I want to thank those who read my previous post on Making America Great Again. Here is a followup for the upcoming conventions and debates, and commentary. Thanks again and enjoy.
So the political talk will focus on the doubling of our nations big debt over the last few years. More debt than we ever had before. More debt than all the years combined prior. So let me get this straight, and feel free to correct me when I am wrong. Over the last many years we have opened up China, Mexico, Sri Lanka, India and every other nation in the world where we could find lower cost employees. Then what did we do with it? Our corporations started building trade agreements with all of them. Then what did we do? Our corporations started investing in all these countries to build manufacturing plants in them.
Of course they also invested in building new plants in America for Americans to work in. They didn’t? Didn’t NAFTA strengthen our country and our borders? It didn’t? No. El Paso, as an example, is a city full of vacant manufacturing and distribution facilities. Across the border is a city of thousand of under paid employees with no benefits. Detroit? Lansing? Silicone Valley? Get my drift.
It was a warm and fuzzy moment for the corporations and for their investors to have American Corporations build and thereby invest in our most dangerous adversaries (China), in some of the poorest nations in the world, with the cheapest labor in the world and build them up into manufacturing and economic power centers. Then, they laid off millions of Americans and closed thousands of manufacturing and support facilities for the manufacturing of these plants in America. Why? To increase their profits and pay investors more money. We have created a fantastic trickle down economy. About 10-20 people. But wait?
There was a discovery made about 20 years ago. Unemployed people don’t shop much. When they do shop they don’t have much money to spend. The economy started to suffer. Recession loomed overhead. But when I am going to run for public office I want to say that we can bring the economy back. With what? When I go back to my voters I have to show them that our economy is booming because of my excellent insight and voting record.
More debt than we have ever owed in the history of our country. Debt to be sure the unemployed can shop more, buy more groceries, feed more doctors, etc. because God knows that the corporations aren’t going to sacrifice profit for the sake of employing Americans and having them (the employees) pay taxes again to take the heat off of the rest of us. Share the tax burden rather than center it on those of us who can’t itemize because we can’t afford a home (one of those difficult to outsource economies in America).
How about Fight the tariffs and call for free trade? Don’t charge an unemployment tax on the corporations that sent the jobs away, let the government pay them (the unemployed). But we still have the problem that the economy is down. We have more poor, we have more strained relationships because more competition for the good paying jobs (of which there are now fewer) results in fear and animosity. We do not have neighbors, we have created more competitors for survival. But we need to turn the country around without affecting the profits of the campaign contributors. When you run out of money at home what do you do? Max out your credit cards. Raise the minimum wage to raise more taxes at the expense of those small businessman who couldn’t outsource their business because it is here. What the government is doing is trying to keep an artificial economy going by being the breadwinner for the corporations, who would rather keep the money in the hands of a few. Call it socialism to share the wealth, or call it economic terrorism to ship the jobs away. Make it continue to have the appearance of a viable economy through a government we can blame during the election years and then hold their hands out to the rest of the time.
You can’t fix the economy with war. That merely makes the manufacturers of the war goods more money and most of that manufacturing is now done overseas and the profits disappear into space. The nation as a whole no longer benefits from war because the corporate profits that used to be distributed to the employees here, are being distributed to the employees there and the profit goes to unnamed banks in unnamed countries tax free.
And the next great idea is to cut taxes. From whom?
Unemployed people don’t pay much in taxes. Not enough to rebuild the economy. Of course those of us left who actually have the decent jobs that are left are seeing our taxes go up, to pay for what? Police cars, police, firemen, soldiers? Of course your taxes are going up. A huge segment of what used to be fully employed people can’t make much of a living in part-time jobs, or no jobs and they already make too little to pay more taxes, if any. Maybe do away with the minimum deductions.Of course then how will they shop? Ever have a discussion in a company about how great business is when people receive their tax refunds?
Ah, a tax cut so the refunds are bigger. Be very careful to take those refunds away. Then where is the money going to come from to keep the economy going with no manufacturing?
The recommendations (party platforms) are only going to call for employment in the jobs that can’t be sourced overseas. Building homes, working for cities, jobs in small local business. Working for a few insightful foreign companies that are brighter than we are. They build plants in America to build products for sale in America because as Henry Ford said, when asked why he paid his employees so much very early on said (paraphrase), “I need people who can afford to buy my cars”.
Well duh. Watch the discussions and the debates coming up and see if they truly address where the money is going to come from. If it is not coming from the people who have raped America, it simply has to come from borrowed money. How much more do you think we can borrow before the well runs dry, and then what are the dreamers going to do?
Move their investments to someplace else. Someday we will call it economic terrorism. Not radical, not Islamic, not Palestinian, not Black, Not Hispanic, economic. And who is saying it? You will see if you pay attention.