Poainaa
What Obama and this country’s financial leaders of this country don’t seem to understand is that simply bailing it out doesn’t fix the hole. How does giving a few people temporary jobs help solve the problem? By temporary I mean that hopefully it will not require 30 years to fix and build all of the infrastructure we need.
But let us say that some how, I don’t know where, the government comes up with money to pay for all of these projects. The money is sent to the state. The states allot the required amounts to the contractors. This goes into the payroll of the various businesses. The question they have to ask is, “then where does it go?” A good guess would be to look at who make up the top retailers in the country. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, CVS, Kroger, Costco, Target, Walgreen, Sears/ K-mart, Lowe’s, and Super Value make up the top 10. Next quantify what percentage of their gross income ends up being sent outside of the economy. How much of that local income is spent on paying low wages to people that are forced to shop at these chains and deliver even more money outside of the economy. What you see is that in very few turns of the original capital, almost all of the invested money is no longer circulating through the US economy. That leads us right back to where we are today.
How are any of these suggestions going to stop capital from going outside the economy. We are drowning in debt. That is a fact that is true from the individual family, through all branches of business and government, and ends on the capital steps. Is there anybody in Washington that really understands how we ended up here?
Everyone has developed there own sure-fired economic stimulus package, even the ordinary man on the street, all with some degree of merit, with only a few good enough to be considered of ever beginning to work. We have some countrymen say, “No stimulus package at all” basically let the banks, home owners, auto workers (plus the auto companies) along with the state and city governments – “go broke”; meaning America starts over with a new economic system.
Others support the GOP package of reduced taxes and/or federal check in the mail, while the Administration and DNC support a “job stimulus package” with “checks” in the mail; from there every politician and hopeful presidential candidate for 1212 has their conceived answer to our economic burden.
I’ve heard a lot from my own friends and family, again, some sound good, and others come from people who would have a difficult time balancing a “check book.” Of course, I’m no exception; I have my own, which of course I feel has merit!
Here’s the Stimulus Package we should consider!
My package would require about the same amount of money (900 billion) as President Obama’s, since I feel a job creation package is needed for our highways, schools, linking of the health care via the Internet and energy independence. The aforementioned job creation would also benefit our returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Proponents feel there is no way of knowing if this aforementioned package is going to work or not, which I agree – who dose know? But, every package I‘ve heard of only encompasses our immediate economic concern along by updating past problems that should have been addressed years ago; what about today’s additional concerns that require attention, such as:
Basically stating my stimulus package is simple English, it would be almost identical to President Obama’s with the exception of “Raising the Minimum Wage to $8.00 an Hour.”
Revise Immigration Laws
America’s become fat and Lazy! We allow illegal immigrates across our borders to take jobs we don’t want because the pay is to low and the work to hard; also we provide employment visas to foreign educated individuals in the eastern hemisphere to come and take jobs away from our own recently graduated college graduates. Our Fortune 500 companies must stop this practice of hiring lower priced labor (in both outlined example) to replace the American laborer.
Our Immigration laws need to be revised, of course, but again here’s an issue congress has avoided. In essence let’s make it more difficult for illegal immigrates to work in our country, but let’s make it worthwhile for American wide bottoms to stop living on welfare if that’s how they’re surviving, and get back to work or in many cases start working for the first time in their dismal lives.
The revising of laws pertaining to foreign student work visas would also aid our college students by allowing them the opportunity to pay back their tuition loans, hence a side benefit of aiding the banking community by decreasing the number of student delinquent loans.
Halt Outsourcing American jobs
Again, I have to call upon our Fortune 500 companies to use prudence and suffer somewhat higher taxes for shipping our jobs overseas where, as I see it, the American citizens and government receives very little as far as a reduced price of goods exported back into the US. These corporations, I believe, who subscribe to the notion of shipping our jobs abroad receive a very profitable bottom line in their profit and lose balance sheets while we receive increased taxes to pay for State Unemployment Compensation for those whose livelihood is overseas.
One aspect of the outsourcing issue, which remains unclear and introduced during the Clinton Administration is the “North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).” What remains unclear is most of the top ten Fortune 500 companies have smaller sized facilities in both Mexico and Canada than they do in Asia – why? For me, I feel NAFTA was a smoke screen so the GM’s, Fords, Motorolas and the like could obtain certain loopholes in our government’s taxing structure knowing all along they were going to Asia.
