Those who do not know History…
May 13, 2009 Political
I get frustrated sometimes, having to tell someone that this time isn’t unique, and if you take away the election of an African- American, and just substitute the election of a man, (which is how it should be viewed), all of this economic cycle, complete with both the recession and the attempted government interference in the free market has all happened before in history. Study the terms of Franklin Roosevelt and you have almost the same things attempted, and the same things failing.
Roosevelt tried “stimulus”, in the form of temporary jobs, and they did have the effect of slowing the fall, but they had no real, long- term effect on the economy, because in order to affect the economy in a positive, long- term way, you actually have to make “new” money, not recirculate money around. If you have several people in a circle, and you pass a ten dollar bill from one to the other, everybody gets ten dollars, for a minute, but it is the same ten dollars, versus someone from outside the circle putting money into the circulation, which is new money, and it accumulates- more and more money finds its way into the circulation.
All these “green” jobs, and road jobs are fine and dandy for the moment, but they truly are not adding much to the economy, because to do this, we need to actually create something, and it must be private industry that does this. And when private industry does this, government must stand out of the way.
Government has always been a handicap to free markets, first, because government wants its cut of any profits, and second, because government has this irrational compulsion to “make things fair” in the markets. That concept is hilarious- that’s like trying to make a snake and a rat good friends- that’s not going to happen. The business world is in a constant state of flux, with companies rising and falling according to the markets.
Our problem has come about because of a lack of blue- collar infrastructure, and no- I am nor talking about the unions, they have been part of the problem here.
It all began with the experiment of “Globalization”, and the global economy, as if we would ever do well having our economy tied in any way to that of Sri Lanka, or Thailand, or Venezuela, for that matter. People in governments around the world have been pushing to “Globalize” the economy, much as the Europeans did with their common currency, and relaxed borders.
This won’t work with us, or I should say, it shouldn’t work with us, but Barama is part of the group that thinks that having one happy world will be a good thing. The problem is, in order to do this, our economy will have to go down to third- world levels, and we all become poorer because of it.
A good example might be a container with several compartments- you can fill these several compartments with different levels of water, but if there is no separation between the compartments, the water seeks its own level, and everybody has the same amount. This is contrary to free and open markets, where a person can make as much as the market can bear. A country that is productive doesn’t have to prop up a country that does no work- the last thing we need is a country on welfare.
Then you mix in the unions, which began as a good thing, but became useless, because they believed they were bulletproof- not so, and their thinking was so calcified, that they didn’t see it coming. Globalization, NAFTA, CAFTA, all the various openings that appeared in the world trade situation did the unions no favors- their status and membership shrank like a cheap chinese cotton shirt.
Unions, with the exception of those with captive corporations, lost their influence, because the manufacturing corporations found that they could move to a more favorable climate with regards to wages and taxes, and so they moved from our shores. No unions, lower wages, less taxes- what was not to like? Who cares if the quality is shoddy- if everybody wears shoddy clothes, who knows the difference?
There is no way to get them back. Absent lowering our wages to third- world amounts, those companies are gone forever. Neither can we completely close our borders to trade, for we no longer make what the world wants- they are beating a path to someone else’s door.
The best we can hope for is that we learn our lesson, re- institute a free market, and do what Americans have done through the ages- re- invent, retool, and rebuild our economy, but we will not be able to do this successfully if the unions cannot bring some innovative ideas and flexible thinking to the table. Neither can we do this if the government insists on impeding these ideas with government regulations. The government needs to step out of the way, and try to sweeten the deal with tax breaks for companies that locate here.
Manufacturing must return to the United States. Blue collar jobs must be held by Americans first, because blue collar jobs are the backbone of this country, and lets face facts- not everybody is cut out to be a software designer or a lawyer. The Nation needs carpenters and bricklayers also, and these people deserve a living wage in order to be a productive member of society.
Only by being able to get ahead can they begin to start their own small businesses.
And that is how we begin to get out of this mess.
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Tags: globalization, living wage, nafta, small business, unions
The Unpleasant Truth
May 5, 2009 Political
Well, if you had even a rudimentary brainstem, you had to see this coming- well, if you were not a liberal, you had to see this coming. The Chinese no longer want to buy our T-Bills, the government bonds that Barama has been borrowing against in order to pay for his little spending spree.
