The storyline being sold to the American public by the White House and the corporate mainstream media is that the economy is growing, jobs are being created, corporations are generating record profits, consumers are spending and all will be well in 2011. The 2% payroll tax cut, stolen from future generations to be spent in 2011, will jumpstart a sound economic recovery. Joseph Goebbels would be proud.
It was another wise old man named Ben Franklin who captured the essence of what those in control are peddling:
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”
The economy is growing due to unprecedented deficit spending by the government, fraudulent accounting by the Wall Street banks, the Federal Reserve buying $1.5 trillion of toxic mortgage “assets” from their Wall Street owners, various home buyer and auto tax credits and gimmick programs, and Fannie, Freddie, and the FHA accumulating taxpayer loses so morons can continue to purchase houses. Jobs are being created. According to the BLS, we’ve added 951,000 jobs since December 2009, an average of 79,000 per month. Of course, the population of the US is growing at 175,000 per month. It seems that there are millions of jobs being created, just not here as shown on these graphs from the NYT.
The storyline of corporate profits is true. As a percentage of national income, corporate profits are 9.5%. They have only topped 9% twice in history – in 2006 and 1929. When you see the paid Wall Street shills parade on CNBC every day proclaiming the huge corporate profit growth ahead, keep these data points in mind. Do profits generally rise dramatically from all time peaks?
You might ask yourself, if corporations are doing so well how come real unemployment exceeds 20%? The answer lies in who is generating the profits and how they are doing it. It seems that the fantastic profits are not being generated by domestic non-financial companies employing middle class Americans producing goods. Pre-tax domestic nonfinancial corporate profits are not close to record levels as a share of national income. They exceeded 15% of national income once in the late 1940s, and repeatedly topped 12% in the 1950s and 1960s; in the third quarter of this year, they were 7.03% of national income. I wonder who is making the profits.
According to BEA data, financial industry profits and “rest of world” profits — that is, the money U.S.-based corporations make overseas — are relatively much higher now than they were in the 1950s or 1960s. And the taxes paid by corporations are much lower now than they were then, as a share of national income. The reason that corporate profits are near their all-time highs is that Wall Street corporations and mega multinational corporations are making gobs of loot and paying less of it out in taxes. Isn’t that delightful for the CEOs and top executives of these companies?
The profits are being generated on Wall Street through collusion with the Federal Reserve, as the insolvent Wall Street banks accept free money from the Federal Reserve to generate speculative profits at the expense of senior citizens earning .20% on their CDs. The mega-multinationals are “earning” their profits by continuing to ship American jobs overseas at a record pace. The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, says American companies have created 1.4 million jobs overseas this year. The additional 1.4 million jobs would have lowered the U.S. unemployment rate to 8.9 percent, says Robert Scott, the institute’s senior international economist. “There’s a huge difference between what is good for American companies versus what is good for the American economy,” says Scott. The hollowing out of the American economy has been going on for decades and despite the usual rhetoric out of Washington DC, it continues unabated today.
But consumer spending has surged, so the recovery must be solid and self-sustaining say the brainless twits on CNBC. Consumer spending is rising because the top 1% wealthiest Americans are doing splendidly as they are now reaping 20% of the income in the country, levels last seen in 1929. The Haves have more, the Have Nots have less. The top 10% wealthiest Americans own 98.5% of all the stocks in the country. They feel richer because Ben Bernanke has propped up the stock market with trillions of borrowed money from future generations. The other 90% of Americans have stagnant or non-existent wages, rising costs for fuel and food, falling home prices, rising debt levels and little hope for the future. They have been thrown a bone of extended unemployment bennies, a temporary payroll tax cut, and extended tax cuts. Any spending they are doing is on credit cards as the austerity deleveraging storyline is another big lie by the MSM.
Greater Depression
The figure of 15 million unemployed reported by the government and regurgitated by the corporate media is one of the biggest lies in the history of lies. The real figure is 30 million and I will prove it using the government’s own data. I created the chart below from BLS data (ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.ceseeb1.txt) to prove that we are in the midst of a Greater Depression and no amount of spin by politicians and the media can wish it away. When we look at jobs in America across the decades, a picture of a country in decline, captured by financial elites, reveals itself. In 1970, America still produced goods, ran trade surpluses, and paid wages that allowed families to thrive with only one parent working. Only 34.6% of the population was employed, with a third of these workers producing goods.