Enough, I’ve made my point, bring our jobs home!
Limit exporting our technology
In many ways this goes hand-in-hand with outsourcing with the difference being, by selling foreign countries or allowing foreign countries to develop and manufacture products sold back into the United States, which in mostly all cases generates a sizable profit for the in the US company while giving the foreign country the ability to use the sold technology for other purposes that usually turn out to hurt our economy (trade imbalance).
In a self authored posting earlier, entitled: “We’re Going to be Trading Microchips for Toasters”, describing how our American steel industry, TV manufacturing and Intergraded microchip foundries have been exported and how we have came to suffer from our exporting these specialized technologies, please consider giving this rendered posting a read.
In other words let’s get back to “Made in America by Americans.”
Increasing the dollar acceleration into the economy
As you can certainly ascertain by now I’m not an economist, but I try to follow what stimulus packages are being presented and attempt to play the devil’s advocate on each of them. They all have one item in common, which is; “get the American public spending again”, which I agree with, but disagree with how this should be accomplished.
President Obama wants to place $1,000 into the hands of the lower middle class, as I understand it, which is, to my way of thinking is to short sighted. I feel most Americans will take the one thousand and use it to pay off credit cards or back mortgage payments. This means the money goes directly back to the banks that created the economic problem in the first place.
If the minimum wage was increased to $8.00 an hour, more people would benefit from the increased salary and it would go directly to the people who probably need it most. This would also be an incentive for people start back to work and remove themselves from the welfare list(s).
The big benefit, the low wage earners would spend their increased salary quicker while spreading it out over a number places, instead of giving it all back to our failed banking system.
Decreasing our foreign trade imbalance
We as a nation have to get back to exporting more than we import, since I feel this has caused us, both as a country and has citizens to spend more than we make, thus generating and adding to the massive trade imbalance we have.
With all the economic problems we have accumulated this could be the most serious and most difficult to solve, since we have to completely retool the way we think and manufacture goods and perform services. We can’t be beaten when it comes to innovation, but bad when it comes to implementing it; meaning making our products affordable, reproducible and our biggest problem with a higher degree of quality.
What ever country, America’s products are exported to, we end up paying an extremely high tariff tax, while we allow foreign products to enter the US with a modest tariff tax – Why? Furthermore, our products are usually copied and bootlegged without hardly any repercussions from us regarding our trading partners. This is true for clothing, software, DVD movies and of course music.
The trade imbalance must be shifted into our favor and then tightly controlled if we are ever to become the nation we once were back in the 50’s to 80’s.
Affordable Health Care
Even if President Obama’s Economic Stimulus package is passed by the Senate; how many Americans would be able to afford it?
Increasing the minimum wage would be the answer for many; this couple with the recent passage of the “Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act” would assure must Americans would be covered with medical insurance protection.
Summary
Should congress pass President Obama’s Stimulus package and the minimum wage be increased to a minimum of $8.00 per hour, the price of doing business in America would increase dramatically, along with the costs of consumer goods and services, but it would put more Americans back to work and off welfare.
This would also increase the standard of living for many, which we have seen America’s middle and lower classes living standard decay over the past twenty years. This can be witnessed by the number of homeless individuals filling our inner cities and our increased prison population (one out a hundred Americans currently serving time in prison).
Just increasing of the minimum wage is not enough and will not work by itself; we must revise and author new laws pertaining to immigration, outsourcing and flow of technology from our shores. Again, I echo we must return to the proverbial “Made in America by Americans.”
It is my very strong feeling; increasing the minimum wage will hurt many in business while helping our most needed citizenry segment within our society of troubled Americans, kick start the economy back on track as a strong economically sound nation.
