The U.S. once had a large computer manufacturing industry, but today most of its computers come from China, Japan, and other foreign countries. Seldom told, or even acknowledged, is the story of how the American computer industry declined...

- 1979... According to a research paper by Caitlin Howell at wisc.edu, 94% of computer components purchased in the U.S. were made in America. U.S. companies dominated the personal computer field.

- 1984... Tandy introduced the model 1000 PC-compatible computer, which was made in the U.S.A. All of the 1000-series computers would be American-made until the series was discontinued in 1993.

- 1988... The Patriot 2400E external modem became available. According to AtariMagazines.com, it was made in America. This was another field of manufacturing to later be dominated by Taiwan.

- 1989... The same above-mentioned research paper indicates that the percentage of computer components bought in the U.S. that were made in the United States had dropped to sixty-six percent.

- 1993... Tandy Computers, once a major part of the U.S. computer industry, ceased to exist. AST, DEC, and the computer divisions of Zenith and Texas Instruments also disappeared in the years to come.

- 1999... Zenith was acquired by LG Electronics (based in South Korea) this year, according to Zenith.com. It was once a major U.S. based manufacturer of computers and other electronics.

- 2003... An article by Pat Buchannan indicated that only thirty percent of computer products purchased in the U.S. were now made in America. In the past seven years, it has likely decreased even more.

- 2005... Major U.S. computer manufacturer IBM was sold to Lenovo, a Chinese company. According to the China Daily, Lenovo paid $1.75 billion dollars, and the U.S. government approved the deal.

American-made computers from Compaq, Tandy, and others were very high-quality and built to last. But the trend toward free trade and globalization allowed manufacturers in lower-wage countries like Taiwan and South Korea to offer low prices, especially in the early to mid 1990s. American computer makers mostly either collapsed or moved production overseas.

But this isn't the only reason why it happened. Cheaply-made imported computers couldn't gain as much traction in the '70s and '80s as they did in the '90s, because people were more concerned about quality. But when the rate of obsolescence rapidly increased in the 1990s, people were willing to accept lower quality machines because they knew that each "generation" of computers would quickly become obsolete anyway.

What was behind this rapid obsolescence? For the most part, Microsoft Windows. Interfaces like DESQview and PC/GEOS had offered the same features as Windows without requiring the latest computers, but were crushed by Microsoft's anti-competitive practices. Microsoft realized that by quickly releasing new versions of Windows, each with higher system requirements than the last, it could massively expand profits.

How? By convincing many software developers to create programs that only worked under Windows, Microsoft could push people to keep buying newer, faster computers - which are typically sold with Windows and sometimes other Microsoft products. This also enriches the computer companies and retailers, making them glad to only sell computers that run Microsoft Windows.

Proponents of globalization will argue that computers are more affordable now. But is it worth all of the lost jobs, decreased quality, increased energy consumption (from overseas shipping), and pollution just to save a few hundred dollars on a computer? Regardless of how much they cost new, people can always wait a year or two and buy the same computer used at far less expense.

And it doesn't stop with the computer manufacturing industry. Technical support jobs have been "outsourced" to Central America and programming work sent to India. Just about every computer accessory is made in China, Malaysia, Taiwan, or Thailand. Twenty years ago, many IBM and Tandy keyboards were made in America, now most come from East Asia.

Politicians from both major parties played a role; Reagan and Bush championed "free trade", then Clinton expanded it, at the same time revising how unemployment statistics were counted - so as to disguise the effect. Americans were told that they would be selling products to developing nations, as if many people in such countries could afford American computers or cars.

Thus the American computer industry declined, huge numbers of still-functioning computers hit the dumpster, the U.S. became dependent upon imported technology, and many Americans lost their jobs - all to further enrich Microsoft and computer makers who didn't hesitate to move production overseas. Nonetheless, most politicians remain enthralled with free trade despite occasional lipservice to U.S. manufacturing.

Typed on an American-made computer