The United States had established itself as the industrial center of the world. Somehow we have lost that standing to China. It should be a wake up call to America when we must import steel spans for a new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge from a country that we considered our economic opponent. Should we blame Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger for opening trade with China? No! We should we blame ourselves for our own in-fighting while the rest of the world passes us by.
The New York Times featured this article “Bridge Comes to San Francisco With a Made-in-China Label” in today’s paper. The eye opener in the story is Pan Zhongwang, a 55-year-old steel polisher, is a typical Zhenhua worker. He arrives at 7 a.m. and leaves at 11 p.m., often working seven days a week. He lives in a company dorm and earns about $12 a day.
How can America compete in a global world that will pay some of its workers $12 a day? We must set aside our political and philosophical ideas and come together or the United States will cease to be the power it was in the 20th century.
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