Contact: Alex.Karoub@gmail.com
This post is a brief overview of the Automotive Industry which describes some of the fundamental problems that are rarely spoken of. In addition, you will learn of a few of my personal experiences growing up, an environment where I was surrounded by the industry; you will learn of a few perspectives that are shocking and that even only a few within the industry know of. At the end of the post, you will better understand what happened to American Manufacturing and where it stands. The Auto Industry is at the heart of all of American Manufacturing. It is an industry that laid the groundwork for many other types of industries to follow, deemed at one point in history to be the highest of successes. But now, it sheds light on what can become warning signs for other businesses that mistakenly try to imitate it.This months hot topic is whether to bailout/rescue the regressing American Auto Industry. The original owners and their successors abandoned that industry long ago. The auto industry was ravaged and plundered by the wealthiest Americans a half century ago and has been in decline ever since. Shortsighted greed from one generation to the next has been the culprit. Since autos were first mass-produced and America monopolized the world, it was only natural that the American percentage/share of the market would eventually be reduced. However, total growth was enormous and total size of the market continues to grow even through today. Therefore, American growth of exports should have continued to grow, but does not significantly due to pillage and poorly planted roots. In simpler terms, we originally owned the entire pie. The pie was split up. Since the entire pie has grown dramatically, our piece should have grown too. However, the Big 4, 3, 2, … have been loosing market dominance and lead since the end of World War Two. Here we are years later in crisis, and the real question remains whether or not to rescue the real victims of the auto industry, the workers. People were not retrained or re-educated; most were never afforded real education's to start. People are now in despair and hopelessness. From my vantage point now living in Colorado for the last two decades, I have seen the high tech industry follow the auto industry, but at a learned and accelerated rate. Other industries are also copying the auto industry and are laying similar foundations also headed for disaster. Going back to a brief history, the misguided roots show how the decay started and why it spread.Although I did not grow-up during the inception of the Auto Industry, its roots surrounded me. I spoke with a few who were there in the earliest days, and spoke with many who were of the following generation. I absorbed its history by studying it while attending school in Motown (Motor Town), by natural osmosis, and in my earliest career dealing with the car makers.Growing up as a kid I lived less than a mile from Henry Ford's first moving assembly line factory, with GM’s World Headquarters’ just three miles away, and with Chryslers World Headquarters at the end of our street. The first Ford plant (in Highland Park, a city now surrounded by Detroit) and the first of GM's plants were built on the importation of the next generation of former black slaves and white share crop workers from the south (whites similar to former slaves whose white necks were red from working in the sunny fields, hence the mean spirited term 'Redneck'). The joke that Henry Ford must have laughed at and that went around town was "each worker would get paid enough to buy a Ford" (Of course using infamous 'Ford Credit' which was a primary direct withdrawal from their pay checks.) Henry manipulated a built-in guaranteed customer base and tapped double profits, being profits on the cars and the profitable bonded interest. Those were scams that he copied from sharecropping. The remains of their wages were so low that they had to live in shacks; but after all Henry felt, they came from shacks near the fields in the south. So much bigotry and repeated methods from sharecrop economic slavery. Instead of updating and rebuilding the original plants and without regard for the people who were the workers, the emerging auto giants left to go further to the suburbs. So, as they moved and grew they imported shipload after shipload of immigrant economic slaves from Poland (to Hamtramck, MI) and more economic slaves from the Middle East (to Dearborn, MI). There were other minorities imported as well, also imported for economic servitude to supporting industries such as mining, iron works, steel fabrication, glass works, textile, …. Astonishing how easily the game of 'divide and conquer' worked upon the variety of minorities; a game of keeping the workers pitted against each other using race and ethnicity; all to hold back the power of the people from truly uniting. WW2 caused the Automakers not only to retool but also to reevaluate their future directions.Soon, after the victory of WW2, came the Auto Giants grand visions for economically conquering the world via expansion outside the U.S. They quietly boasted that that would leave mainly world headquarters executives, designers, and engineers in the U.S. with the prestigious white-collar jobs. It was felt then (and these are not my bigoted opinions, not from me, yikes) that after all even 'the weaker