Re: Radio Flyer isn\'t the only thing made in China
My wife and her family are from Taiwan (mainlanders). When I first married her ~18 years ago, they went out of their way to make sure that they did not purchase Made in China or Made in Japan... (her family had American and German made cars, my dad who fought in Europe in WWII had American and Japanese cars, my uncle who fought in the Pacific in WWII would not buy Japanese).
Well, first they started being OK with made in Japan, and over the last 1/2 dozen years, OK with made in China.
Now--her brother does import/manufacturing with China. SF Chinatown is full of Made in China stuff, old folks (not my In-Laws) are retiring in China, investing in China, etc. Things change--Accept change or... what?
When we went to China (and Taiwan) during our honeymoon in the mid 1980's--she was the first from her family that had ever been back to the PRC since 1948.
Regarding manufacturing in China--I am not sure that they have had the last laugh. We are funding their PRC Army as they seem to have their hands in much of the Chinese economy. But, did you realize that while the US lost 2-3 million jobs in the last recession, that China last something like 16 million jobs for exactly the same reasons that the US did (automation, cost reductions, etc.).
I am not "comfortable" with importation--I believe that manufacturing is an important part of our economy. I do believe that the US and State governments are doing their darnedest to make is stupid to employ Americans legally (taxes, insurances, fees, regulations, unions--did I mention taxes? etc.).
As Europe and the US (and much of the 1st and 2nd world) are heading towards socialism, China is heading away even faster (interestingly, Taiwan seems to be heading towards socialism).
Frankly, at this time, I probably worry less about manufacturing jobs being exported... There is a natural limit (costs of infrastructure, transportation overhead, time to ship vs costs to fly, language problems, etc.) to how much can go overseas.
I am much more concerned with those jobs that can be done with a computer and a phone (and to a lesser extent, paperwork). It used to be 20 years ago that communications with India and such was just not reliable enough. Now, that is not a problem. And given that most design work is now electronic--your engineering is now being out-sourced more and more. You name a job, and someone can probably figure out a way to automate and/or outsource some part of it (and save money). Got a doctor apointment? Get a nurse with a TV camera networked to a doctor--somewhere out of reach of malpractice attorneys. We have already seen the Home Depot and other stores with self service checkout four or more registers with one clerk.
And those laws overseas are not nearly as strict as your local laws. We already had a local university hospital getting blackmailed by a medical transcription service in India (threatened to release medical files to the web) because she was not getting paid by the local contractor (who did not tell the customer that the back office work was being contracted overseas). Some parts of your government records, bank records, medical records, customer service, billing, etc. are probably already overseas now... And more is heading out.
I don't have the answers... But I do recommend that you remain light on your feet and save/invest for your retirement (and those in-between job times). Change happens.
-Bill