"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
-Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

See What I Mean??

In Sunday's post I talked about the critical need to remove the self-imposed blocks to our economic independence.  I just really didn't expect the universe to throw me a prime example so fast!

This Story (AP via Yahoo!) talks about the threat by German companies to ban sales of a certain anesthetic to the US because it is also used in death penalty executions.  Now, I don't care what your politics/views are regading the death penalty.  At its heart this issue is simply and only about the ability of other governments to dictate or impose their will upon us, regardless of their reasons, simply because they control the means of production of something.

Today it's a drug used to execute criminals, and you may be perfectly fine with that.  What if tomorrow it's cars - because another country thinks we have too many cars here?  What if it's industrial power generators (which we don't make here anymore) - because they they think we have plenty of electricity?  What if it is floor coverings - because we have plenty of housing here you see?  What if it is a flu vaccine?  A defibrilator?  A cancer drug?

All of these things are no longer "Made in the USA."  In some cases (industrial generators) we don't even have the equipment to make the equipment!  What would happen if China simply decided it would be in their own best interests if we didn't have any more of these? 

In the end, we've ceded a certain amount of control (and therefore freedom) to peoples and governments we did not elect, and whom we can only hope have our best interests at heart.  Did we give that away just to get cheap crap @ Wal-Mart?

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