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"Soon extended unemployment benefits will cease and 2 million Americans will have to dip into their savings, if they have any.
This is an outgrowth of the effects of free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing. We have lost 8.5 million jobs over the last ten years to this destructive process.
We have seen more than 42,000 manufacturing plants leave the country as well.
There are now more than 17 million Americans unemployed and the U6 official government unemployment figures 17%. If you remove the bogus birth/death ration, the real figure is 22-5/8%.
Over that ten-year period we have lost about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs or about 1/3rd of that labor force.
As recent as 1985, 25% of output was in manufacturing, now it is close to 11%.
America’s physical infrastructure is in a shambles, so that transnational conglomerates can bring us cheap goods to suppress inflation and bring these companies mega-profits, which they keep stored offshore to bypass taxation.
They presently have $1.7 trillion in such profits."
Tariffs can be applied more discerningly than you imply. They also are a good source of revenue for the government. One that today we've replaced with personal income tax. Corporate pay has skyrocketed since NAFTA because businesses have moved their operations overseas, without the savings of that action being passed on to the consumer. Why shouldn't they be penalized for that? The United States has a lot of leverage, 90% of the goods we buy are of foreign origin. As a large global consumer, we do, to some extent, have more wiggle room than you are implying.
Really, though, I don't care what we do as long as we do something. Massive deregulation has been profitable for business owners, but not the American economy, or things would be different today. It was great in the long term, but moving everyone's job's overseas was obviously going to mess things up eventually. Even if companies can create cheaper products overseas, how are they employees they laid off to buy those products?
Tarrifs are not a good source of revenue for the government, they simply replace other revenues, and as if thats the only issue. Even if they "were a good source of revenues" how much revenues do you get when companies simply stop importing because people refuse to pay. You do understand that tariffs are passed off onto the consumer right, this increases the prices of products right? Its the CONSUMER still paying, so keep whining about corporate CEO pays etc because that wont change.
You want corporations to stop exporting our jobs, then stop STEALING from them, their investors, and the consumers buying their products, and stop legislating the crap outta them, making it easier to decide to leave. That wasnt an option for you though was it? You immediately thought about making it tougher for them, thereby making them decide to simply not import, and then you'll be complaining about that as well..
You see liberal actions always yields the opposite of the intended results.. Your plan wouldnt solve anything you are hoping for, and if you really thought it though, you'd understand this.. Look at it from the business side, not from an antibusiness, wacked out I hate capitalists consumer..
the short fall not the debt. The debt is $12t and counting (I haven't looked it up so I'm probably understating it.)
Thats what I meant, i.e. the deficit, thanks for the correction.
This means that the other poster is suggesting that we take every dime of profit from corporations to pay federal deficits.. I say when you need to take every dime of profit from corporations this means one of two things
1) Either corporations need to make more, (is the left willing to call for this? I doubt it)
2) The deficits need to get smaller and federal spending needs cut..
You can give all the tax breaks you want to companies and it would not matter if their were trade tariffs in place to protect the American worker.
Tariff wars were out of control before - and will not fix this problem. Nafta, GATT, etc were designed to end those wars, and for the most part they controlled the price of goods. What they didnt do was control the outsourcing of jobs, and under Bush the corporations went ballistic, because of tax breaks as well as labor cost breaks. There should be quotas on the number of jobs that are allowed to be outsourced just as there are HB1 visa quotas for jobs allowed to be worked here.
You do know that Bush was 100% behind NAFTA, don't you? Forget blaming the Demos or Repubs it is BOTH their fault. Exported services/jobs should be treated as the imports they actually are and taxed as such. When you remove the huge profits being made by big buisness then you slow the loss of jobs.
Casper
Big Bidness execs could care less about the American worker's job - at least not until it is THEIR job being sent overseas.
Thats what I meant, i.e. the deficit, thanks for the correction.
This means that the other poster is suggesting that we take every dime of profit from corporations to pay federal deficits.. I say when you need to take every dime of profit from corporations this means one of two things
1) Either corporations need to make more, (is the left willing to call for this? I doubt it)
2) The deficits need to get smaller and federal spending needs cut..
