What Happened to America?

[quote]entheogens wrote:

1)Factory Jobs got outsourced to places with sweatshop labor like China, Indonesia, etc.

The Right wing thermidorians on the list are going to blame the Unions. The truth is unions were built because laissez-faire capitalism treated workers like shit. In any case, no way an American worker compete against the shit wages of the Chinese worker.[/quote]

Companies outsource because we have driven the cost of doing business so high that it makes too much financial sense to not to outsource. That certainly includes Unions - who continue to choke the kinds of businesses that are being moved overseas with their ridiculous labor costs - but includes much more than Unions.

Try talking to a small business owner and asking what the biggest obstacles to success are - they’ll uniformly tell you: (1) punitive taxes and (2) overregulation.

Ever-increasing regulation acts as a barrier to entry for small businesses trying to grab a spot in the market - which is precisely why “big business” is not particularly enamored with changing the rules of the game.

You want to cultivate “Mom and Pop” stores? Free up the arena where they compete.

Odd, since this point is completely unrelated to the other topics you mentioned.

We are far from “trickle down economics” in this country - we are highly punitive towards the corporate sector, hence the outsourcing.

Our economic mess is a result of many things - not the least of which is the fundamental principle “if it feels good, do it, and if the consequences turn out bad, I expect society to act as my insurer and cover my losses”. That shameful tenet drives everything from the excesses on Wall Street down to the social libertinism of the hipster Left - and our society will have to sober up from this affliction before it gets any better.

[quote]entheogens wrote:

The Right wing thermidorians…[/quote]

Oh, and one other point - “thermidorians” historically revolted against the Reign of Terror (a good thing). Probably not the comparison you were hoping for.

High levels of income inequality certainly can become corrosive to social order and economic growth, but don’t confuse relative poverty for absolute poverty. You’re young and poor… like young people who haven’t yet built a career are supposed to be.

Are you really worse off than someone in your same position would’ve been 25 years ago in absolute terms? Doubtful. Young people have always started in shit positions at shit wages, but now at least what few amenities are affordable are far better at least.

Suck it up and accept the temp crowd control job at Walmart.

Ten years ago when I was 25, life sucked. I was broke, damn near homeless.

But I sucked it up, researched where I could find steady employment, it turned out to be in healthcare.

Busted my ass to put myself through school, made a lot of sacrifices(friends, relationships, material crap).

Is it the “dream job” I always wanted.
No.
But am I hurting right now either?
No.
I will have my dream retirement and I won’t have to wait until the government says it’s OK either.
It’s not about what you have to get sometimes, it’s about what you have to give up.

For what it’s worth.

[quote]Charlemagne wrote:
What has happened to America? This used to be a country where if you worked hard and put your time in you could make a decent living and have a family. Not anymore. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

Pretty soon there will be no more middle class. Nothing but peasants doing work for their wealthy business overlords.

This is a bit of a rant on my part due to my own situation. I am 26 years old, a Marine Iraq combat veteran, a college graduate who graduated Magna Cum Laude, I paid off my college tuition with the money saved from going to war…and yet the best job that I can get is still a heavy labor job that pays little and has few benefits. I can’t afford to live on my own, and can barely afford health insurance.

I am trying, believe me I am trying to get a decent job, but there is little out there. I can’t even afford a girlfriend, much less a family. What happened?

Are you rich people on top so greedy and sociopathic that you must suck every little penny out of the working man’s pocket just to have continued growth? Is it necessary to outsource every single American job so that there is nothing left? Does the government exist to serve the people, or does it exist for the people to serve?

I am not a Democrat or a Republican. Both parties make me sick. Politicians make me sick. Big businessmen make me sick. Special interest groups make me sick. The media makes me sick. You know what else? This country is beginning to make me sick.

[/quote]

Vasr Right wing take over

Back in 1992 Presidential candidate H.Ross Perot warned about a trade deal America was entering into called NAFTA. He said when it goes into effect we are going to hear a “giant sucking sound”.

Ross said that sucking sound was going to be caused by American jobs being sucked up by cheap labor in Mexico. Not enough people listened and Bill Clinton was elected.

Then when Clinton wanted to give China permanent most favored nation trading status people were retarded enough to believe him when he said there are a billion consumers in China, this will be good for America. What very few people in America had the intelligence to understand is that in order for someone to be a consumer of manufactured goods they must have money.

If people are dirt poor like one billion Chinese were back then, the only thing they could consume was American manufacturing because the Chinese were cheap labor. The Chinese were so poor they were even cheaper than the Mexicans.

The biggest American beneficiary of the trade deal with China has been Wal Mart. Before she became First Lady Hillary Clinton was on the board of directors of Wal Mart. After Bill Clinton became president there was a big scandal involving the Democratic party receiving improper donations from China.

Today America does not have the kinds of good paying manufacturing jobs it had 16 years ago.

Also all across America there are many small towns that used to have a main street shopping district, filled with mom and pop stores. Then Wal Mart came along and put all of those small businesses out of business.

