Edward Conard, the former director of Bain Capital and a contributor to
Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, believes that the rich should be idolized
like gods, because they mass produced things such as paper clips and iPhones,
making our lives easier. He actually advocates that "the wealth
concentrated at the top should be twice as large." (See
part one of this post)
Actually, Edward Conard is wrong in that, it was only after the history
of banking did man learn how to profit from invention. Long before
"capitalism" was invented to exploit man's innovation, through natural
human evolution we learned many things to make our lives easier. Can you imagine
if "fire" were patented and someone could earn a royalty every time a
pack of matches were produced?
Since American companies first started outsourcing jobs for cheaper labor
overseas, they created a whole new generation of consumers in foreign countries.
The CEOs said they had to send jobs abroad because of global competition -- that
being, European companies were also outsourcing jobs to Asia for cheaper labor
(China wasn't outsourcing jobs).
CEOs and Republicans have been saying that over regulation, high taxes, and
labor unions have been to blame for the outsourcing of domestic jobs, jobs that
once paid a "living wage". Boeing recently built a factory in
South Carolina to escape the machinist union in Boeing's home state of
Washington.
Tech companies such as Microsoft and Apple have been taking full advantage of cheap labor for years at the expense of American workers.
So has the banking and telecommunications industry, sending jobs to places
like India.
The auto industry moved from Michigan to southern states, which are generally
anti-union and pay much lower wages. And "the Big 3", besides just
cars, have been exporting factories all over the world. Since then, cities such
as Detroit, Pontiac, and Flint have gone broke and turned into slum cities. Just
ask Mitt Romney: Let
Detroit Go Broke -- and Mister Romney is from the Detroit area, his father
having worked in the auto industry.
But even with all this cost cutting in labor, the auto industry still needed
a taxpayer bailout as the auto executives flew to Washington D.C. in their
private jets with their hands out.
In return, autoworkers saw their wages and benefits slashed. New employee's
wages were reduced by half, from $28 a hour (a living middle-class wage) to $14
a hour --- which is $29,120 a year before taxes --- just above the poverty wage
for a family of four. (50%
of all Americans now earn less than $26,364 a year.)
Dan Akerson, the newest CEO of GM, complained that the company has lost a half-dozen candidates for management jobs because of salary restrictions for executives on companies getting TARP financing. But Mr. Akerson's compensation tripled in 2011 to $7.7 million.
By contrast, Ford's CEO Alan Mulally ranked #1 in auto CEO
pay, with $29.5 million. Mulally's compensation was up 11% from 2010 and brings his cumulative take to $148.3 million since joining Ford six years ago. Chrysler's CEO Sergio Marchionne received no base salary, but he did receive shares worth $600,000 as a Chrysler director.
In 1972 Republic Textile moved to South Carolina to follow the movement
of the textile industry from New England. Mike Diamond has been making a living
in an
industry that's been going-broke for about 50 years as he supplied used
textile machinery to more than 40 countries, and helped play a central part in
the gradual movement of textile production from rich countries to poorer ones.
Even within a single country, textile production gradually shifts to poorer
regions — just as it has in the United States — usually in search of lower
labor costs.
But the CEOs are always trying to convince the politicians and the general
public that Americans "lack the necessary skills" -- and that over
regulation, high taxes, and labor unions are the cause of outsourcing.
But the truth is, it's always been mostly about cheaper labor elsewhere, and you'll notice that "living wages" are never mentioned by them. American workers can't compete with poorer countries where corporations can pay $1 an hour for common unskilled labor. Our domestic engineers can't be expected to work for $8 hour like they do in China. So the CEOs are lobbying to have VISA restrictions eased to allow the importation of cheaper labor (engineers, etc.) from other countries.
Since the 1930s, the American government has offered preferential treatment
to American producers in the awarding of federal contracts. If a domestic
producer offers the government a more expensive bid than a foreign producer, it
can still be awarded the contract under certain circumstances.
But more recent free
trade agreements have granted other nations the same negotiating status as
domestic firms. The Obama administration is currently
pushing to grant the several nations involved in the Trans-Pacific deal the
same privileged status.
A group of 68 House Democrats and one Republican sent a letter to President
Barack Obama urging him to reconsider an element of the controversial "free
trade agreement" currently being negotiated by the administration. If
approved in its current form, the pact would effectively ban "Buy
American" policies in government contracting.
Americans don't lack jobs skills and they aren't demanding too much. They just
want a job. A job that can cover the cost of food, electricity, and rent. But
American CEOs would rather pay foreigners $1 an hour and lobby congress to have
their personal and corporate taxes lowered, while cutting TANF, food stamps, and
Medicaid for those who can no longer find a job earning enough to pay for food,
electricity, and rent.
And then after the massive layoffs off 2008-09, the CEOs and Republicans (and Fox News) disparaged the unemployed and poor, and blamed them for being irresponsible when they lost their homes, and blamed them for living above their means, or accused them of being lazy (or lacking job skills), and deliberately got the media and the general public (those with jobs) to turn the blame against the victims of their corporate strategy of manipulating their bottom line -- and at any cost to the people of this country.
The New York Times reports: "With few places to turn, construction workers have colonized Craigslist as the cyberspace equivalent of the street corner or the Home Depot parking lot. That is because carpenters, bricklayers, roofers, painters, electricians, plumbers and carpet installers have largely been left out of the economic recovery. Builders are not hiring, homeowners are deferring renovations, and Republicans won't finance highway and bridge projects. Republican state-run governments are also laying off teachers in en masse, complaining that union "bosses" have demanded too much, just because teachers have been earning a middle-class wage.
Some say the economy is getting better because the top 1% has recouped its losses in the stock market since 2008-09; but for most working people, the economy has been stuck in the mud. The job gains doesn't take into account 8 million workers who were laid off during the recession, exhausted all their unemployment benefits, and
are no longer being counted by the labor department. The ones that do find work are usually working for much less than before. And
that
doesn't count the 6 million college and high school grads, who have no work history at all, and also aren't being counted in the unemployment rate, and now have to look to McDonalds and Wal-Mart for
jobs paying $8 an
hour.
I think the American people would have been better served with domestic jobs,
and to hell with iPhones made in China. The rich and all the Edward
Conards in this country may think they're worth a damn, but they just don't give
a damn about this country...they're all "global" now, and we're the
orphaned children, begging in the streets.
As the Obama administration indicated its readiness to enter into substantive discussion with Congress with the goal of approving pending "free trade agreements" with Colombia, Korea and Panama, a very wealthy and powerful coalition of business groups sent a letter to President Obama and Congressional leaders in support of an "expanded trade adjustment" which includes assistance for workers dislocated by international trade as part of the package.
While reading this letter (below), please notice all the nuances and vague references (using words like "displaced" instead of laid-off or fired). Then think about the last 30 years: emerging markets, outsourced jobs, closed factories, high unemployment, urban decay, depressed wages, fewer benefits, reduced worker's rights, union busting, corporate bailouts, collective bargaining eliminated, corporate tax evasion, taxpayer-paid subsidies, record profits, record CEO salaries & bonuses, the Bush tax cuts, the past "free trade agreements" (jobs moved to Mexico, India, China, etc.), the shrinking middle-class, and then finally the Republican/corporate push to kill Medicare & Social Security for American workers when they can no longer work. Then look at the list of signers (lobbyists) to this letter.
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