OK, let me try to link it up for you...

Somewhere near 100 mills IN HIS AREA had previously shut down to move production to Mexico or somewhere else offshore. I call that free trade related.

Now this guy has the "good fortune" of having his mill burn to the ground. I only call it "good fortune" because it gave him the ideal excuse - a clean getaway, as it were - to follow the others. Or to close shop and retire on the insurance.

The first option above is directly related to free trade. The second is not.

But he chose neither! Textbook-wise, a really stupid "business decision". Stupid because the handwriting is on the wall - there is no more room for a textile industry in the U.S. Why?? Because plants are cheaper to build and cheaper to operate and don't have all of the labour/environmental laws to contend with in Mexico or offshore. In the cult that profit is the only thing he was so stupid as to be a poster-child for how NOT to do something. That si how free trade relates to his case.

He chose to stay and to rebuild. The ONLY reasonable "business decision" IN HIS EYES and in mine too! Why? Because his country and his town and his workers were factored into HIS equation, contrary to the "free trade" mantra of profits before all else.

It may have cost more than originally projected, thus the added bank loans. Or it may have been that he 'gave' his idle workers too much of "the pot" and so had to take some loans to make up the difference. Whatever the case, it put him near bankruptcy. But he feels he will get through that too.
Of course that's almost entirely up to the bank(s) holding his loans. No doubt the story on 60 Minutes had an objective of softening the loan holders. As no doubt did mention that the troops in Afghanistan had Polartec™ gear keeping them capable.

Basically the proponents of free trade simply say 'If he fails, good riddance to him because he simply couldn't cut it anyway.'. Because country and town and workers and history have nothing to do with 'business decisions' incorporating free trade. They can't, because it wouldn't be "free trade" any more.

As I've written before, the equation for a GOOD "business decision" has to include far more than simply total profits. Except in rare cases like this one, it doesn't.
It should matter to everyone that wringing every last cent of profit out of an enterprise is the current business aim. That's free trade and "globalization", and it sucks!
What it really adds up to is: 'We've sucked this area for as long as we can and now we've located a better teat and so we're now off to suck that one until we find better one. Turn off the lights as you leave. Good luck to you. No hard feelings Bye-bye.'.




>That's a good point. Like I wrote, I liked the guy, but I don't think that company is facing trouble because of free trade. I think it's facing trouble because he is not a good businessman. Maybe he is. But to me, this wasn't really a free trade issue.
>
>>Would we were all so perfect...
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>>
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>>>>Right... so one not-so-bright move makes him a write-off and point of ridicule????
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>>>Well, this not-so-bright move could have been the difference between the company going under or staying alive. On camera, his employees praise him. But guess what they probably say off camera to other employees, spouses and friends?
>>>
>>>I am not ridiculing the guy. I appreciate his honesty. But I doubt he is a very good businessman. I may like a doctor because he is a nice guy, but if he finished at the bottom of his class and doesn't what the hell he is doing, I am going somewhere else.
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>>>>Failing to patent - a mistake he owned up to in the program - was a dumb move. Does it then follow that all of his subsequent business decisions are of equal value???
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>>>No, but I suspect he has made some other poor decisions. Again, nice guy, but probably not a very good businessman. This company isn't possibly facing bankruptcy because of free trade.
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>>>>Next thing someone will be replying that he's an old fart, not "with" modern business practises.
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>>>If a young guy had done it, I would say the same thing.