So now there are a lot of young Americans who instead of working at the family store they will some day inherit, they have no choice but go work at Wal Mart for minimum wage.

America has been stripped of entire areas of it’s economy. What young people are facing today is far worse than things were back in the eighties or seventies because of it.

The old model of the American dream where all you needed to do in life was go to school, get good grades, graduate, then get a good paying job no longer exists. You can do everything you were supposed to do with going to college and still only get a job in retail as a low paid manager.

Sure you may be paid a salary and you have some kind of a title but you end up working such long hours that you aren’t making much better than minimum wage.

Ross Perot said that he wanted to save the American dream so young Americans graduating from college would still be able to get good paying jobs. He warned that the trade deals Bush and Clinton wanted to make would destroy the American dream. 16 years later we are seeing his prophecy come true.

See…this is the problem, Sifu…

Instead of doing the things we need to do to remain competitive in a now Global Marketplace…we instead have to find a “Boogey Man” to blame it all on.

And boy, has Wal-Mart become the convenient whipping boy, with Labor leading the charge.

If Wal-Mart suddenly had to take care of the health and pensions of close to 500,000 retirees; had to pay 95% of the Salary of laid off workers; and had close to $2,000.00 of each unit it sold directly attributed to salary and perks alone, it would be right in line for the next bailout.

What has changed is THE WORLD.

Post WW-II we had companies from beer to soup; and from cars to textiles and steel; that cornered 70-99% of some markets worldwide.

THIS was the bubble that was going to burst one day…it did…and we weren’t prepared.

Mufasa

[quote]Sifu wrote:
Back in 1992 Presidential candidate H.Ross Perot warned about a trade deal America was entering into called NAFTA. He said when it goes into effect we are going to hear a “giant sucking sound”.

Ross said that sucking sound was going to be caused by American jobs being sucked up by cheap labor in Mexico. Not enough people listened and Bill Clinton was elected.

[/quote]

Ross Perot then turned around and outsourced jobs at Perot Systems. (google HCL Technologies if you wish). As the saying goes, ‘Pay attention to what I do, not what I say’.

[quote]Mufasa wrote:
See…this is the problem, Sifu…

Instead of doing the things we need to do to remain competitive in a now Global Marketplace…we instead have to find a “Boogey Man” to blame it all on.

And boy, has Wal-Mart become the convenient whipping boy, with Labor leading the charge.

If Wal-Mart suddenly had to take care of the health and pensions of close to 500,000 retirees; had to pay 95% of the Salary of laid off workers; and had close to $2,000.00 of each unit it sold directly attributed to salary and perks alone, it would be right in line for the next bailout.

What has changed is THE WORLD. [/quote]

That’s closer to the truth.

The world’s population has grown and transportation (including communication) has boomed. The industrials are seeking the cheapest way to do what they do, and the bloated SUV-driving American worker is clearly not the way to go.

It has little to do with unions, NAFTA or the government getting in the way. It’s about the Chinese teenager that leaves the family village to work in a sweatshop 12 hours/day, 6 days/week for under $100/month.

That’s not hard to understand.

The USA is a stinkingly rich country. You have no idea just how much money you guys have. The government could take care of the OP if it wanted to (and I understand Obama’s going to try and do that). But, so far, it chose to dilapidate tax-money waging unnecessary wars.

And to make things worse, today’s youth is bombarded with easy money Cribs-style shows. Expectations are high while prospects quite limited. Despite what some older guys/gals here might say, they had it easier back in the day. For one thing, there were less people.

A college degree was enough to get you really far. Today, you might end up using it as a hat to your minimum wage job. There were more opportunities to be had. Not to mention the abundance of land. And it’s only going to get worse.

As I see it, the only solution is to embrace globalisation. Let people move around. Instead of helplessly watching jobs go overseas, let the workers come in and tax their labor. Sooner than later, equilibrium will be restored. But again, no point having tax-money if you’re not going to spend it for the benefit of the country (rather than blowing up virtually defensless countries).

Sadly, most people will raise shouting nationalist slogans bordering on racism when that is proposed.

The EU might be a fscked up in many aspects, but there’s a lot the USA can learn from it.

Unfortunatly there is a generation of people that are caught in the transition. From a labor force to high tech demands.

The jobs are gone because America out grew them. The high standard of living in America requires higher skilled jobs. America’s youth will take America into the next century (this one). They won’t be doing from the assembly line either.

Even the youth going into trades are specializing. The trades are going high tech, it’s a changing world. With all the growing pains to prove it.

[quote]DickBag wrote:
OP you should read Rich Dad Poor Dad.

i’m reading it now, and i think its pretty good.

[/quote]

Except that it’s a book filled mostly with lies, falsehoods, and misrepresentations.

[quote]malonetd wrote:
DickBag wrote:
OP you should read Rich Dad Poor Dad.

i’m reading it now, and i think its pretty good.

