As a college graduate with two degrees in industrial technology, I came across three stories that caught my attention and are worthy of America’s attention, each is different, yet related to greed. Greed has destroyed entire nations and empires.
The Greed of Cheap Imported Labor
Podcaster Angela Rose illustrates how some American companies are actively replacing American workers with immigrant foreign workers to keep payroll costs low.
The idea that this American company had to accommodate Muslim workers with breaks for prayer 5 times a day came as a surprise but this passage really shocked me:
“This gets wild because 80 to 90% of their work force are immigrants, mainly refugees and migrants from Somalia and East Africa. Recently, the Somali people are replacing the Haitians who replaced the Latinos who were deported in 2008. The workers relationships here are absolutely insane. About 20% of them are Somali. And in 2023 to 2024, they hired more than 1,000 Haitian workers. But you guys have to hear about these insane lawsuits. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against JBS in 2010 claiming discrimination against the Muslims. It is crazy that some of the employees were accused of throwing bones at the Somali Muslim workers and refusing to allow them to have their prayer time and even turning off the water during Ramadan.”
The Greed of Cheap Offshore Labor
This outstanding documentary by Flint and Factory explains how Caterpillar began to opt out of manufacturing in Illinois and America due to the high cost of operations including Illinois taxes and utilities and the cost of labor becasue of the United Auto Workers (UAW).
“The Caterpillar Exodus: How Illinois Lost the Tractor That Built the Modern World” – Flint and Factory
“The entire ecosystem of central Illinois revolved around those yellow machines. But the foundation was already cracking. In 1963, Caterpillar opened its first overseas manufacturing facility in Air, Scotland. The plant employed 400 workers and produced small tractors for the European market.
Company executives justified the decision as necessary to avoid import tariffs and reduce shipping costs. The Scotland facility was profitable from year one. It proved something crucial. Caterpillar machines could be built anywhere by workers trained to company standards. Geography wasn’t destiny. Peoria wasn’t irreplaceable.
The second crack appeared in 1971 when Komatsu (Japan) began exporting excavators to the United States. The machines were priced 30% below comparable Caterpillar models. Quality was inferior. Early Komatsu excavators had hydraulic failures and structural problems, but the price difference was large enough that some contractors were willing to accept the risk. Komatsu’s US market share grew from zero in 1970 to 9% in 1975. That number sounds small, but it represented $180 million in lost sales for Caterpillar. Caterpillar’s response was to increase production efficiency in its American plants.
By 1980, labor costs represented 38% of Caterpillar’s total production expenses. Lee Morgan, who became CEO in 1977, looked at those numbers and saw an unsustainable trajectory. Japanese competitors were paying workers $7 per hour with minimal benefits. Caterpillar was paying $19 per hour plus health insurance, pensions, and vacation time. The quality gap between Komatsu and Caterpillar was narrowing. The price gap was widening. Something had to change. Morgan’s solution, build more factories overseas. Not to replace American production, he insisted, but to complement it. In 1979, Caterpillar opened a facility in Gosselies, Belgium, employing 1,200 workers. In 1981, the company broke ground on a massive manufacturing complex in Sagamihara, Japan, right in Komatsu’s backyard that would eventually employ 3,000 people. By 1982, Caterpillar operated 17 factories in eight countries outside the United States. American workers saw what was happening. Every new overseas facility meant fewer machines built in Peoria.”
The Greed of “You Don’t Own It”
“You’ll own nothing and be happy.” – Danish Politician Ida Auken at the 2016 World Economic Forum (WEF)
In bygone days it was common for men and boys to gather in garages to work on cars, trucks and tractors as amateur mechanics. Those days gave way to “technicians”. Technicians had to learn how to use computers and software to perform “diagnostics” to tell what was wrong with these failed products. The New World Order circle was complete when manufacturers said, “You have to go through one of our licensed dealers for repairs.” That led to this recent development.
“John Deere Loses $4.2 Billion Right to Repair Lawsuit! – What Farmers Won! #johndeere” – The AG Brief
CONCLUSION:
This story was painful to write. I grew up in Illinois. I love Illinois. I spent 40 years sharing my vocations (drafting and design) as a technical educator in Illinois. Illinois is home to both Caterpillar and John Deere.
When I retired 10 years ago my college president asked me, “Over all your years teaching, which company employed most of your graduates?” The answer was simple, “Caterpillar… in Aurora, DeKalb, Peoria, Decatur, and maybe Joliet.” Now, 10 years later, most of those Caterpillar plants, as well as the CAD program I retired from, are gone.
I live less than 20 miles from the home of John Deere where people can still tour his home and shop where it all began. After all the times I have toured there I feel like I know the man. I feel he and I were created like-minded. John Deere as a company still operates in Illinois but has shown signs of outsourcing production to Mexico. Were he alive today, Mr. Deere would be furious!
“Trump threatens John Deere with 200% tariff | LiveNOW from FOX”
When you talk about greed, you would be remiss if you did not talk about the salaries of these company’s CEOs. When I retired as a college technology professor in 2016 the salary of the Caterpillar CEO was $17 million. Ten years later it is $25 million! The CEO of John Deere today is $27 million!
America is truly broken when those at the top care more about themselves and their shareholders than those at the bottom who make their products. President Donald Trump is an American hero, using tariffs parody to help fix these problems. If you note above, this is what caused CAT to begin to disappear from Illinois in 1963.
As for the problem of product ownership, I can see a whole future market for mechanic/technicians who will remove all of the electronic computers and software from today’s modern vehicles to return to the days when fixing your equipment yourself was feasible.
Case in point:
“It’s Already Over. This Is How They Won.” – Loyal Moses
© 2026 by Mark S. Schwendau
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Thinking Conservative.
