Quote:
Originally Posted by KevK
The fact is that the USA these days is like a good looking baked chicken. Looks good, smells better but the meat inside is RAW. The fact is that our country has become a grand illusion. It has been for the past many years but it was able to be patched over to the point that it just fooled many people. Consider the economy- there was once a time when the United States had a REAL economy that was based on work, productivity and wealth redistribution to the working people.
Our industrial base was in fact the anchor of our economy. It employed everybody from high school drop outs in manual labour jobs to Engineers, Managers and other white collar types. The jobs paid well and one could earn a good decent living there. Having come from a blue collar family, there were 4 of us (plus 2 adults) and we had a house and a car and food every day of the year. We took vacations too. And only my dad worked when we were young.
Many people talk about how bad racism was back then but my dad worked side by side with Negros at Boeing who did the same job and earned the same pay he did. Those Negros could not get that job today and neither could a white man with only a high school education. True we have come a long way- no Negro could aspire to be President back then but at the same time we have regressed and been fooled by the illusion that the black is truly equal based upon President Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Tiger Woods while the real truth is that the black male is sufferiing greatly in the New World Order economy.
We have an economy which gives the college graduate the illusion that he will make quick riches if he can only join the banksters but the banksters are a very exclusive club. The movie "Wall Street" is not far from reality. The banksters rule over this country like the Lords of old England. Obama runs nothing, Gordon Gekko runs everything. The banksters buy and sell you and me like chattel slaves. And we act like we should just be so thankful for every little crumb that falls from the Master's table onto our plates.
The banksters have us right where they want us- drunk on pop culture and paying more attention to American Idle than the American economy. They have fostered upon us 100 channels of TV to draw our eyes off them.
For the past 30 years, we have been fooled. We were fooled by the bankster's bubbles. Their dot.com bubbles burst and they replaced that with a housing bubble based on fake loans and fake interest rates. And now that has burst and we are in a world of hurt.
And the sad truth is that the sheeple all think that this is just a "recession" and like all recessions before this one, it will soon go away and we will all hold hands and sing "Happy Days Are Here Again". What we do not realize is that we are in a GLOBAL economy now. The recession may ease but only because the banksters will print up the money and hand it out. Another illusion and another bubble. And when that bubble burst in the way of hyper inflation, we will ALL be in DEEP stuff.
So let us all go out and shoot fire crackers and sing Yankee Doodle Dandy this weekend. Let us all ignore reality of the New World Order and lets us celebrate THE GRAND ILLUSION!
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Who are you, and what did you do with KevK?
I'm not just a little surprised to read your post (whoever you are) that so clearly describes most, but not all, of the circumstances driving our current economic decline. Yes, you are very correct that our economy has changed from the days when our fathers worked at factories earning enough money to support their entire family.
I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit in the 1960s. My father (now deceased) worked for Kelsey-Hayes (now Hayes-Lemmerz following bankruptcy). My mother never needed to work and my father was never out of work for more than a matter of weeks while they retooled or went on strike. Today the same factory, like most of the factories in this area, sits abandoned with weeds overtaking the parking lots. My father's advice to me back when he worked there was "Don't be a factory worker like me...be a pencil pusher". He had no Earthly idea at the time that neither job would be available to me or my generation.
Hayes-Lemmerz still makes brake components and wheels for the domestic auto industry, but they employ precious few workers. They have reduced the number of employees by automating their manufacturing process. The precision needed to manufacture ABS components (now their mainstay) cannot be produced by human hands, so jobs like the one my father had are gone forever. Computers and the Internet have made the white collar jobs far fewer in number, so the pencil pusher jobs are gone as well.
Other nations like China, India and Japan have developed their capacity to make the products the world buys. The days following WWII when the rest of the world was in smoking ruins and we could charge what we liked for our exports gave us the economy of the 1950s and 1960s, but by 1976 we had become a net importer. We've been borrowing to create bubbles ever since.
Carter pursued a weak dollar policy to boost exports. This approach to resolving our trade problem saved jobs but at a tremendous cost. Inflation jumped ten points to its all time high as the dollar crashed. Our 22% misery index nearly matched our 21% prime interest rate. This was our first attempt following the loss of our net exporter status to grow the economy with fiat currency and a catastrophe.
I won't bother to go into all the permutations of the Carter experiment that followed. Suffice to say the core issue has never been addressed. We are a buyer first and a seller second. The solution to that problem solves the rest of our economic problems.
Yes, we can have the good old days once again, but we have to play by the rules of reality. We cannot have the second highest corporate tax rates and expect internationals to not bribe our politicians so they look the other way while they avoid our taxes with price shifting. And if we force the profitable operations overseas with our excessive taxes, how will the jobs associated with those operations be here?
Pending insurance mandates, uncertain energy supplies and proposed VAT and carbon taxes, all with unknown costs are a sure way to prevent internationals from expanding their activities here. We lose because we keep making doing business in the US harder than it needs to be. I've listened to left-wing radio and I understand the POV that pervades. It's one anti-business rant after another. Like that helps.
Maybe the real difference between a conservative and a liberal is the matter of trust. Our liberal friends are outraged, and rightly so, at the conduct of our nation's CEOs, CFOs, Banksters and everyone else who screws the guy working on the line along with the investors then, when the company is insolvent, lands with his or her multi-million dollar golden parachute. Well, what else would you expect them to do when they can buy off politicians from either or both parties with a few thousand in campaign contributions and the implied guarantee of a multi-million dollar position with their company when it comes time to cash in for screwing the people?
Sure, they pay a price politically and sometimes resign under fire, but it's only to cash in on the multi-millions of good will they have earned with their corporate keepers. Yet I hear the liberal hopefuls with one breath rightly condemn the slime rags who screw the public then wish aloud that their favorite politicians would get to work holding the CEOs, CFOs and other assorted SOBs accountable. Sorry to have to break the news, but your favorite politician is also on the corporate payroll and looking forward to the days when he or she is driven from office and can really cash in. The rewards the Rubens and Gramms of the world reap serve as a notice to those currently in office that they won't be forgotten if they just play ball.
Lose your primary?
Ethics committee on your @ss?
Don't worry, corporate America will make you a fat cat lobbyist.
Yes liberals, corporations are run by horrible people.
No, your liberal hero is not going to save the day because he or she is on the corporate payroll too, looking the other way when it's your guy setting up the slush fund won't change the way things are done in DC and depending on one party to police the other is ineffectual when they both swear allegiance to the same corporate masters.
Having said all that, the Tea Party movement seeks to involve Joe/Jane Average with the decisions that determine his/her future. Accountability will only happen when we force the issue. Think the Tea Pary participants are light in the brains department? Then get your @ss to an event and help out Einstein!
I hope the Tea Party movement continues to grow. Only through grass roots involvement will we be able to punish the corporations which buy off our politicians, because not only must politicians fear the people, but corporations as well. If the Tea Party movement fades or becomes a political party, all is lost, but right now we have an opportunity to change course.
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