sex' could do factory labor jobs as seen during WW2 (i.e. Rosie the Riveter). So why not have the 'stupid foreign workers' do the labor outside the U.S. What also gave way to the idea that manufacturing could succeed outside the U.S. was Mexico; since Mexican workers were also imported, but only temporarily during WW2. (By the way, the temporary Mexican workers were never fully paid back as promised during WW2.) A tremendous wave of pride about white-collar jobs became very popular in Detroit and in other automotive communities during the 50's. That vision sat poised on the back burner, but a pre-planted seed was already in place, which was Canada (Windsor) just across the Detroit River. Canada was a much-desired orchestrated precedence for the automakers; it set the stage for grace given by the government as an easily set up protocol for off-shoring jobs. Soon after, the automakers made a migration south to other states, then further south to Mexico, and finally overseas and on to economic slavery in China.Today we see the results of the destructive path the industry has taken. Layoffs, instead of being temporary situations reserved for pauses during new model changeovers, eventually became the mark of permanent labor plant closures. Obvious abandonment of people soon became the name of the automakers game. Along the swathed trail are - Highland Park, Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, Marquette, Gary Indiana, Pittsburgh, Toledo, Cleveland, …, which became known in the early 80’s as 'The Rust Bowl’. Sort of a rape, pillage, and burn mentality, which continues to today. Amazing how well the reasoning of "that's the way it's always been" persists and grows from one generation to the next. Excuse after excuse gave temporary reasoning to incremental geographic movements for global conquer. Temporary excuses ranged from the need to originally amass large workforces, to the hindrance of union pressures, to American workers are lazy, to 'over' government regulation, to …, all straw obstacles as to why the auto industry needed to move as it did. No! Greed is not good. We see how those at the top of the industry have each come in, grabbed with their greed, and left. Now today, we see how greed has caused "what once was, no longer is". So in short, now we see the results of greed, poorly planted roots, and disregard, taking its toll on America. Equally, is the toll on the myriad of unrelated businesses, old and new, that have adopted the auto industries infectious habits of having little to no regard for individual people that make up the American workforce. People.While being raised in the center of Detroit, I experienced many situations involving the Auto Industry; the following although early was not my earliest, and is an actual example. Around 1963, when I was 11 years old, I remember George Romney visiting our house to exchange political favors. Our 23-room house was a rundown relic of a past era, but it cleaned up well as a phony front for wealth and pretentious power. I remember we kids had to pretend that we were Christian Protestants for the visiting Governor (former Chairman of AMC) who was doing his Christian Mormon tradition of visiting the homes of his new legislators. How ostentatious they both were with fraudulent humility of how they rose from their humble beginnings. But more to the point, I remember Romney sitting at our dinning room table and saying "The Big Four Automakers don't have to worry about giving the Unions what they want, as long as the benefits will not be due for decades. By that time the labor plants will be outside the U.S." That shocked my brother Jimmy and I, as we listened playing in the sunroom just off the dinning room. Later we were once again physically punished (beaten-up), this time for listening to adult talk. Jimmy a year older than I, and intellectually gifted, soon became a Page at the State Capital. The accounts he returned with were shocking as well. Growing up as we did would make your head spin and open your eyes to disgust. We continued living in those surroundings until we grew out of our teens. Then we moved on to make our own adult lives, creating better environments much different from what we were born and raised in.Recalling back to my teens, I realized back then the Detroit riots were not only about race, but was also about economic oppression. It was the minorities who were oppressed the worst, most especially African-Americans. Bad however you measure it is bad. (For a better understanding of the decline of Detroit and to better understand the riots, take a look at my other post: “DETROIT RIOTS OF 1967, A RECOLLECTION OF THE TRUTH.” You will also better understand how very close we came to seeing a nationwide repeat of the riots in the coming Spring of 2009.)Unions, workers, man-hours, laborers, …, are not people, they are burdens to be minimized and eliminated. While watching Lee Iacocca being interviewed on Charley Rose last year, I noticed Iacocca admit that he new all the way back during negotiations with the unions, in the early 80’s, that Chrysler would never have to pay off in full on long term commitments to the unions. As Iacocca danced around the issue he said "now the unions will have to face reality". And, as Rose went on to discuss it more, Iacocca was getting more uncomfortable, and eventually managed to change