| (Millions Employed) | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2007 | Dec-09 | Nov-10 |
| Mining & Logging | 677 | 1,077 | 765 | 599 | 724 | 676 | 763 |
| Construction | 3,654 | 4,454 | 5,263 | 6,787 | 7,630 | 5,696 | 5,615 |
| Manufacturing | 17,848 | 18,733 | 17,695 | 17,263 | 13,879 | 11,534 | 11,648 |
| Trade, Transport. & Utilities | 14,144 | 18,413 | 22,666 | 26,225 | 26,630 | 24,653 | 24,806 |
| Information | 2,041 | 2,361 | 2,688 | 3,630 | 3,032 | 2,748 | 2,717 |
| Financial Activities | 3,532 | 5,025 | 6,614 | 7,687 | 8,301 | 7,657 | 7,573 |
| Professional & Business Serv. | 5,267 | 7,544 | 10,848 | 16,666 | 17,942 | 16,488 | 16,861 |
| Education & Health Services | 4,577 | 7,072 | 10,984 | 15,109 | 18,322 | 19,350 | 19,719 |
| Leisure & Hospitality | 4,789 | 6,721 | 9,288 | 11,862 | 13,427 | 12,991 | 13,174 |
| Other Serices | 1,789 | 2,755 | 4,261 | 5,168 | 5,494 | 5,314 | 5,402 |
| Government | 12,687 | 16,375 | 18,415 | 20,790 | 22,218 | 22,481 | 22,261 |
| TOTAL EMPLOYED | 71,005 | 90,530 | 109,487 | 131,786 | 137,599 | 129,588 | 130,539 |
| US Population | 205,052 | 227,225 | 249,439 | 281,422 | 299,398 | 308,200 | 310,300 |
| % of US Population Employed | 34.6% | 39.8% | 43.9% | 46.8% | 46.0% | 42.0% | 42.1% |
| Source: BLS Establishment Data |
Whether it was due to the woman’s movement of the 1970s or due to financial necessity, the percentage of the population employed grew relentlessly until it reached 46.8% in the year 2000. The level of 46.8% meant that when the opportunity to be employed was available, this percentage of Americans wanted a job. Since 2000 the population of the U.S. has grown by 28.9 million people. The labor force between the ages of 18 and 64 has grown by 26.1 million people since 2000. The government insists that millions of Americans have chosen to “leave the workforce” and should not be considered unemployed. This is laughable. Why would people choose to leave the workforce when wages are stagnant, retirement looms, prices relentlessly rise, and they are drowning in debt? The truth is that at least 46.8% of the population wants to be employed. That means that 145.2 million Americans would be working if they had the chance. Only 130.5 million are currently employed. This means that there are really 30 million Americans unemployed versus the 15 million reported by the government and MSM.
Not only is the country short 30 million jobs, but the type of jobs reveal a country of paper pushers, consultants, temp workers, government drones, waitresses, and clerks. The chart below shows the distribution of jobs through the decades.
| (% of Employed) | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2007 | Dec-09 | Nov-10 |
| Mining & Logging | 1.0% | 1.2% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.6% |
| Construction | 5.1% | 4.9% | 4.8% | 5.2% | 5.5% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Manufacturing | 25.1% | 20.7% | 16.2% | 13.1% | 10.1% | 8.9% | 8.9% |
| Trade, Transport. & Utilities | 19.9% | 20.3% | 20.7% | 19.9% | 19.4% | 19.0% | 19.0% |
| Information | 2.9% | 2.6% | 2.5% | 2.8% | 2.2% | 2.1% | 2.1% |
| Financial Activities | 5.0% | 5.6% | 6.0% | 5.8% | 6.0% | 5.9% | 5.8% |
| Professional & Business Serv. | 7.4% | 8.3% | 9.9% | 12.6% | 13.0% | 12.7% | 12.9% |
| Education & Health Services | 6.4% | 7.8% | 10.0% | 11.5% | 13.3% | 14.9% | 15.1% |
| Leisure & Hospitality | 6.7% | 7.4% | 8.5% | 9.0% | 9.8% | 10.0% | 10.1% |
| Other Serices | 2.5% | 3.0% | 3.9% | 3.9% | 4.0% | 4.1% | 4.1% |
| Government | 17.9% | 18.1% | 16.8% | 15.8% | 16.1% | 17.3% | 17.1% |
| TOTAL EMPLOYED | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
| Source: BLS |
In 1970, jobs in the goods producing industries made up 31.2% of all jobs. Today, they account for 13.8% of all jobs. The apologists will proclaim that corporate America just got phenomenally more efficient and productive. That is another falsehood. In 1970, we were a net exporter, consumer expenditures accounted for 62.4% of GDP, and private investment accounted for 14.7% of GDP. Today, we consistently run $500 billion to $700 billion annual trade deficits, consumer expenditures account for 71% of GDP, and private fixed investment is a pitiful 11.5% of GDP. We’ve degenerated from a productive goods producing society to a consumption based, debt fueled society. This is a classic late stage trait of declining empires. Rome and Britain before us experienced similar declines.
