Huge industrial giants like General Electric, General Motors, DuPont, Boeing and other companies are often viewed, both domestically and abroad, as the drivers of American business. And yet, both statistically and culturally, it is known that small businesses are the heart and backbone of the American economy.

To readers of this column, what follows may be a little like preaching to the choir. However, the continuing foreign trade deficits being registered by the U.S. are of ongoing concern and bear repeated scrutiny until (or if ever) they are reversed or brought to moderation.

More than a year ago, this column concerned itself with the U.S. government’s bailout of two of the big three U.S. automobile companies. Most of us will recall that the government fronted $85 billion of taxpayer money to keep GM and Chrysler afloat as the automakers reorganized themselves through bankruptcy. Writing that column gave me pause for a sad and poignant retrospection because I was part of a generation that “grew up thinking GM would never need protection from anything,” much less looming creditors and financial insolvency.

On April 20, 2010, an explosion on a BP drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in loss of human life and what we now know to be the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The incident has demeaned the oil industry, those who oversee it and, yes, those of us who consume its products.

Last December, I received a book entitled Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford, a Ph.D. in political philosophy who makes his living as the owner of a motorcycle repair shop in Virginia.