Good Morning Middle America, your King of Simple News has another dose of reality this morning.
In my little neck of the woods here in rural Western Colorado, we are fortunate to be removed from the painful issues of our businesses picking up and moving to China; we wish.
In the serene village of Paonia, lying in an idyllic mountain valley along the banks of the North Fork of the Gunnison River, and surrounded by peach, apple and cherry orchards, Chaco Sandals rose to fame. The company was an American success story, the one that really did start in a garage with a good idea and eventually gained world distribution for an exceptional product.
As business grew, new facilities were constructed and good quality jobs were created for the local citizens. The new found commerce became so brisk, that a former super market was purchased in the nearby town of Delta to serve as a distribution hub which employed even more of the local citizens. Life was good for employer and employees.
This is the way that America should be. The opportunity to live and work in a beautiful unspoiled environment, away from the crime, pollution, corruption and congestion of the city, after all, isn’t this what America is all about; the freedom to start a business and prosper?
And then came NAFTA and the WTO.
At first, the owners and managers of Chaco confirmed that they were here to stay; after all, the company wasn’t built in Paonia by accident.
But then, once an American company’s American made competition goes to China…how do you compete? “We can,” was once more the attitude.
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