The most damning facts that can be garnered from the BLS data relate to how we’ve become a nation of bankers, real estate agents, accountants, lawyers, tax specialists, and fast food fry cooks. Manufacturing jobs have dropped from 25% of all jobs in 1970 to less than 9% today. Jobs in the spreadsheet generating, credit default swap creating, subprime mortgage pushing, frivolous lawsuit filing, tax evasion sector of the economy went from 12% in 1970 to 19% today.
The misinformation and lies will continue. The MSM keeps repeating that jobs are coming back. You don’t hear which jobs. Hysterically, the four fastest growing job categories according to the BLS are:
- Administrative and support services
- Food services and drinking places
- Couriers and messengers
- Performing arts and spectator sports
The well paying goods producing jobs are never coming back. American manufacturing jobs have been shifted overseas for more than two decades by corporate America. Now those jobs have become more sophisticated, like semiconductors, software and even medical and finance. The American middle class is relegated to being McDonalds fry cooks, Wal-Mart greeters, and temp workers. What has happened to the American middle class was not an accident. The wealth of the country has been pillaged by an elite group at the very top of the economic food chain, who were able to reap the rewards of globalization (outsourcing American jobs), manipulate the debt based financial system through synthetic fraud products, and avoid taxes by hiring thousands of lawyers, accountants and tax consultants. When you hear that the rich need lower taxes, corporate taxes are too high and increased productivity is great for America, remember what they have done to the country since 1970. If corporate America and its leaders continue to reap obscene profits while the middle class falls further into the abyss, societal unrest will beckon.
Intersting anectdotal stories from Philly. The author was born in Vietnam in 1963, came to the USA in 1975. It’s not just Philly either … we are indeed being “photoshopped from the American Dream”
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Let’s meet some denizens of Philadelphia’s the Gallery, my local shopping center.
Mrs. Fischel runs a meat and cheese shop. Business has steadily declined over several years now. To make matters worse, management has raised her rent, to make up for the other merchants who have closed shops or who are behind in their payments. The third level of this mall is completely dead, and the second is barely hanging on. Just this week, Payless Shoes as well as G&G, Unica and Sunshine Blues, all clothing stores, have gone belly up.
Fischel’s son, a recent graduate of law school, has moved back home from Orange County. He has no job, only mushrooming debts from student loans and credit cards. He loved California and never expected to live in Philly again. It used to be that once you moved out, you stayed out. It was an American right of passage. By 2006, however, two thirds of American college graduates were already returning to their parents. Now, the number is up to 85%.
Meet Mr. Ali, who runs a modest kiosk offering cheap purses, belts and watches made in China. He used to sell Gucci and Coach labels—not the bags, just the labels—which were sewn onto knockoffs by the customers themselves. Many of our poorest are infatuated with brand names. With a CK, say, slapped onto their person, they feel instantly higher class.
An immigrant from Pakistan, Ali’s first job was at a Seven Eleven, before he saved enough to buy a gas station. With his current business, it was no big deal to sell $1,500 daily. Now, he’s lucky to gross $500. Whenever this mall’s open, Ali’s in there. All he does is work. Even if there were 12 inches of snow on the ground, Ali would be there at 9AM, waiting for his first customer.
When he had saving, Ali made the fatal mistake of investing in Fannie Mae and Citigroup, among other supposedly blue chip stocks. Like millions of others worldwide, he lost his shirt. A hundred-and-forty-six thousand dollars gone. Ali sold his home and his new truck, hired a lawyer to consolidate his credit card debts. He now drives an unheated lemon. “In a couple of years, I’ll buy another house for my wife and children,” he insists even as his earning nosedives. He’s lost money the last two Christmases.
Meet Mr. Giuliani, who used to make $28 an hour as a computer repairman. He supplemented his day job by freelancing, charging $85 and up for each home visit. Replaced by technicians from India, Giuliani became a transit police officer. The goal of globalism has always been to outsource jobs and import labor. To maximize profits, bosses must minimize costs. At $15 an hour, Giuliani now patrols the Gallery to make sure teenagers don’t go berserk after they get off the trains.
Some of these kids like to pick fights with each other, shopkeepers or even security guards. With no jobs and little money, their idea of fun is to raise hell, inside this shopping mall or wherever. In March, a 73-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman were hospitalized after beatings by a gang of kids around 12-years-old. Playing a game called “catch and wreck,” they chanted “Fight! Fight!” and called Belinda Moore a “bald-headed bitch” as they pummeled her, knocked her to the ground, snatched her bag and stomped on her hat. Moore told the Philadelphia Daily News, “I don’t know if these kids hate society or hate life itself but I cannot believe they could do that to someone. Where is all that hatred coming from when you’re only 11 or 12?” Also in Philadelphia, an 18-year-old killed a 68-year-old woman with a frying pan, stole her truck, then blogged on MySpace two days later, “Bored as fuck! Meh and Mira bout 2 go touch city hall! put sum more money in mah mouth!”
