Paslode
07-13-2011, 06:23
An interesting opinion piece on globalization and the demise of the US Economy.
My (3) favorites
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/how-globalism-has-destroyed-our-jobs-businesses-and-national-wealth-in-10-easy-steps
Here is how globalism has destroyed our jobs, our businesses and our national wealth in 10 easy steps....
#1 Globalism has merged the U.S. economy with economies that allow slave labor wages.
The "minimum wage" became a whole lot less meaningful once we merged our economy with the economies of nations where it is legal to pay workers 50 cents an hour.
American workers have enjoyed all of the cheap products that have come flooding into our shores, but our politicians never told them that globalism would also mean that they would soon be directly competing for jobs with workers on the other side of the globe that are willing to work for 5 or 10 percent as much.
One big, global labor pool means that the standard of living of the hundreds of millions of workers on the other side of the world will come up slightly while the standard of living of American workers will come crashing down at a blinding pace.
Advocates of globalism never can seem to explain how U.S. workers are supposed to compete with teenage workers in Vietnam that often work seven days a week for as little as 6 cents an hour making promotional toys for big corporations.
#3 Globalism has allowed foreign countries to dominate a whole host of industries that used to be dominated by the United States.
U.S. companies are having an incredibly difficult time competing against the low labor costs and the much less stringent business regulations found on the other side of the globe.
In May, the United States spent 50 billion dollars more on goods and services from the rest of the globe than they spent on goods and services from us.
This happens month after month after month.
Every month we get tens of billions of dollars poorer and the rest of the world gets tens of billions of dollars richer.
We are getting clobbered even in industries that we invented.
Do you remember when the United States was the dominant manufacturer of automobiles and trucks on the globe? Well, in 2010 the U.S. ran a trade deficit in automobiles, trucks and parts of $110 billion.
In 2010, South Korea exported 12 times as many automobiles, trucks and parts to us as we exported to them.
How did this happen?
Well, there are a lot of reasons, but one big reason is that the business environment in the United States has become incredibly toxic. Businesses in this country face a nightmarish web of rules and regulations and that is a big reason why so many businesses are choosing to leave this country.
In a recent article for Forbes, John Mariotti made a list of just a few of the bureaucracies that U.S. businesses must contend with on a daily basis....
Medicare & Medicaid
Social Security
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
SEC–Securities & Exchange Commission
FASB–Federal Accounting Standards Board
GAAP–Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
IRS–Internal Revenue Service
FTC–Federal Trade Commission
FDA–Food & Drug Administration
FAA–Federal Aviation Administration
FCC–Federal Communications Commission
EPA–Environmental Protection Agency
EEOC–Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
FLSA–Fair Labor Standards Act
NLRB–National Labor Relations Board
Labor Management Relations Act (The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947)
OSHA–Occupational Safety & Health Administration
CFTC–Commodity Futures Trading Commission
NFA–National Futures Association
PBGC–Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation
ERISA–Employee Retirement Income Security Act
NHTSA–National Highway Transportation Safety Agency
CPSC–Consumer Product Safety Committee
NIOSH—National Institutes of Safety and Health
Employee Retirement Plans 401(k), 403(a) etc.
IRA–Individual Retirement Account
USPTO–U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
ITC–International Trade Commission
USTR—US Special Trade Representative
ICE–Immigration & Customers Enforcement
BLM—Bureau of Land Management
MSDS: Material Safety Data Sheets
#10 Foreign countries are using up some of the wealth that we send them every month to buy up our infrastructure.
Most Americans don't realize that our state and local governments are selling off our infrastructure piece by piece. Foreign governments are literally buying pieces of America with the money that we keep sending to them. In a recent article entitled "Our Politicians Are Selling Off Pieces Of America To Foreign Investors – And Goldman Sachs Is Helping Them Do It (http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/our-politicians-are-selling-off-pieces-of-america-to-foreign-investors-and-goldman-sachs-is-helping-them-do-it)", I talked about this phenomenon....
State and local governments across the country that are drowning in debt and that are desperate for cash are increasingly turning to the "privatization" of public assets as the solution to their problems. Pieces of infrastructure that taxpayers have already paid for such as highways, water treatment plants, libraries, parking meters, airports and power plants are being auctioned off to the highest bidder. Most of the time what happens is that the state or local government receives a huge lump sum of cash up front for a long-term lease (usually 75 years or longer) and the foreign investors come in and soak as much revenue out of the piece of infrastructure that they possibly can. The losers in these deals are almost always the taxpayers. Pieces of America are literally being auctioned off just to help state and local governments minimize their debt problems for a year or two, but the consequences of these deals will be felt for decades.