Addiction psychiatrists call what is happening, “Refresh the Joy”, by which they describe the urge of compulsive buying, usually seen in Lottery winners who constantly need to buy stuff to re- energize their pleasure. Sooner or later, they DO run out of money, or in Barama’s case, sugar daddies. This is the truth- there is no more money- the Chinese have cut up our credit card, and the Saudis are not far behind.
Barama went to the well too often, or to paraphrase Rhomboid Emmanuel, we’re gonna have to waste a few crises. There are no more people who will lend us any money, and truth be told, we have nothing that anyone wants right now- we no longer manufacture anything of any material value except cars, and we can see how well that is going. Our manufacturing base, the true base of any economy, has vanished over the years, leaving a hole you could pitch Al Sharpton through. No more good textiles, no more good steel, all of the manufacturing infrastructure has vanished- outsourced to the cheapest bidder- never a good outcome in the long run.
I could lay the blame at the feet of the unions, and they do deserve some of the blame, but NAFTA, and CAFTA, and the “Global Economy” that the last three Presidents have touted have done their dead- level best to wreak havoc on our economy. The minute that companies found that they could have a world full of workers they could get at starvation wages, they jumped at the chance to relocate to a less- taxed, less unionized, less worker overhead environment in a heartbeat.
You see, Corporations have no soul, except that of the CEO and Board of Directors, and to rely on their uncertain loyalty while the government and public cusses them and penalizes them and taxes them to within an inch of their life, only makes them relocate even faster. There is no national loyalty anymore, unfortunately- why should there be? Just loyalty to the bottom line, and as one market’s wages come up, these companies will relocate yet again to try and retain their market share.
So now Barama has no other option but to tax people- a lot- a lot of people, a lot of taxes, in order to just pay the vig, and he will. A lot. Oh, he’ll put on his unhappy face, so you know he feels your pain, but he will still do it- “Give ’til it Hurts” used to be a motto, and he will expect that of everyone he can get ahold of. Some companies have already skipped out- Haliburton, every liberal’s whipping boy, has relo’ed to Dubai, and I am sure there are others who saw the taxes on the wall, flung there by the Democratic Party.
I have to say, I have no good idea of how to get out of this situation, but I DO know it is not by spending more money. AIG could have, and should have been broken apart, and the various divisions sold- most of them were solid, it was only the division relegated to dealing with the sub prime loans that was the problem. It should have gone to bankruptcy re- organization, or written off as loss, and we the taxpayers would not have had to dole out 150 billion dollars.
GM, and Chrysler should have gone straight to bankruptcy- no bail out at all. The banks should stand or fall on their own. Sure some people would get hurt- but not the whole nation, as is the case now. Pain, even that felt financially, is a wonderful teacher- it teaches us that an economy based solely on spending is a hollow economy, rotten to the core, and we must somehow find our way back to being a producer of substance, because a true, solid economy is based on what a country can and does produce.
I saw this in a newspaper, and thought it worth passing along- There are about 40 million people in the U.S. over the age of fifty. The crisis would be solved if Barama gave each one of these over fifty people a million dollars, with three conditions attached: One- Quit your job- forty million job openings, job crisis solved. Two- pay off your mortgage, or buy a new home- housing crisis solved. Three- buy a new American car- forty million cars sold, auto crisis solved, all for less than Barama has used up until now.
I don’t know about you, but that would work for me, and it would have been faster than this garbage he’s trying now.
And THAT’S an Unpleasant Truth.
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Beware The Union Label
May 1, 2009 Political
Well, it’s finally happened, the union bosses finally own a business- Chrysler. 55% of the ownership will be the unions- this is part of the payback for the unions supporting Barama, and helping cram him down our throats. Now the Bosses can play with their very own company.
Let’s see if they can bury this business as quickly as Tony Soprano could bury his enemies.Maybe they’ll go from house to house, making an offer we can’t refuse, but I ain’t buying it.
The only way they will make money will be if every union guy buys a Chrysler. Then, we’ll know when they are coming down the street.
This would be hilarious if it wasn’t such a large chunk of and American business- it gives me the mental picture of Lucy Ricardo on the candy assembly line. I imagine the unions may do as well as Lucy.
