I wasn’t arguing against keeping up with technology. I was pointing out that the mass production of hardware killed off the machinist industry, not unionism. I will go even further. It was due to the increasing power of national corporations that mass produced hardware took over the production of hardware so completely that local — thus idiosyncratic and custom — demand has been shut out. BTW, this is not simply a Home Depot issue. The national corporate takeover of hardware was from industrial demand, retail demand being an afterthought occurring after the fact.
My prescription to this ailment of our economy is that of the Populists: no alien (meaning out-of-state) ownership. For example, it is fine for Coca-Cola to operate a bottling plant in Georgia and realize whatever economies of scale it can there, but expansion into South Carolina or New Jersey would be prohibited since it funnels multiple state demand for bottling plant machine parts through the one company. The companies supplying the parts to Coca-Cola would still be able to serve potentially different bottling machines in South Carolina or New Jersey. If there is coalescing on one type of bottling machine among different bottlers throughout the United States, it will be because of the merits of its design, NOT because of the multiple state reach of one or a few bottlers.
