Bob, my compliments, I always enjoy your comments even for the short period of time I have been on this forum. That said, your second treatise could, by most people who have been there and done that claim that it fits the description of a trophy wife and generally the guy who has a trophy wife really doesn't care what she demands or wants just as long as he gets what he wants in that he attains the status and pleasure on several fronts with such an arrangement and typically that was the original objective in the first place, that plus sex and visual pleasure.

Next point, I am not sure about you, but your comment: sex, albeit enjoyable and good for the psyche, is not a life or death necessity for the participant may fit your argument, but I got to tell you and just speaking for myself, it is an absolute necessity in my life, and again, arguably, without such release in some people ,has been know to cause unintended consequences that became life threatening if not corrected.

Relative to the comments on American Made and why companies go offshore, its simple economics, companies will go where the costs create an greater return on their investments and provide an opportunity to gain maximum share of the market they are engaged in. Sadly the American worker has gradually priced himself out of a job in that the companies can no longer afford to pay say $20.00 and hour and go where the monthly wage is $100 per month, again simple economics.

To the comments Made in America is not longer a product comprised of items solely made in America but consisted of parts and sub assemblies sourced elsewhere and are either assembled in the United States or imported as a complete product, is at the end of the day in my opinion not a bad practice, if outsourcing off shore provides an opportunity for an American company to generate more return for their stakeholders, provide an opportunity to expand their Stateside operations and in the process hire more "white collar workers".

Its not good however for the poor guy that lost his job to outsourcing and that's the dilemma.

Currently, China is the country of choice for outsourcing but this is slowly changing due to socio-economic conditions in this country in that the government is now mandating employees will get a guaranteed 20% increase in the basic wage over the next five years in an attempt at gaining some parity between the rich and the poor and is pouring billions of equivalent dollars into infrastructure development, particularly in the central and northern regions of China where the annual wage has hovered around US$100 per year since it was primarily an agro economy.

With these type of labor cost hikes taking place now and continuing for who knows how long, companies will either be forced to bail out of this country and go elsewhere or retrench back to the United Sates if sufficient incentives are provided by the government that makes it economically feasible for them to do so. Again, its all about economics.

I have been building and ramping up factories here in China for the past twenty plus years for US companies and get to see their balance sheets both before and after the transition and I can attest to the fact the savings get to be phenomenal. I believe Apple is a prime example, 99.0% outsourced products, unprecedented cash flow generation and for those lucky enough to have backed that horse, phenomenal returns on their investment. Pretty difficult to argue with their business model, it was spot on target and they are reaping their rewards.

Just my two cents guys.

Cheers John, AKA, tin-man