The decisions made by businesses in the last 50 years have led to the global economy we have today. It wasn't a bunch of politicians, it was business owners who influenced the politicians to do what they wanted.
Many business were founded by people with vision and daring and they of course created products that suited the nation and then the world. They weren't generally business men, although they started businesses, they were creators and inventors.
This was a land of opportunity and visionaries built companies from the ground up. Of course they had to buy some parts or services but they did it as locally as possible and all through the late 19th century and up to the 1960s we created the greatest manufacturing economy in the world.
This started to change, partly because of the greater access to higher education and the conversion of these companies to publicly traded ones.
The goals often shifted from making the very best mousetrap which everyone would but to making the most profitable one which everyone had to buy.
This led to outsourcing to cheaper locals, just in time inventories, automation, and the treating of employees as just another costly asset.
This is a business based model, not a creator's model and all the MBAs and Venture Capitalists insisted on it.
The pursuit of more and more profits is why we make so much off shore and why we have become dependent on other countries. For it to work we need a global economy.
Can we go back? Probably not. We will get outcompeted by those who don't.
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