How Globalism Has Destroyed Our Jobs, Businesses And National Wealth In 10 Easy Steps

[Paslode]

An interesting opinion piece on globalization and the demise of the US Economy.

My (3) favorites

http://endoftheamericandream.com/arc...-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", 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.

[rdret1]

All one has to do is look around. Increasing regulations, the political correctness of demonizing certain industries (i.e. tobacco, big oil, etc.) and liberal pipe dreams (green industry); are quickly destroying what we once were. Wilson, NC is a small town but very representative of the 10 points in the article. When I first moved here in '98, there were three major employers that were the linch pins for the local economy: the Bridgestone-Firestone plant; Wrangler jeans; and tobacco farms, for which Wilson was famous. In the summer, you couldn't get within a mile of downtown without smelling the oddly sweet smell of numerous tobacco warehouses.

First, tobacco was demonized out of existence. We now have only one or two warehouses left. Literally hundreds of workers were left without jobs. Then the Wrangler plant closed, leaving many more jobless. Even the Firestone plant has been threatened. We are developing a large pharmaceutical industry in the area but that is much more specialized, requiring workers with a higher education level than the tobacco or clothing manufacturing industries did. We are also becoming a bedroom community for the RDU area, but this still does not address those unskilled workers that were gainfully employed in earlier years.

[Sigaba]

I'm not sure where the blog post in the OP is trying to get us to go.

[Richard]

Meh...compete, don't compete...it is what it is. What now, Lieutenant?

Richard

[akv]

Originally Posted by Sigaba

I'm not sure where the blog post in the OP is trying to get us to go.

Agreed, somehow we manage to survive the weekly end is nigh crisis.

http://movieclips.com/JYURn-no-count...-whats-coming/

[Paragrouper]

Originally Posted by Broadsword2004

So over the last twenty or so years since Reagan's deregulatory policies, has the economy undergone a lot of re-regulation and is now over-regulated again?

The short answer--yes. Businesses, especially those that export, are experiencing ever increasing regulation. This raises indirect costs and makes it increasingly difficult for US manufacturers to compete. If you want to see the effects, go research where all the subcomponents for your 'American-Made' car originated. You can also take a quick trip to Walmart and read the labels.

Originally Posted by Broadsword2004

One thing to remember is that despite the challenges of globalism, the global economy didn't wreck the United States---to the contrary, we are the ones who wrecked the global economy.

Not exactly. Europes' gaping wounds were mostly self-inflicted--for many of the same reasons that are afflicting the US. If you look towards India and Asia--things aren't so bad, which coincides with many of the authors points regarding low labor cost and lax regulations.

Originally Posted by Broadsword2004

Through our trying to provide every American with a house and ignoring the laws of economics, we created a massive housing and credit bubble that nearly brought down the system. And a real-estate bubble bursting is an extremely hard blow to an economy.

This was certainly the straw that broke the camels back, but I believe the author highlights some very good points on the true depth of our problems.

Originally Posted by Broadsword2004

Then we have all of the uncertainty of the Obama administration, the massive "stimulus" not only didn't work, but may well have hamstrung the economic recovery, and then just as America is holding down the global economy, states like California are probably holding down the American economy as well.

I'll certainly agree with you there.

Originally Posted by Broadsword2004

If California would just deregulate a good bit so as to not make it so hostile for businesses there, and then if, on the national level, regulations are too severe, we deregulated, those alone I bet would provide a major economic boost for the country.

I think America can compete fine with the rest of the globe. No nation can do everything. But we have certain states that like to regulate a lot which hurts the national economy overall and also we took a major hit from the housing/credit bubble, so the economic turnaround will be a little while.

Deregulation will certainly help. The real fun part will be convincing the American workers, and the Government, they need to take a pay cut. Taxes, regulation and labor costs all need to be addressed in order for us to turn the situation around.