the subject away from discussing past union negotiations. Iacocca was a bit slicker than George Romney was, since Iacocca was on national TV. It made me ashamed that Chrysler World Headquarters was at the end of our street when I was a kid. And, that as a young adult I had so proudly in my early career returned while working for a couple of electronics companies to Chrysler's World Headquarters R&D operations. I thought it an honor to have paid Iacocca's in-house barbershop to cut my hair, even his same barber. Some honor.Following Chrysler, I moved up to deal with GM, and was puzzled. I listened to upper executives at GM complain that they constantly had to bribe Mexican government officials and border guards for GM plants. I guess they also assumed I already new and accepted that the plants in the late 70's had already begun their exodus to Mexico and other countries. I have always looked at bribery as disgusting and wrong, it was not for me or those who I dealt with, that's among the many good things that a mentor named Jack Bazzy taught me as a young kid. By becoming acquainted with other mentors as an adult, I learned to seek out highly reputable employers and quality knowledgeable friends. I learned how to educate myself, and moved up very high in the scientific and technical industries, all of which I enjoyed.Although I grew up in Highland Park / Detroit, that was not anywhere near my top focus in choosing Obama. But, it is a simple history for me to recall, amazing how many more details I can give, but the main points have been brought forward. In addition, from being a mutt of sorts myself, to being a self made man, be that what it may, I have no illusions of being great. What I do mean here is that I quickly recognize many of Obama's unique insights, although mine are different but a bit similar in nature. Like many Obama supporters, I have personal experiences on most issues Obama has raised. So, above is just one of many examples that I can personally give.To better understand manufacturing in America, you can read my other blog: WHAT SCREWED UP MANUFACTURING FOR AMERICA
Blog members can reply here, anyone is welcome to email me at: Alex.Karoub@gmail.com
I'm hearing from a lot of my fellow embroiderers online how unhappy they are with the quality of goods available nowdays. Most have complained about NAFTA and think it was a bad idea.
Here's an example and well said:
In eight days, Americans will be making a choice that will impact our world for possibly the next 8 years. The next president will have to face two main foreign policy challenges: Here's what it boils down to by pointing at a few international players: Two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan), Two that are misunderstood and could too easily turn into wars (Iran and North Korea) and one that is a friend but could go back to being a foe (Russia), one best friend neighbor (Canada), a bunch of friends across the pond (EU, NATO) and many partners (G8).
Now how does one rebuild the US' place in the world: Stay American!! Be firm, be true and be responsible. Work for freedom but let it grow. Talk free and fair trade and stand by it. Be innovative; think outside the box. This attitude will allow a satisfactory exit from Iraq and victory in Afghanistan; constructive diplomacy with the new nuke powers and the bettering of the relation with Russia. Trade will also benefit as friends in Asia, Europe and Canada will want to continue doing business with the world's biggest marketplace.
Obama has the right attitude to lead in that direction. In 8 days, we should be in for 8 years of better world relations.
John McCain says he wants to secure American borders. But John McCain doesn't care about border security. He fought AGAINST border security when he voted against DELAYING opening the border to Mexican trucks for security reasons. John McCain says he cares about the FUTURE of the American people and globalization will get us a secure future. John McCain is engaging in wishful thinking.
Regarding globalization, John McCain said, he "understands that globalization will not automatically benefit every American. We must prepare the next generation of workers by making American education worthy of the promise we make to our children and ourselves. We must be a nation committed to competitiveness and opportunity." --"Bold Solutions for Economic Prosperity" Feb 3, 2008
John McCain just doesn't care about what you are going through NOW. He doesn't even have a plan or know how to develope a plan to improve the present in order for American families to have a successful future. That's why John McCain will leave the presidency to Barack Obama. John McCain knows Obama is able to protect Americans now, and in the future. John McCain's plan is to expose Americans to more job loss today so they can "compete" tomorrow.
I can't take it anymore! I am so disgusted with the Republican's tactics of fear mongering and emphasis on non-critical issues. While one man speaks of hope, peace, respect, bi-partisanship, and self-reliance, the Republicans go on the offensive with ripping the man's character, using crass generalizations, and attempting to prove how naive we all are by selecting a VP who makes Dan Quayle look like Sameer Mishra (2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion) and whose only achievement is having breasts.