The unions have absolutely no business owning anything-they have no history of being competent to own anything. Heck, their membership has been shrinking for years, as they and their legacy demands have driven businesses out of the U.S. Even airlines are opting to get their mechanical repairs done overseas, to avoid onerous costs. This is because after the “Global Economy” opened up, the companies realized they had options , and, as everyone knows, corporations have no soul, and no allegiance to a country. It’s all a balance sheet item to them.
So unions miscalculated, and like the rest of the world, were behind the curve in accepting the new, Global paradigm that NAFTA, CAFTA, and Free Trade brought about. Believe me, if we could change it most of us would. Sure we might not get plums from Chile out of season, or cheap bananas from Guatemala, but we could still have clothes that were made right, not like they were made in a communist country with artificial everything, and no safety checks on what we wear or consume. I’d rather not go up in flames just by wearing a foreign product. I know, but I’m just crazy that way.
We have almost no manufacturing capacity left. I used to love American made clothing- it was high quality, and it lasted. We have ceded almost all of our steel- making factories to China, and indeed, almost everything else, including food safety. Up until last year, I wasn’t aware that Melamine was considered, in China, to be a major food group. The companies that haven’t relocated overseas to escape crushing union costs have been bought by foreign competition, such as the Mrs. Baird’s Bakery, an institution in Texas for over 100 years, which was sold to a Mexican bakery chain.
The only unions that still have viability today are those with captive corporations, like ATT, GTE, and other communications networks, the service industry union which cleans rooms in hotels, and the auto industry.
All the rest of the unions may be hanging on, but it’s by their fingernails, and I blame the union management. While massive changes were going on, changes that shifted the power structure against the unions,the bosses were having a party on the union members dime, and missed it, just flat missed it completely.
So now the bosses want the Card Check act, or as it is otherwise known, the Employee Free Choice Act- a deceiving piece of legislation by which they hope to fool or force others into union membership, by signing a card indicating that they want a union, in front of a union steward, rather than having a secret ballot with no union intimidation.
A secret ballot is one of the cornerstones of American voting life, so why would a group that professes to be American to the core be willing to sacrifice a traditional American value such as the Secret Ballot? Easily explained, it’s all about survival- with union membership going down, and companies fleeing our shores for cheaper and less contentious labor overseas, the union bosses have to come up with some other cash cow, or management will actually have to find a job, and that, in their minds, is just not right. Other people work, they have better things to do, like party at the Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami, where the rooms start at $400.00 a night, and that is not even ocean view. All on the union member’s dime. Don’t you think, in this economy, they could have scaled back their “meeting”?
If card check passes, (and it probably will, with all the socialists in office), this will be the death knell of many businesses and certainly the utter demise of any and all manufacturing in this country, except what is ordered by the union’s new partner, the government- who will do everything they can to ensure that we the people buy union, even if we can’t afford it, or just plain do not want to. We the people will become the peon class to our new lords the union bosses and government hacks, oh joy.
I’m getting a tingle down my leg- if I am lucky, it’s the precursor to a stroke.
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Tags: coercion, global economy, nafta, unions
Media Gets Tough with Obama
Mar 4, 2008 Political
Ever since Barack Obama came on the scene he stole the thunder from Hillary Clinton. The Clintons had experienced great media coverage for years with the media holding or burying stories harmful to the clan. That all stopped when Obama became the new darling of the media. They have fawned over him and a parody on Saturday Night Live was not far off considering how he has not drawn tough questions (until the last debate) or close scrutiny even though he says a lot about absolutely nothing. It is really bad when even Democrats who doted on the Clintons for years have turned against them, media or otherwise.
Perhaps the portrayal of the media as Obama’s toadies on SNL sparked a fire under them because the party seems to be over and it would appear that Obama has been stung by the unexpected attacks. At a speech Obama took questions and the media zinged him right off the bat asking him about the secret meeting with the Canadians that he originally denied but later acknowledged. He said the standard stump answer about not knowing or going with the information he had but it gave the appearance that he lied.
Then the media began with the Tony Rezko questions. Rezko is a friend of Obama who happened to buy a piece of property right next to him on the very same day. Rezko bought the property that Obama did not want (the seller required it to be part of the purchase) for $625,000 and then sold part of it to Obama so he could enlarge his yard. This political favor coincidence has significance because Rezko’s trial for corruption started today and Obama’s name is likely to come up. The fact that Rezko is involved in corruption and has been close to Obama is not happenstance. Obama is from Illinois and is a member of the Democratic Party that has been so corrupt that it has received its own name, Chicago Style Politics.
