Michael Collins

AUTHOR PROFILE.

About the author

I have 35 years of experience in manufacturing. Before retiring in 2004 I was Vice President and General Manager of two divisions that manufactured robots and automation equipment. Our major customers were the S&P 500 multinational corporations, and working with them for 30 years gave me a front-row seat to watch free trade and globalism devastate the middle class and America’s economy.

Perhaps the most important economic lesson I learned during this period, was that globalization and outsourcing caused regression to the mean (RTM), which pitted American workers against low wage workers around the world. Regression to the mean was a disaster for the American middle class, particularly workers with a high school diploma or less. It became a race to the bottom.

Economists also, believed that the service economy and cheap imported goods would provide economic growth, good jobs, and improved living standards for the middle class. But it just didn’t happen for millions of workers. The result was that millions of workers now live paycheck to paycheck, and the problem of affordability and rising prices now dominates our politics

The good news is that globalization is fracturing, driven by the implementation of Trump’s tariffs. I believe it still possible for the average worker to attain the American Dream, and the decline of the middle class can be reversed. To have a chance of creating an economy with wages rising faster than inflation, and rising living standards, we will have to abandon free trade and globalism, bring manufacturing back to the US, reduce our trade deficit, and protect our industries and technologies.

But the real answer is not just a reliance on tariffs, but to commit to production, not consumption. The book describes a comprehensive plan called productivism which includes tariffs, tax credits, quotas, key industries, technology protection and training that can generate economic growth, create jobs, and raise household incomes.

I have written for many industrial trade journals, including Industry Week, Industrial Equipment News, and Forbes Magazine. Since September of 2007, I have written and published more than 470 articles and columns on a wide variety of manufacturing and economic topics.

I am also the author of 6 books:

1. THE MANUFACTURERS GUIDE TO BUSINESS MARKETING (1994)

2. SAVING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING(2006)

3. GROWTH PLANNING HANDBOOK FOR SMALL AND MIDSIZE

MANUFACTURERS (2006)

4. THE RISE OF INEQUALITY AND THE DECLINE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS (2016)

5. DISMANTLING THE AMERICAN DREAM (2023)

6. THE GLOBALIZATION TRAP (2026)

Education- M.B.A. from City University and a B.S. degree from Portland State University in Portland Oregon.