because of what it might earn this afternoon, 
not 25 years from now.  Our whole thinking is along these lines.

A friend of mine has a very large machine shop, mostly idle now.  He keeps up 
with the trade and said that nearly all fittings and fasteners now of days 
are made in China, even those needed for building and maintaining military 
equipment.  Virtually all of them.  So what, ask some.  In a national 
emergency 
when China might not be our friend, the many thousands of people who once 
knew 
how to operate Bridgeports and lathes and such will have forgotten how or 
passed 
on.  That's just one example.

No, we can't be isolationists and continue with business as usual.  Thing is, 
we are ill advised to continue with business as usual.