The more things change...

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose is how they say it in France*.  The more it changes, the more it's the same thing, and that's just the situation we've got here with the plywood industry in the US.

Remember that bailout thing a few years ago?  How'd that work out for your business?  Now the US Government is helping China undercut US businesses.  How do you figure that'll work out for you, the citizen?

Kip Howlett, president of the Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association, says 25% of the overall hardwood plywood capacity in the US has been permanently shut down because companies have gone out of business due to China's "dumping", defined by the US Department of Commerce as "a foreign company selling a product in the U.S. at less than its fair value".

Although a big chunk of US producers petitioned the US International Trade Commission to block the dumping, the ITC voted against doing anything last November, stating that the plywood industry in the United States is not threatened by plywood from China, even though the production of the plywood is subsidized by the Chinese government and the Chinese plywood undercuts US plywood by up to 56% in some cases.

In refusing to do anything about the dumping, the ITC has essentially voted to favor China's plywood sales over those of the US. But then, Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, you know?  The US government we have today isn't really any different than any other government when it comes down to it: Government exists to serve its own best interests and screw the people.

You can read more HERE (USA Today article), and find links to several more articles HERE.

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* Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr said it first in  his his journal Les Guêpes (“The Wasps”), January 1849