"F. George McDuffee" wrote in message
...

When you lose (or scrap) these for the quick dollar, you then
have nothing. The American machine tool industry took
generations to create and only a decade to destroy, when the
leaders and innovators were replaced by "suits" with the goal of
maximizing short term paper profits (and their bonuses).
Apparently they never heard (or at least understood) the story
about the goose that laid the golden eggs, and what happened when
she was cut open to get all the eggs at one time.

A major issue was that the American machine tool industry was based on a
business model that had remained unchanged for nearly a century, and it got
caught short when changes came along. The capacity of US builders was geared
toward the "dips" in sales. When sales climbed, they let their backlogs grow
(Moore Special Tool had a 32-month backlog on jig grinders when I was an
editor at American Machinist).

Meantime, aided by the banks who effectively owned them and by subsidized
interest rates by their government, Japanese builders kept building their
capacity and warehoused unsold machines in the western states of the US.
When the upturn came, you could have a LeBlond in six months, or a Mori
Seiki next week. The Japanese builders cleaned the clocks of the US builders
on every upswing for nearly a decade.

US builders now are a lot smarter, quicker, and better financed -- the ones
that are still standing.

--
Ed Huntress