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The car industry tells it best. Low-end car manufacturers like Nissan and Toyota came into the market with their low-end, tiny, cheap cars that were made in Japan. Customers flocked to these lower priced cars despite the garbage quality. In order to compete and stay in business, American companies had to lower their quality and start manufacturing in Mexico. They were forced by the customer.
There is a fallacy on the far right that big business should never be accountable for anything.
In their world, big business does not buy up politicians, does not create our laws through lobbiests, does not swindle world economies (the housing bubble, etc.), and does not have massive influence on public perception through advertising and media campaigns. In short, they are all honest, hard-working folks like you and me who are just trying to get by, have no power at all, and shouldn't have to do anything but make money.
It is insane, of course, but it ties into some crazy notion that "big business alone made America." This isn't really true - they tend to forget that what made America unique was that we are a representative republic... that, not crony-capitalism is what set us apart from our peers at the time. They also tend to forget that if corporations "back in the day" had the same attitudes modern companies had, America never would have become an industrial power... building all those factories here and hiring all those Americans is just so expensive... can't we just steal taxpayer money, hire illegal labor, and sell crooked financial products vs. producing something of value?
Similarly, the right loves to tear down the government, which is ironic since our form of government is what gave us such an edge over the rest of the world for years. They also never bother to mention what happens once government is tiny and powerless... then, somebody else moves into the void - be it corporations, extremist groups, or whatever - and you can't get rid of them. One can at least vote against crooked politicians, but one cannot vote out crooked businessmen, crooked appointed officials, and so on. They don't study history and have no understanding of the nightmare world they seek to produce... but, hey, they also define the word "socialist" to mean "the government did something I don't like!" so there you go.
There have been many forms of socialism, including national socialism. A Socialist Economic System works with a heterogeneous population. That is why smaller socialist nations usually enjoyed a higher standard of living than larger ones, and among larger ones, it's the lesser populated ones that fared best, of course.
And you are correct about labor.
“If we are the greatest nation the sun ever shone upon, it would seem to be mainly because we have been able to goad our wage-earners to this pitch of frenzy.” ― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
Samuel Adams said he would never be a slave. His dad was both a deacon and a brewmaster.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy that did not commit suicide.” --Samuel Adams
I believe the moneychangers live in great fear now. The workers are onto them again. They own the government and are squeezing what they can out of it.
The car industry tells it best. Low-end car manufacturers like Nissan and Toyota came into the market with their low-end, tiny, cheap cars that were made in Japan. Customers flocked to these lower priced cars despite the garbage quality. In order to compete and stay in business, American companies had to lower their quality and start manufacturing in Mexico. They were forced by the customer.
The same thing has happened in other industries.
I'm well aware of what happened to the auto industry. I worked in engineering for job shops for Ford and GM in the 1980s.
I bet 90% of anything you bought on Amazon was foreign made, so why point the finger at other people?
You seem to want to blame Americans, when they don't hold the reigns to most businesses.
Yeah, we are paying the price for it, but it's not our fault. Put the blame where it belongs.
I can't for the life of me figure out why you'd back up the businesses....
You really have to have things spelled out for you in basic form. I never said Amazon is filled with American made goods. What you can do on Amazon is research what you are buying. You are given a lot more information and have the ability to potentially buy an American good or at least find a company that treats it's employers correctly. Wal-Mart certainly doesn't offer you this option and neither does Target really.
You are way behind the times blaming the American worker and talking like this.
If you haven't noticed, there aren't many places that make anything on American soil.
If you haven't noticed, there aren't many locally owned restaurants anymore.
And Chipotle (spell it right), is a chain, not a locally owned dig. Then you go off on how bad chains are.
I don't think you know what a chain is...
Once again everything has to be spelled out for you. You clearly live in a place where the population loves chain restaurants. It sounds like a terrible place if it can only support three local restaurants.
The point about Chipotle is that it's a chain that sources local produce often and treats it's workers very well. They support family farms.
Ok, this has been an Economics thread with occasional detours into Politics for about the past 100 posts or so. Time to close it down.
Folks, I recognize that employment has close ties to the economy and politics, but threads in this particular forum need to remain on the topic of EMPLOYMENT. If you want to chat about the economy and about business, please stop by http://www.city-data.com/forum/economics/ and join the conversations there. If you want to talk politics, the place for that is this forum: http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...controversies/.
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