Allow me to interject some observations. The beginning of the end was in the 60''s. You all know about the Japanese transistor radio. Not only were they attractive to the consumer, but their technology and manufacturing processes were superior to portable radios made in the U.S.
U.S. companies like Phillips was offering products in the same era, with technology from the dark ages. It was the consumer that chose cheap.
Then there was a man from Sioux City who championed a new way of making things in factories. Instead of inspecting every product before it went out the door for defects. That man professed that we measure not the defects, but examine the processes that were used to make things and correct the process. But, major companies here in the U.S. ignored him. However, those in Japan embraced his ideas, and prospered.
In addition, companies here only looked as far as the next quarter. In Japan, they looked at the next quarter century.
As costs went up in the U.S., companies eyed labor and materials overseas. Those that did not, are no longer around.
(I would be remiss if I did not state that the Japanese government later on, subsidized targeted industries to gain a price edge on their products e.g. steel, copiers, consumer electronics)
But again, point the finger where it really belongs, at the U.S. consumer. They wanted cheap, and they got it.
\rant.
urgentcomm.com