Which one does liberals support?
Here is one for you Raise minimum wage up far enough that those making it can get by on it and then cut the entitelments to the bone. QE 3 should be cash into everyone's pocket not into the banks. As far as profits go taking those made from out-sorcing yep I'm inclined to think that would be a good idea.
Here is one for you Raise minimum wage up far enough that those making it can get by on it and then cut the entitelments to the bone. QE 3 should be cash into everyone's pocket not into the banks. As far as profits go taking those made from out-sorcing yep I'm inclined to think that would be a good idea.
You will find a whole new list of "jobs Americans don't want to do"
At least that is what our government will tell you, as the illegals that don't have to get that minimum wage, flood over the border, to take your job, too.
You will find a whole new list of "jobs Americans don't want to do"
At least that is what our government will tell you, as the illegals that don't have to get that minimum wage, flood over the border, to take your job, too.
I can train a monkey to do brain surgery.
Enforcing the laws. We need chandes and a good place to start is with enforcement. But most of the jobs will be paid minimum wage or higher. Some undocumented workers will be paid less but the cost of everything will go up some so they will demand higher wages as well.
The democrats have been in comtrol for the last four years. They have done nothing to stop this, only advance our decline.
thanks, democrats.
My great grand-children will thank you.
In chinese.
The great grand-children have bigger problems to face than national debt. Let's view a different perspective, shall we?
+ In 2050 the global population will hit 9 billion. That's like adding two Chinas to the current population, which is around 7 billion. All those people have to eat, drink, sleep and ****. Where's is going to come from and where's the waste going to go?
+ We have severe pollution problems now in many parts of the world, and we have finite resources. Where is the energy going to come from to produce the goods that will be needed feed, clothe, and house a 9 billion populated planet.
+ Where is the water going to come from when most regions are already either water poor, or water refugees? Lake Chad is drying. The Colorado River is in bad shape. Lake Powell is filling with silt at a higher rate than anticipated. In 1999 Lake Mead was at near capacity; today it has srunk to 40% of capacity. Add to that fact, and yes, it IS a fact, that precipitation in the SW region is decreasing and the temperature is increasing which contributes to a higher evaporation rate. In yet another region on the continent of Africa, nomadic tribes are beginning to fight over water and grazing for their livestock. The water is disappearing. (actually, it doesn't disappear, it simply evaporates and is in the atmosphere but due to other climatic phenomena it isn't coming back in the form of precipitation as often and as much)
+ We're losing our rainforests at a rate greater than an acre and 1/2 EVERY SECOND. If we continue harvesting those trees there will be no rainforests in 2060. Why is this important? Rainforests are the Earth's lungs. The soil has no nutrients, so when it's farmed it's good for about a season or two then it dries. The nutrients are in the detritus (falling leaves, twigs, and such on the rainforest floor). Rainforests have the largest diversity of plants and animals. They are a carbon sink and are one of the most important components in the carbon cycle.
+ We have top predator species on the brink of extinction and endangerment, and many more that aren't top predators. If we lose them it's much more than "oh, I hate it that we lost the polar bears, or who really cares about wild tigers? It's not my problem." Actually, it is. This is when you see a REAL trickle down effect. Not money, but life. You lose them and it F's up entire ecosystems until it eventually collapses. A collapsed ecosystem affects humans that depend upon it for food, and subsitance.
+ There are island nations that are literally and physically disappearing. Where will those people go? What nation will they belong to when their island nation is covered by the rising sea? That's happening right now.
The great grand-children are facing much greater problems than national debt. This planet is disintegrating due to the growth-at-all-costs- capitalism that drives over-consumption, over-production, **** poor land management practices, **** poor attitudes to anything and everything that isn't human and/or Western society humans, and of course, over-population. Technology isn't going to save us. It will help, it might extend the lives for some, but if we continue this destructive, over-consumptive path, and we will because people are hell bent with 'damned everything else, I got mine' attitude.
The great grand-children are facing much more dire consequences than national debt. Think I'm chicken little? Think again. Your grandchildren, not even your great grand children are in a bad spot. We put them there. Our parents put them there. And we're hell bent to 'stay the course.'
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