Surely we put aside our differences and address the real issues that affect us all:
our EDUCATION budget (less than 10% of our military budget – how can we compete globally?),
the increasing national DEFICIT (nearly doubled under Bush's term, we are basically borrowing/stealing from our children and grandchildren),
HEALTH CARE (US ranks 37th according to the WHO, just behind Costa Rica),
eliminating NAFTA (free trade isn't free when we can't compete with other countries' low pay, and lack of environmental standards),
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION (ask yourself why are those people coming in, but our jobs going out? Would Christ deny basic human care to a needy person or build a wall to keep him out?)
diminished MIDDLE CLASS (our standard of living has declined over Bush's term),
ENVIRONMENT (Bush abandoned the Kyoto treaty and actually made corporations adherence to some environmental standards voluntary, now that's obviously not going to work),
HELPING THE POOR rather than helping the rich(one child going to bed hungry at night is one too many),
IRAQ WAR (we cannot defend our country with an exhausted military, and without backing from strong allies - and no, although Palau, Tonga, and the Marshall Islands are indeed our allies, they're not exactly going to deter terrorists with tiki torches),
MILITARY POWER (our so called "military president" can't even provide our troops with the proper equipment - armored vehicles, body armor, helmet padding),
reinstating our CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS (we must set an example for all other countries to follow),
putting an end to CRONYISM (Harriet Miers, Michael Brown, David Safavian, John Bolton, Sam Fox, Craig Roberts Stapleton, Alberto Gonzalez, Katherine Harris, Jack Abramoff, Ken Lay - just to name a few).
Obama has revived my disillusioned soul. Let's take our country back!
The Underlying Problems
In Mexico there problems are middlemen that makes 40% net profits on nearly everything that is grown, captured at sea, or produced in Mexico. Hence in the US the immigration problem, contributions to rising food costs, lost union jobs, a shrinking middle class, etc. Mexico exports nearly 80% of its goods to the US. (Note: This is a global trade phenomenon – not just existing between the US and Mexico.)Now our problem in America is that our economy is about to collapse. If we collapse, Mexico will also collapse and then all hell breaks loose. We are so far in debt as a country it is insane (according to USA Today each one of us owes more than $500,000 as a taxpayer and we have nothing to show for it), social security does not have enough money – short by $10 trillion, and Medicare / Medicaid Funding will also have short falls. So where does the money come from to pay for this mess? More loans? The only solution that exists is to get the economy going again to generate the revenue necessary to pay these obligations. How?
The Strategy
Business 101 teaches that any business sector that has excess net profits is a market to enter into for doing business. So we are going to sell direct from Mexico to the US retail (grocery) stores and restaurants. In other words, direct trade is a solution to our US Economic problem, because direct trade, going around the middlemen, is where the profits are for better wages, lower consumer prices and higher tax revenue collected. The reasoning is as follows. It is in Mexico’s self interest that we do not collapse (80% of their goods are exported to the US) and it is within our own self interest not to collapse. So as people (Mexicans and Americans) we have a common self interest to change the way we do business to direct trade. So Mexicans in Mexico are going to help. We divide up the 40% amongst workers, producers, new distribution channels, retailers and consumers. Push enough money into the workers’ hands who live outside the US to become consumers. Then this allows us in the US to bring back some of the factories again – through competition. Loosely speaking, I figure with green jobs, infrastructure repairs plus new manufacturing and lowered consumer costs we should be able to generate enough tax revenue to get us out of this mess.
Back in December last year, while his candidacy still looked pretty iffy, I first heard Barack Obama speak the words "Yes We Can" and, like so many others, became immediately inspired. As he himself is the first to realize, his whole life is an example of how the most seemingly impossible things can and do happen. We can each and all of us make a difference and I believe that we must, if America and the planet as a whole are to keep the various looming catastrophes that we face from becoming a terrible legacy for our children.
So I sat down to write a book, something I had always wanted to do but had never found the motivation and the discipline to get started on. As an international consulting economist, I have been able to see a lot in many parts of the world during the last 30+ years. Like Barack Obama, I am bicultural, having been born to a Latin American Mother and American Father who was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer at the time. My upbringing and early childhood spent in places as diverse as Nicaragua, Lebanon and Holland gave me the opportunity to broaden my horizons from the start, and both the inherent goodness of all peoples and the senselessness of so much avoidable human suffering and so much destruction around the world made an early impression on me.