Obama has benefited from Chicago Style Politics and that is why, as a first term Senator, he is on top the political world. He has given the appearance of impropriety with regard to Rezko and the Canadians. Even if Obama turns out to be squeaky clean, he has acted in a fashion that appears improper and for many, perception is reality. A man who claims not to be part of the old political system and who claims to be looking to the future (which all presidential candidates say, by the way) does himself no good by looking like a politician of old. He is part of the Daley political scene and that makes him part of the past, a past that is rife with corruption.
It is nice to see the media finally stop drinking the Kool Aid and start asking tough questions.
Sources:
Daily News
Daily News 2
Washington Post
Michelle Obama is not too Proud to Lie
Feb 29, 2008 Political
Recently there was a big stink about something Michelle Obama, wife of Senator Obomination, said. She told people that for the first time in her adult life she was proud to be an American. This caused an uproar and the spin started and the Obamas wanted us to know she only meant what she said in relation to the political process. I heard what she said and it did not appear that way to me. Michelle Malkin wrote an excellent piece about it and she hit the nail on the head.
It appears that even though Mrs. Obama has not been proud of this country, she is not too proud to lie. In Ohio she told a group of women not to go into corporate America. Now there was nothing wrong with her suggestion that these folks become teachers, social workers and nurses. However, it is her contention that getting the education required to work in corporate America is too expensive and saddles people with debt they pay for years. How does she think people become teachers, social workers or nurses? All of these professions require a college education and it can be just as expensive. Here is where the lie comes in:
“The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,†she says.
“Barack and I were in that position,†she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.†NRO [emphasis mine
What Mrs. Obama fails to mention in the speech is that she had a salary of just over 100 thousand dollars a year that went up to over 300 thousand a year after her hubby was elected tot he Senate. With a salary like that she could certainly afford to pay her loans back much easier than the less well connected who graduate with massive debt. Barack Obama’s books might have provided a great deal of wealth and made their lives easier but they were not hurting in any way shape or form and could certainly pay their bills. She lied, his books were not the ONLY reason they are not saddled with debt. If they could not pay the loans on her salary then there is no way we should let them around a federal budget.
It would appear as if deception is a trait in the Obama family. Barack Obamination’s campaign is reported to have contacted the Canadian ambassador to the US and told him that the campaign would be saying some rough stuff about NAFTA but it was just campaign rhetoric and he did not intend to mess with the trade agreement. Obama’s campaign did not deny it, they instead said the news was inaccurate. To me this means there is some substance and CTV News is sticking to the story. Yes there were denials from both sides of the border. I guess that should set it straight because we all know that politicians and ambassadors do not lie (I never had sex with that woman) and would never deny something that was true. I don’t know if this is true but it does not pass the sniff test.
While I am discussing Obama, let me throw in a little tid bit I read at Big Lizard’s. Barack Obama has talked about the politics of old and discussed how he is not a man of the past. He talks about how dirty politics have no place in the process and discusses the dirt of the Clintons as either politics as usual or the signs of a campaign in dire circumstances. Dafydd at Big Lizard’s points out that Obama has a pattern of dirty politics. From his first run for office in Illinois to subsequent campaigns, he has been suspect with regard to the dirt and unethical behavior that is more often associated with the Clintons. Now, Obama is from Illinois and it is not unreasonable to suspect that he has been involved in the type of dirty politics synonymous with Chicago. I recommend reading the article as it is pretty eye opening.
It seems that the Obamas are nothing more than elitist Democrats who pander to the emotions of the poor and less fortunate while living lives of luxury and steamrolling anyone who gets in the way. I can understand that they started off with debt and had a hard time. As pointed out in her speech:
Mrs. Obama also bemoaned the amount of money she has to spend — nearly one-third of the median household income in Zanesville — on piano, dance, and other lessons for her two children.
Must be tough for people who have to figure out how to buy food for their children to hear how tough Michelle Obama has it paying for her daughter’s necessary lessons. Reminds me of a story I heard (I think about the Great Depression) where school children were asked to write about poverty. A child from a wealthy family wrote; Being poor is tough. The butler is poor, the cook is poor, the maid is poor, the…”
The Obamas want to spread hope. They just hope you do not wise up and realize what they really are.