My (3) favorites
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/how-globalism-has-destroyed-our-jobs-businesses-and-national-wealth-in-10-easy-steps
Here is how globalism has destroyed our jobs, our businesses and our national wealth in 10 easy steps....
#1 Globalism has merged the U.S. economy with economies that allow slave labor wages.
The "minimum wage" became a whole lot less meaningful once we merged our economy with the economies of nations where it is legal to pay workers 50 cents an hour.
American workers have enjoyed all of the cheap products that have come flooding into our shores, but our politicians never told them that globalism would also mean that they would soon be directly competing for jobs with workers on the other side of the globe that are willing to work for 5 or 10 percent as much.
One big, global labor pool means that the standard of living of the hundreds of millions of workers on the other side of the world will come up slightly while the standard of living of American workers will come crashing down at a blinding pace.
Advocates of globalism never can seem to explain how U.S. workers are supposed to compete with teenage workers in Vietnam that often work seven days a week for as little as 6 cents an hour making promotional toys for big corporations.
#3 Globalism has allowed foreign countries to dominate a whole host of industries that used to be dominated by the United States.
U.S. companies are having an incredibly difficult time competing against the low labor costs and the much less stringent business regulations found on the other side of the globe.
In May, the United States spent 50 billion dollars more on goods and services from the rest of the globe than they spent on goods and services from us.
This happens month after month after month.
Every month we get tens of billions of dollars poorer and the rest of the world gets tens of billions of dollars richer.
We are getting clobbered even in industries that we invented.
Do you remember when the United States was the dominant manufacturer of automobiles and trucks on the globe? Well, in 2010 the U.S. ran a trade deficit in automobiles, trucks and parts of $110 billion.
In 2010, South Korea exported 12 times as many automobiles, trucks and parts to us as we exported to them.
How did this happen?
Well, there are a lot of reasons, but one big reason is that the business environment in the United States has become incredibly toxic. Businesses in this country face a nightmarish web of rules and regulations and that is a big reason why so many businesses are choosing to leave this country.
In a recent article for Forbes, John Mariotti made a list of just a few of the bureaucracies that U.S. businesses must contend with on a daily basis....
Medicare & Medicaid
Social Security
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
SEC–Securities & Exchange Commission
FASB–Federal Accounting Standards Board
GAAP–Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
IRS–Internal Revenue Service
FTC–Federal Trade Commission
FDA–Food & Drug Administration
FAA–Federal Aviation Administration
FCC–Federal Communications Commission
EPA–Environmental Protection Agency
EEOC–Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
FLSA–Fair Labor Standards Act
NLRB–National Labor Relations Board
Labor Management Relations Act (The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947)
OSHA–Occupational Safety & Health Administration
CFTC–Commodity Futures Trading Commission
NFA–National Futures Association
PBGC–Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation
ERISA–Employee Retirement Income Security Act
NHTSA–National Highway Transportation Safety Agency
CPSC–Consumer Product Safety Committee
NIOSH—National Institutes of Safety and Health
Employee Retirement Plans 401(k), 403(a) etc.
IRA–Individual Retirement Account
USPTO–U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
ITC–International Trade Commission
USTR—US Special Trade Representative
ICE–Immigration & Customers Enforcement
BLM—Bureau of Land Management
MSDS: Material Safety Data Sheets
#10 Foreign countries are using up some of the wealth that we send them every month to buy up our infrastructure.
Most Americans don't realize that our state and local governments are selling off our infrastructure piece by piece. Foreign governments are literally buying pieces of America with the money that we keep sending to them. In a recent article entitled "Our Politicians Are Selling Off Pieces Of America To Foreign Investors – And Goldman Sachs Is Helping Them Do It (http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/our-politicians-are-selling-off-pieces-of-america-to-foreign-investors-and-goldman-sachs-is-helping-them-do-it)", I talked about this phenomenon....
State and local governments across the country that are drowning in debt and that are desperate for cash are increasingly turning to the "privatization" of public assets as the solution to their problems. Pieces of infrastructure that taxpayers have already paid for such as highways, water treatment plants, libraries, parking meters, airports and power plants are being auctioned off to the highest bidder. Most of the time what happens is that the state or local government receives a huge lump sum of cash up front for a long-term lease (usually 75 years or longer) and the foreign investors come in and soak as much revenue out of the piece of infrastructure that they possibly can. The losers in these deals are almost always the taxpayers. Pieces of America are literally being auctioned off just to help state and local governments minimize their debt problems for a year or two, but the consequences of these deals will be felt for decades.