Yes. I said woodworking. That's what this blog is supposed to be about. But not about the nuts and bolts of woodworking. That would be too easy.

I could write about woodworking forever without even having to think. I was asked to write about the business of woodworking. And, to me, that means looking at the big picture.

We will not have a woodworking industry in this country without resolving some of the bigger issues. Most of the real business of woodworking, as is the case with most of our manufacturing, has been relocated to other countries. We are led to believe that this was done because of government imposed restrictions and regulations imposed on American manufacturers by liberal leftwing bleeding heart fanatics and tree huggers concerned more with preserving obscure species of owls and frogs than with the livelihood of the working class. But the truth is that this was done for no reason other than to increase profits. If we fail to see this and make some effort to reverse it, we will not see a vital economy in which there are enough people who can actually afford our woodwork to make it possible for us to continue.

So I will continue to attempt to speak for a rational approach. As long as we have a completely polarized society in which the real concerns are obscured by smoke screen issues and in which common sense is replaced by rhetoric, we will not have a solid, sustainable economy in which small to medium sized businesses can compete and thrive.

And since most of the readers of Woodshop News are involved with small- to medium-sized woodworking businesses, these are issues that should be of interest.

D.D.