Jeffrey Tucker wrote an excellent article on the End of the US Piano Industry. I took piano lessons as a child, and still play occasionally today, but I had no idea that the U.S. piano industry was as big as it was from 1870 until the start of the (first) Great Depression in 1930.
Today our biggest investment, after our house, is our car. Back then, after our house, the biggest single investment was a piano. Everyone wanted one, both as a status symbol and as a means of entertainment (before TV, the internet, and iPods). Eventually demand dropped, and piano production moved overseas.
Mr. Tucker makes the point that a once vibrant industry declined, but the world did not end. What would have happened if FDR had done what Obama is doing today and nationalized the piano industry (like Obama is doing with the banking and automotive industry)? Presumably the industry would have limped along for a few more years, at a huge cost to taxpayers, before eventually collapsing due to lack of demand.
It’s sad to lose an industry, but it’s even sadder to spend billions in taxpayer money to try to prop up a dying industry. Obviously the automotive industry creates millions of jobs in North America, but if we decided to buy cheaper and better cars overseas, so be it. Strong auto makers will survive in North America; the rest won’t. It’s sad, but that’s how it works, and all the government meddling in the world cannot change reality.
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