The book is entitled "YES WE MUST! Fix Our Broken System" and it is available for purchase online on LULU.COM. Proceeds from the first 1,000 copies are going to be donated entirely to the FairShare Foundation, an organization that makes small loans to poor people in different parts of the world.
I urge you to read it. Let's then get together with Barack Obama and with one another to make the real and lasting changes that are needed to bring justice, health and happiness to all the people that share the Earth and the marvelous gift of life with us.
We CAN do it. I know that for a fact. www.lulu.com/content/2485478
The news in the papers in Ohio wasn't positive today--a new report from the Economic Policy Institute found that since 2001 Ohio has lost more than 100,000 jobs to the trade deficit with China, making it the fifth hardest-hit state in the country. Most job losses were in the manufacturing sector, which comprises a substantial part of Ohio's economy, as the state is home to numerous steel and automobile companies.
The report is no surprise, as many Buckeyes would readily admit that many of their state's citizens have taken a beating from a too-lax free trade policy. Hard times have had some of Ohio's hardest workers struggling to make ends meet.
But there is hope. The good news is that Barack has strong policies that fight back the rising tide of a trade philosophy that puts American workers at a serious disadvantage. His economic platform, as well as his policy booklet "Keeping America's promise: Strengthening the Middle Class" are available here, but some proposals specific to trade include:
Barack Obama is the change that Ohio workers have been waiting for.
How do you feel about the effect of free trade on Ohio? Are you a worker who has been impacted? Let us know in the comments section!
We have a very short collective memory in the USA. Just 50 years ago our Grandfathers fought the corporations and were able to scrape together Unions. They paid with blood for the right to organize and the middle class was born. There were benefits, pensions and rights for everyone. The unions were not perfect and reform was needed but instead what we got are laws that affectively busted the power of unions in every state. Reagan shot the coup de grace when he fired the air traffic controllers and broke their ability to strike.
Bill Clinton then gave the corporations the next tool they needed to kill the middle class, NAFTA and thus globalization and world wide explotation of workers shifted into high gear.
What we need to do is hold the politicians in 2008 to answer the questions:
Earl Pitts said it best, "WAKE UP AMERICA!"
Note: The following is a work-in-progress and not my final thinking on NAFTA. I'm struggling with this. Your comments would help a lot.
Sen. McCain supports NAFTA and Sen. Obama opposes it but supports Free Trade. Sen. Obama said, as President, he would revisit NAFTA to include appropriate environmental and labor standards and wasn’t unilaterally opposed to such pacts in the future, as long as they were in our best interests. I am leaning towards Sen. Obama’s position with a twist. Before we consider such pacts in the future, we need to fix our own house.
CEOs, of for-profit companies, are saddled with a profit/loss responsibility that mandates a continual increase in shareholder or Partner value, i.e., ‘make money or you’re gone’. In light of this, CEOs have to contend with increasing salary and pension costs, trade union contracts and/or staggering healthcare insurance costs coupled with the raising cost of raw materials. With this reality, CEOs would be violating their fiduciary responsibilities if they didn’t explore and take advantage of lower cost options. The next pragmatic and logical step would be to transfer selected production, goods and services to countries with lower raw material and labor costs. A resulting by-product is the loss of jobs in America causing Americans to cry ‘foul’ yet; CEOs are doing the job our socioeconomic system of capitalism mandates. Again, CEOs are being rewarded for increasing profits/revenue; not for protecting the sanctity of the American workforce. For all practical purposes, the American worker has become mere chattel to be dispositioned at the whim of capital necessity.
How did we get to this point?
Americans have become increasingly ‘high maintenance’, demanding higher salaries and benefits while, at the same time, demanding more services at lower costs; like a small child that ‘wants his/her cake and eat it too’. We can’t have it both ways and must shift the current paradigm in order to address this problem because we are continually pricing ourselves out of our own job markets.
Senator McCain went to Canada, made a speech and attacked Senator Obama on NAFTA. I was a little surprised when I read that Senator Obama was attacking NAFTA and then said that it is not so bad after all. Our challenge is to figure out how to create the future. Making cars that add to our carbon footprint is not the way.
