This is the second in a series of articles featuring the observations of a Butler-based technology manufacturer. His business, Bioptechs Inc., manufactures a scientific product sold worldwide.I will preface my second column by outlining my view that there are three categories of economic activity in the United States.First, there is government spending, which includes funding of public services, defense and education. This spending consumes enormous amounts of money, but does not increase national wealth.Next, there is domestic commerce, including retail sales, service businesses, health care, insurance and repair shops. These businesses essentially shuffle money within the domestic economy but do not contribute significantly to the growth of the U.S. economy.Finally, there is domestic production, including agriculture, mining and manufacturing. These activities help bring currency into the United States from around the world, thus increasing the country's wealth — as opposed to the federal government borrowing or printing money.As the owner of a 17-year-old Butler-based manufacturing business, I am sad to report some of the issues that have affected my business.In the beginning, I had a plastic injection-mold designed and manufactured in Erie, which was once the injection-mold capital of the world. The company in Erie did a great job of producing and running the mold for about three years. Then it went out of business and I had to find another company to run the mold.I found a company in New Castle and it, also, did a very good job and produced hundreds of thousands of parts for us until it, too, went out of business — and I had to move the mold again. Now it's at another Western Pennsylvania town and things are running fine.The point is, if we had a healthier business environment, the first two companies would not have gone under.Here's another example of trouble I've encountered: For about six years our circuit boards also were made in Erie. We had no problems with the work and there were no financial issues on our end. Then, out of nowhere, I was told that the company had been bought out by another company and only would accept orders in excess of $1 million worth of circuit boards.The company informed me that it was dropping our order, even though it had not been completed. Again, this situation would not have happened in a more hospitable business environment.Until two years ago, our products were made of 100 percent American components, — mostly from Western Pennsylvania.However, when we completely re-engineered the electronics in our products, we needed to source all new components. In order to produce our product, we now have to get displays from Hong Kong, power supplies from China, enclosures from Taiwan and other components from Pacific Rim countries.This is not because I am a greedy industrialist or a capitalist driven only by profit. It is because the products are just not available from a U.S. supplier.Our domestic production infrastructure is crumbling. If my little company here in Butler is impacted this way, just think how the rest of the country's productive base is affected.It has nothing to do with labor costs, as many people think. It has everything to do with the strength of the industrial base in each of the countries that supply the components I need.I am angry that we, the United States, once had the ability, resources and industrial infrastructure to be able to maintain our global lead. But our government, whose job it is to help establish and maintain an environment conducive to the growth of business for the betterment of the country, dropped the ball — and then had the audacity to blame it on the business community.For the sake of your country, your job, your children's jobs, and your own security, it's important to support candidates that recognize that Congress cannot continue to bite the hand that feeds us.My next column will examine our competitiveness and loss of U.S. jobs.Dan Focht is founder and chief executive officer of Bioptechs Inc.,