Dealing in theories instead of people
Who can untangle the economic terror of our times [/LINK]by Ray Tapajna
See also Economic terror takes over
Our leaders and media deal in theories and statistics before they deal with workers and people who are lost in the shuffle of debates.
Our leaders and the media talk about what it takes to restore our economy. They talk about creating new ways to drive the economy instead of the workers who are outside looking in.
I just read an article about electric cars. The expert says if we make electric cars it would change our dependence on foreign oil and this would create a new economy especially if they are made in the USA. This is true but so far, all other efforts have failed because there will be always be cheaper labor to produce the parts even if the item is built or assembled in the USA.
President Obama steered millions of dollars to the making of solar devices. The company that receive most of the money has gone bankrupt already. Others have too and this new green industry that President Obama has been pushing is dead on arrival. You can have all the research and development in the world but if most of the production phase depends on foreign components, nothing good will come from it. If taxpayers pay the bill for the R and D, they end up spending their way out of more jobs this way and create jobs for others in the world.
Instead of the phrase made in the USA, we now have the phrase built in the USA. Federal Reserve Bank Chairman, Ben Bernanke tells us the best way to stimulate the economy is to buy "domestically produced goods." Try defining what that means. He needs to define the term more thoroughly.
If all the parts or components come from other lands we are back at square one. I even read where some U.S. auto manufacturers ship out parts for more machining and further processing for reasons of costs or to escape some environmental issue and when this is completed, the part comes back for further manufacturing or assembly. This does not make any sense.
It is not ethical to take money from taxpayers and fund all kinds of ventures or have them pay for foreign manufacturer to come to America to build their plants. Taxpayers have paid billions of dollars to different foreign auto makers this way and it makes no sense. The state of Indiana paid Honda when all is said and done, 160 million dollars to build their assembly factory in their state. The factory employs 5,000 workers and most likely many are only part time or temporary workers. During this period, about 20,000 auto parts workers who were making decent wages and had decent benefits lost their jobs. Using this as a simple example, how can the 5,000 workers make up for the lost of 20,000 good paying jobs.
How can anything like this work especially when so many former steelworkers pensions are now paid by the Federal Government.
Now some states are using taxpayers money to keep some manufactures from leaving their states. This is corporate welfare while the jobless benefits are being cut. The very people who are paying the bill to keep corporations put are losing their jobs on a continuous basis.
President Obama now wants to give workers and companies a vacation from paying payroll taxes. This proves payroll taxes are a real negative. About 70 percent of all workers pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes. The payroll taxes are used in the general fund to pay for other services and items. President Clinton even admitted that he used the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for his wars in the Balkans.
In the end payroll taxes act like a flat tax on the working poor and since the revenues are used in the general fund, the payroll tax should be abolished and replaced by some better funding sources from the general fund.
To be competitive in the global economic arena, both U.S. workers and employers need a new way of collection rather than taking it out of the cost of doing business. Competitors in the so called free market do not have this cost.
Free trade came and cut the value of workers and labor and nothing will work until workers regain those values. Free trade thrash this value and this subsequently thrashes human dignity in the workday. It is also happening around the world while the common denominator is down to wage slave and even child labor.