Except that it’s a book filled mostly with lies, falsehoods, and misrepresentations.[/quote]

Like the fact that the author was not rich until he wrote a “how I got rich book”

[quote]Mufasa wrote:
See…this is the problem, Sifu…

Instead of doing the things we need to do to remain competitive in a now Global Marketplace…we instead have to find a “Boogey Man” to blame it all on.

And boy, has Wal-Mart become the convenient whipping boy, with Labor leading the charge.

If Wal-Mart suddenly had to take care of the health and pensions of close to 500,000 retirees; had to pay 95% of the Salary of laid off workers; and had close to $2,000.00 of each unit it sold directly attributed to salary and perks alone, it would be right in line for the next bailout.

What has changed is THE WORLD.

Post WW-II we had companies from beer to soup; and from cars to textiles and steel; that cornered 70-99% of some markets worldwide.

THIS was the bubble that was going to burst one day…it did…and we weren’t prepared.

Mufasa[/quote]

Wal-Mart has collectivized most of Americas main street shopping districts into one low paying corporate entity that takes all of the profits out of town. This has been devastating to American small towns. Wal-Mart’s monopoly has made it impossible for retailers to sell American made goods which has killed off manufacturing.

America was the wealthiest country on the planet with the highest wages. Signing on to a Global Marketplace of labor that included impoverished third world countries has been very beneficial for consumers of labor. But is has reduced wages to third world levels.

When Henry Ford opened his fourth Model T factory in Highland Park he paid $5.00 a day. Which was an incredible wage for that time. Almost single handedly Henry Ford created Americas middle class. He did it because he cared about America. Todays corporate leaders do not care about Americans making a decent wage and our politicians do not care about protecting American jobs.

Capitalism and democracy are incompatible.

Unemployed people will vote for the person who promises them a job. Capitalism promises nothing but rewards for success and punishes failure. People therefore vote, if they can, to move the country closer and closer to Socialism. They will not tolerate the natural unemployment under capitalism and the failure of their businesses. They will choose to be ‘bailed out’.

We will evolve toward socialism, just as Marx predicted.

[quote]DickBag wrote:
malonetd wrote:
DickBag wrote:
OP you should read Rich Dad Poor Dad.

i’m reading it now, and i think its pretty good.

Except that it’s a book filled mostly with lies, falsehoods, and misrepresentations.

well from what ive read it makes sense, but then again i dont know what im talking about when it comes to this stuff.

what do you mean by lies and falsehoods? ive read 80 pages and so far its basically just about getting rich without working 9-5

[/quote]

I haven’t read the book, and I don’t know if it’s good or not, but I just apply a general rule to such things: “If it’s popular, be extremely cautious about the information contained therein.”

Lots of bestsellers are full of complete bunk, like Gavin Menzies bestseller “1421.” Malcolm Gladwell is another bestseller-but-hack. There are a ton out there.

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Capitalism and democracy are incompatible.

Unemployed people will vote for the person who promises them a job. Capitalism promises nothing but rewards for success and punishes failure. People therefore vote, if they can, to move the country closer and closer to Socialism. They will not tolerate the natural unemployment under capitalism and the failure of their businesses. They will choose to be ‘bailed out’.

We will evolve toward socialism, just as Marx predicted.[/quote]

Wow!

You must be some kind of genius.

[quote]PRCalDude wrote:
DickBag wrote:
malonetd wrote:
DickBag wrote:
OP you should read Rich Dad Poor Dad.

i’m reading it now, and i think its pretty good.

Except that it’s a book filled mostly with lies, falsehoods, and misrepresentations.

well from what ive read it makes sense, but then again i dont know what im talking about when it comes to this stuff.

what do you mean by lies and falsehoods? ive read 80 pages and so far its basically just about getting rich without working 9-5

I haven’t read the book, and I don’t know if it’s good or not, but I just apply a general rule to such things: “If it’s popular, be extremely cautious about the information contained therein.”

Lots of bestsellers are full of complete bunk, like Gavin Menzies bestseller “1421.” Malcolm Gladwell is another bestseller-but-hack. There are a ton out there.
[/quote]

It was good common sense

I appreciate all of the feedback. At the time I wrote the original post I was I pissed off about a whole bunch of things. My life has taken some rough turns these past few months and it has been tough, but in the end it has all been worth it. I am a much better man for it. I just have to pick things up and try to do the best that I can. It will be interesting to see how things work out these next few months.

I don’t deserve any special treatment.

That being said, I do think that America is heading down the wrong path. Maybe it is just me, but it seemed like it used to be that the politicians would fuck you over and steal from you but at least give you half. Now these politicians are fucking you over and not giving you anything. The level of incompetence and corruption is almost mind boggling.

Look at this federal bailout. Not only did these banks get billions of taxpayers money, but they spent it all on shit for themselves and didn’t lend out any of it. To top it off they are not even telling how they spent these billions of dollars! Are you fucking kidding me. The first question a bank would ask you before a loan is how are you going to spend it.