Countering Race With Class
By David Sirota
In our us-versus-them culture, every political campaign is a battle to define who exactly the “us” and “them” are. Republicans typically say it is natives versus immigrants, Christians versus non-Christians and heartland folks versus Hollywood elites. At their most effective, Democrats parry by defining the “us” as the majority of working people, and the “them” as the tiny group of plutocrats who control the country.
In recent years, Democrats have stopped making this case for fear of offending their big donors. But this is exactly the argument they must make if they hope to defeat John McCain........
ENTIRE ARTICLE- http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3771/countering_race_with_class/
I believe in Barack and his message of change in this election. I agree with him that this country is in dire need of change in its politics, economics, social and even the individual attitude of each one of us. The politics in this country, especially, has been so mired in partisan bickering and political positioning that "regular" people have turned away from getting involved in the process. So what is the real change that the country's politics really need? There is indeed a need for us Americans to rise above our partisan beliefs and come up with ideas that a majority of us can get behind of so we can push them through and make them a reality.
However, rising above partisanship should not mean abandoning our sense of justice. And the justice I'm alluding to is the granting of immunity to the telcos in the new electronic surveillance bill that the House passed yesterday 293-129. Anybody who stands for change should have stood with the 129 brave Democratic House members who opposed the bill. Afterall, aren't we for changing the direction that the Bush administration has taken the country to? Aren't we for changing the way that this President has ran roughshod over the Constitution and the laws of the country? The warrantless wiretaps that the telcos engaged in were illegal and the orders/requests from the Bush administration were unconstitutional. Both parties should be held accountable for their acts but this bill just brushed this aside.Disappointingly, Barack seems to have taken the side of those of voted for the bill. I sincerely hope that when the bill goes to the senate, he will vote against it just as he did the previous bill.
It is also my hope that his statements about renegotiating NAFTA during the primary campaign wasn't just "heated rhetoric" as he seems to be saying here. If he's counting out the possibility of unilaterally renegotiating NAFTA what will he do if Canada's or Mexico's presidents won't agree to renegotiate this agreement? What will he say to those of us who have pinned their hopes on him to make this CHANGE? I was placated by the explanation that Barack's economic advisor was "misperceived" by the Canadians in that meeting with them during the primaries. Now it seems that there is in fact a reason for the misperception.
There is a lot of hope on the line in Barack's campaign and his eventual presidency. Hope that we will have real change in out country. I am praying to high heavens that they won't be dashed once he gets the chance to put his vision to actuality.
Several email responses complained that we can't accomplish any of them because our Nation is going broke and our Dollar isn't worth the paper it's printed on. I believe there are some solutions available to both restoring our position of respect in the world, reducing the number of our enemies being formed each month, boosting our economy, and improving the value of our dollars.
Let’s place restrictions on non-essential imports and expand our domestic manufacturing base with a combination of tax incentives and tax penalties for corporations assessed on whether their products are constructed and assembled in America by US workers or not. The trade restrictions can be eased for any nation that encourages favorable marketing of American products in their country. For a brief period, we may need to give up unnecessary purchases. But ,we are a nation of people that are accustom to setting aside immediate gratification for long term goals. It's one of the reasons we go to college. When we plant an apple seed, we don't expect a fruit bearing tree to immediately sprout from the ground. With time, the value of our American dollar will grow and our national debt will recede. Our nation was strong and growing when our economy was based on domestic manufacturing instead of being based on the retail of foreign goods produced by foreign workers.
Don't lower taxes, but mandate that our budget must be balanced and that ten percent of our taxes be applied toward reducing the Federal debt. That will bring up the global value of the dollar.
I recently read where our passports are being printed and produced by a foreign firm. The inks and toners used by Federal, State, and local governments in copiers is manufactured beyond our borders. Even some of the US flags used by government agencies are made overseas.
It seems to me that there are thousands of small and medium sized businesses in everyone of our fifty states that could step up and supply the needs of our government agencies. Our tax dollars should be supporting the small and medium flag manufactures in Alabama, New Jersey, Illinois, and California instead of some other nation.
It scares me to think that some agency will probably plan a "Buy American" campaign with signs printed elsewhere and shipped to us on foreign vessels.
