From the Book:

 

“……

The Japanese rust-makers couldn’t understand why there was even a delegation. “We make better rust than you, your consumers want our rust. Our consumers don’t want your rust. Why are you bothering us? You don’t even bother to make the rust we like! You even label your rust in English? You don’t speak a word of our language and have done no research on our market!”

While we were losing American rust jobs, the Japanese were retooling their factories so that they can make more rust without labor. The Japanese factories started using rust robots to make this rust. While the Americans were blaming low-priced Japanese rust labor, the Japanese felt this argument was incorrect. Japanese rust-makers actually earned more than their American counterparts. And the Japanese released a figure saying 55% of the industries in Japan paid their workers more than American factories paid. Cheap labor may have opened the door, but low-cost labor as a market advantage has a shelf life.

But once again, the American rust people didn’t see the trend. They didn’t realize that the Japanese would themselves begin to outsource to lower-cost producing countries…..”