LIARS AND FIGURES AND GO FIGURE
liars can figure but figures don't lie. old saying. still true. the republicans say they are "fiscal conservatives" and the nasty old democrats are "tax and spend" liberals. that's the lie. here are the figures: ronnie reagan 200 BILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT. george bush I 300 BILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT. bill clinton 200 BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS (WHICH MEANS HE PAID OFF THE DEFICIT FROM OLD MAN BUSH AND STILL ADDED 200 BILLION!! and, of course, last but certainly least, george w. bush 482 BILLION (AND COUNTING) DEFICIT!
these deficits left to us and our children to pay do all sorts of things to the economy including the lowering of the value of the dollar and presses us to borrow money from other countries, china comes to mind here. (the idea of republicans, who for years screamed and yelled and whined and cried about "godless communists" but then going hat in hand to china to borrow money to support their little illegal wars is the stuff of great farce) when the dollar goes down, the price of oil goes up. oh, well when the dollar goes down europeans and asians can come here as visitors but many do not because of our harsh actions at points of entry. when the dollar goes down the cost of almost everything imported goes up. now, look at the clothes you are wearing today, how much of your wardrobe is made in the USA? who made your car? your tv? your stereo? (as far as i know we do not make a single television set in america but we all own one or more). go through your entire house and see how many things you can find that were made here. then flash back in time to the 50's when tax rates for the rich were very high and see how many things were made here in america. ALMOST EVERY FUCKING THING WE HAD OR USED WAS MADE BY AMERICAN WORKERS WHO THEN SPENT THEIR WAGES HERE IN AMERICA. hmmmm. now, we buy a shirt from timbuckfuckingto and the worker there gets zip and the american worker is shut out from even that.
the center for tax policy which is nonpartisan said the obama'a tax increases will go to people making over $200,000 per year while the rest of us would pay slightly lower taxes. under bush the top 1% of the people got 90% of the tax breaks.
when asked where does middle class end and wealthy begin, obama said 200,000 dollars per year and mc cain (the non elitist lol) said, are you ready, 5 MILLION dollars per year. (oh, i know, it was partly in jest but still......)
bill got his dick sucked and lied about it but he brought jobs and prosperity to america. george probably doesn't get his dick sucked but lies about everything else and brought us war, debt, unemployment, inflation and the worst recession in decades. JOHN MC CAIN WILL CONTINUE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF GEORGE BUSH'S POLICIES.
but, hey, why vote for obama? he has a funny name.
these deficits left to us and our children to pay do all sorts of things to the economy including the lowering of the value of the dollar and presses us to borrow money from other countries, china comes to mind here. (the idea of republicans, who for years screamed and yelled and whined and cried about "godless communists" but then going hat in hand to china to borrow money to support their little illegal wars is the stuff of great farce) when the dollar goes down, the price of oil goes up. oh, well when the dollar goes down europeans and asians can come here as visitors but many do not because of our harsh actions at points of entry. when the dollar goes down the cost of almost everything imported goes up. now, look at the clothes you are wearing today, how much of your wardrobe is made in the USA? who made your car? your tv? your stereo? (as far as i know we do not make a single television set in america but we all own one or more). go through your entire house and see how many things you can find that were made here. then flash back in time to the 50's when tax rates for the rich were very high and see how many things were made here in america. ALMOST EVERY FUCKING THING WE HAD OR USED WAS MADE BY AMERICAN WORKERS WHO THEN SPENT THEIR WAGES HERE IN AMERICA. hmmmm. now, we buy a shirt from timbuckfuckingto and the worker there gets zip and the american worker is shut out from even that.
the center for tax policy which is nonpartisan said the obama'a tax increases will go to people making over $200,000 per year while the rest of us would pay slightly lower taxes. under bush the top 1% of the people got 90% of the tax breaks.
when asked where does middle class end and wealthy begin, obama said 200,000 dollars per year and mc cain (the non elitist lol) said, are you ready, 5 MILLION dollars per year. (oh, i know, it was partly in jest but still......)
bill got his dick sucked and lied about it but he brought jobs and prosperity to america. george probably doesn't get his dick sucked but lies about everything else and brought us war, debt, unemployment, inflation and the worst recession in decades. JOHN MC CAIN WILL CONTINUE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF GEORGE BUSH'S POLICIES.
but, hey, why vote for obama? he has a funny name.
posted by Ron Shock | 9:23 AM
2 Comments:
One of the reasons I'm not a Republican is that the one place where I am conservative, they aren't. War is not fiscally conservative.
