Mark Jerde responds:

My understanding (which could be wrong) is the U.S. lacks many of the
necessary quantities of raw materials (like oil and many metals) for
extended self-sustained manufacturing anyway.

Oh, hell yeah. But we've got all the oil we need for 10 mpg SUVs.

Charlie Self

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same
function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of
things." Sir Winston Churchill