Once upon a time, Americans walked into stores and were able to purchase toys, tires, and toothpaste....made in the U.S.A. Many manufacturers even put those cute U.S. flags on the tags to indicate the obvious. In that "fairy tale" time, pets could be fed pet food...made in the U.S.A. And all was well in the land. Then "progress" and "globalization" came along. America had to get with the program of the "new world order." It was not prudent to be isolationists. One should be part of the "world community." Many of us were all for peace and harmony in the world, even if it meant that certain products would no longer be made in the U.S.A. So a few manufacturing jobs would be lost, but those displaced workers could "go back to school and learn a new skill." All was still more or less well in the land. There was the distinct possibility that a few thousand "newly skilled" workers would have to settle for second choice in their careers, but everyone at some time, has to sacrifice for "the greater good." Right?

Then the numbers began adding up, and hitting closer to the "castles" of many folks. What would a good fairy tale be without castles? Anyway, citizens began relating stories of family members, or themselves, being replaced by younger, cheaper, not necessarily more skilled or smarter workers......on another continent. Still, there was the "return to school" option. And they signed up for training, online and offline. They went out to find those jobs to match their new skills. Nobody told them, but while they were in school, the jobs were shipped to yet another continent. Still no reason to panic. They had been promised that as part of the new "industrial revolution," those less skilled jobs that "Americans won't do," were to be shipped out, while the more technical and intellectually challenging jobs would remain for Americans to do. It is a funny thing how facts tend to get in the way of theory. Was it time to panic yet? Yes, it was. And I have not yet mentioned the "tyrant factor" in this tale.

 

Those famous chickens coming home to roost, came in the form of melamine in pet food. About 20 pets died. No chickens lost their lives. It turns out that some of those jobs that "Americans won't do," included quality control of products manufactured on another continent. And their replacements for those jobs, were not doing that quality control thing either. The recall of the tires came. Everyone sighed in relief that there was not wholesale slaughter on the highways, with all of those defective tires racing along at 80 miles, er 65 miles per hour. 

Hold that sigh of relief. Toothpaste, and cough syrup, could now be lethal. The reports poured in about the hundred or so deaths in a neighboring country, from tainted, or more accurately, lethal cough syrup. Some providers of "branded products" thought....the toothpaste sales may be down, but at least we can look forward to the Christmas season and sales of all of those toys.  That is until some toys were "branded" as almost lethal. Kids were luckier than the pets. The alarm was sounded before they could be killed. All is not so well in the land. These reports of deaths and recalls are not making for a good fairy tale.

After a collective sigh of relief at dodging those potentially deadly "killer toys," now comes the tyrant part. As part of a "free speech for tyrants," outreach program, a "vertically challenged leader," is invited to speak at a prestigious university. He too falls into the category of "doing jobs that Americans won't do." Not many of us have the stomach, finely honed skills or knowledge for, shall we say "population control." The jury is still out as to his productivity and final tally. No one so far, is protesting his near monopoly of that job with its special talents. Finally, a true report of jobs that "Americans won't do!"

All fairy tales usually end with "they lived happily after." Not this one.