The dollar going down helps some workers--My brother in law works at a small foundry. A couple years ago, the owner was considering closing it down due to lack of profits. Now he has more orders than he can handle, because the weak dollar means he's getting orders for parts that used to be cast overseas. Short-term, the falling dollar hurts imports, but it helps bring more manufacturing back to the US.
Globalization long-term helps everyone. Things should be made where they can be done most efficiently--some stuff should be local, because transport eats any cost savings. Some stuff can be done pretty much anywhere, and certain areas have developed specialty infrastructure. (An example I'm familiar with--Japan has "semiconductor grade" toluene widely available. The highest widely-available US grade is not as pure, not quite adequate for making picture tubes)
People talk about exploiting the poor foreign workers. The solution is to take away the best jobs they can get? It is somehow morally better to take away their choice, and effectively doom them to another generation without progress towards modern civilization.
Countries don't stay in the sweatshop stage forever--Look at Japan, look at Korea--Used to be famous for cheap crap. Japan's quality is higher, as are costs--Cheap crap is outsourced to lower-cost countries. Korea used to be one of the lower-cost countries, but it is on the same path as Japan, just a generation or so behind.
Look at the Ipod. Made where labor is cheap by contract manufacturers--There is very little profit in the electronics. Most of the profit is in the intellectual property, and that part stays here.
The net result of globalization is that Americans wind up a little better off long-term. Prices go down by more than wages do. As a poor area gets manufacturing experience, they can build more complex stuff, with higher wages. Eventually they aren't so poor anymore, and the cheapest stuff goes to another poor area to start the cycle again. I hope to see this go on long enough that the worldwide standard of poor becomes lack of luxury, rather than lack of food.
China is frightening, because they seem to have figured out economic capitalism, while retaining authoritarian government. I suspect and hope that the same forces that led them to loosen restrictions economically will eventually lead them to loosen up socially as well.
One of the factors in the lack of US TV manufacture is the Maquiladora system. We had an anti-dumping duty on Japanese TV tubes (I think it was 25%), but in the 90's Maquiladora-built sets came into the US duty-free, even with imported components. (In the picture-tube era, the tube was most of the value) US factories also sent tubes to Mexico so they could build sets (There aren't enough technical workers in Mexico to make larger tubes) and we had to align them here. Education wasn't up to par in Mexico, so what we considered entry-level technical was not practical to do in Mexico.
great post, sevesteen! great points as well. marx had a lot of things wrong but at the same time had a lot of valid points and one of which is that real wealth of country comes from what the MAKE. here in america we move money around but now make very little. the third world countries who are now "making things" for us pay, as you pointed out, what would be considered "slave wages" here so that the workers themselves cannot buy that 'thing' they make. korea and japan were "established societies" with sense of self and sense of their own society. today, 3rd world countries are, for the most part, dictatorships and the working poor in those societies will never see the benefits of their own labor. if they were countries such as japan or korea it would be different, but they are not.
i believe that what is happening is not that 3rd world wages are going up as much as first world worker wages are going down and that is not the parity we seek.
i am much more interested in the welfare of american workers than workers anywhere else be they first or third world. in my opinion, and it may be pollyannish, but we need to bring back some of our "factory jobs" that for decades allowed the average, non college educated, person to make a living wage. the men and women who worked on the line at gm or ford or westinghouse or (fill in the blanks) could afford a home, a car and an education for their children. a service society does not offer this to these people.
oh well.
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