[Roodgorf]

Looking at the amount produced by year it seems like U.S. production has been relatively steady over the last year and not too much lower than it was in previous decades. I think looking at percentages doesn't really tell the full story here, since China's production has increased so much as to overshadow most other countries' output. The "drop" from 25% to 5% wasn't as much due to production leaving the US as it is production not increasing at breakneck pace.

[dpark]

> I think looking at percentages doesn't really tell the full story here, since China's production has increased so much as to overshadow most other countries' output. The "drop" from 25% to 5% wasn't as much due to production leaving the US as it is production not increasing at breakneck pace.

But that is extremely relevant. When our production is flat (actually declining) while world production is soaring, it means that we control very little of the market. We don't control supply. We don't control pricing. This puts our production at higher risk because it's much easier for China and India to price our industry out of business.

Our production per capita has also been cut in half since 1967. So in addition to the world producing more, the US is actually producing a lot less. Our consumption is also up, and we're producing only about half of what we consume now.