Yes a hand full of opportunists did start by importing low cost furniture and laying off thousands of workers. This is very short term thinking for quick substantial profits. But look at what the market is for the price point furniture that's imported. By and large it is low to medium price point. The buyers of which are the same factory workers that no longer have jobs. They are the ones that borrow the money and spend it to keep the economy moving. Who are the importers going to sell to when the majority have no jobs? One local business man and a few partners shut down an occasional table factory employing 900 people and started importing. Their manager had the gaul to announce they had created 19 new sales jobs. THEY PUT 900 OUT OF WORK. They have not created 19 jobs, they have eliminated 881 jobs.

Our government regulations, law suits, and other things has created an unfair burden on industry to compete with under paid and government subsidised foreign companies. You can tell this by the prices of lumber and plywood. China is importing from Brazil the same plywood we try to import. They are manufacturing furniture and components and sending it back here cheeper than we can buy the wood raw. It does not take a M.I.T. degree to see something is wrong.

Now what can be done? Do we need to be isolationists? It's beginning to appear so.