John Gardner is an entrepreneur and autodidact with two decades of experience in American manufacturing. After a traumatic injury as a teenager, he dropped out of high school and left Ohio to pursue his dreams in California. He slept in his car, ate canned food, and worked at restaurants. At the age of twenty-five, he started a business out of his apartment based on a cutting tool his father had engineered. By overcoming adversity with determination and tenacity, he now sells his product to the US Navy, NASA, Lockheed Martin, Ford Motor, the FAA, and thousands of other companies.
John published Manufacture Local in July 2024 which first detailed the concept of the External Revenue Service.
My story begins in Ohio. It was the late 80’s and once home to a booming manufacturing industry. Our community was like so many that experienced the devastation of industrial flight. I saw factories shutter and witnessed the fear in church as parents discussed taking second jobs and commuting further for less pay. Our family would frequently drive to visit relatives in Pittsburgh, and I watched the landscape of a once vibrant manufacturing industry turn into the rusting hulks of abandoned factories that are now referred to as the Rust Belt.
In 2005, I opened a small tooling business and I have watched over the last 15 years as America’s manufacturing prowess has been given away to other countries in an effort to evade strong American labor and anti-pollution laws. ‘Off-shoring’ maximizes short-term profits at the expense of our core industrial capability, middle class, and tax revenue.