Back to Giuliani: he inherited his house, so Giuliani doesn’t have to worry about a mortgage, but thanks to the housing bubble, his property tax has ballooned. For sentimental reasons, Giuliani doesn’t want to sell his childhood home, but he may have to. With ten rooms, the heating bill is enormous, and there won’t be too many buyers lining up.
The Gallery is a hub for commuter and subway trains. This design brings in more customers, sure, but the labyrinthine concourses also provide a haven for many homeless people. Dazed, they wander among shoppers, to be shooed away by guys like Giuliani. Dozing in wheelchairs, collapsing in corners or picking through trash cans, these resilient men and women seem oddly unaware that the recovery is in full swing, and that even dogs, according our cynical media, got expensive toys this holidays.
The collapse will not be televised. Ignored and alone, each of us will experience it singly. As blemish and accusation, you will be photoshopped from the American Dream group portrait. The lower you slip, the more invisible you will become. The disconnect between what’s real and what’s broadcast will become even more obscene by the day.
American corporations do what is good for THEM. Screw the US economy. Think about that the next time you see a lying Madison Avenue commercial about how much company ‘X’ cares about you.
All but 4% of the top 500 U.S. corporations reported profits this year, and the stock market is close to its highest point since the 2008 financial meltdown. So …. where are the jobs?
Overseas! The Economic Policy Council says American Corporations created 1.4 million jobs overseas this year … MUCH more than what was created in the USofA. Half of Caterpillar’s 14,000 new jobs went overseas. Coke opened a quarter billion bottling plant in fucking Mongolia. Dell has virtually shut down all manufacturing in the US. On and on and on and on it goes in virtually every industry category …………
If you want to make it America today you better rely on YOURSELF, for example, by starting your own business. Easier said than done for sure, but the good jobs are gone forever. You CAN do something if you try hard enough and stick-with-it despite all the barriers this POS government of ours puts in place.
All you “Fortune” companies? Go fuck yourselves in the ass. It may not amount to a hill of beans but I do whatever I can to NEVER buy from you or patronize you. This month, for example, me ‘n Ms Freud removed all our money from BOA and deposited it in a local credit union. It was pure joy listening to the cocksucker BOA banker trying so hard to keep us “valued” clients! Ha! Fuck you!!
Do I sound angry? You betchya!!!!
“The well paying goods producing jobs are never coming back.”
This is because there is no such thing as a “well paying goods producing job” anywhere in the world. When were factory workers EVER paid well? Only very briefly when Unions were powerful in the manufacturing industries, and only during the post WWII years when industry had been for the most part blown off the map in Europe. Once factories got built in the rest of the world, wage arbitrage took over, Unions were busted and Factory Pay reverted to the mean, which is Dogshit Pay.
Do we WANT Factory Jobs like the Chinese have? So we can measure our success by how many Suicides the factory workers commit each year? WTF?
There will never be well paid factory jobs again, because the whole factory model of Capitalism is Dogshit based on the availability of Cheap Oil. Capitalism managed to burn up all the Oil in about 100 years, and turn most of the world into an industrial sewer in the process. You can take the Factory Jobs and stick em where the Sun Don’t Shine, and wipe your ass with the Toilet Paper Money of Capitalism.
RE
Sometimes it’s good to be 70. If I was 20, I’d probably be looking to off myself or someone else.
By well paying job I mean this.
My dad worked in a factory. He was a tool and die maker. They built very very large generators. He made enough money so that my mom did not have to work. He was able to easily afford a nice comfortable house without breaking the budget. He was able to buy a new car every 3-4 years. We went on family vacations. He was able to set aside money for savings. He never had a credit card (even to this day) and carried no debt other than the mortgage. We certainly were not rich, but neither were we lacking in anything …. all on one income. That’s what I mean by “well paying”. This is almost impossible for the “average” American worker today.
Stuck
Your description of your Dad matches mine. We did fairly well on one salary from a truck driver.
Within 2-4 years, I expect huge job growth in a category that’s long been out of favor in the US.
Anyone want to guess? Anyone?
Subsistence farmer.
RE: ” You can take the Factory Jobs and stick em where the Sun Don’t Shine, and wipe your ass with the Toilet Paper Money of Capitalism.”
.
This where I find myself at odds with you …. your unbrideled hatred for capitalism, factory jobs, etc.
You posted pics of the lovely cabin you live in. Where did the nails come from? The insulation? The roofing? The water heater? You drive a car. Where did the metal come from? Who built the engine? And so on ………
You curse capitalism and now factory jobs … but your very existence is dependent on them.
If you put your money where your mouth is then you would live in an igloo. You’d have one change of clothes and a fishing pole. At least that would be consistent.
I think my tubes just tied themselves.
I don’t know how well things are going for the housecleaning industry nation wide, but I will need to hire a person come summertime. Here in Maine, those people who hire a house cleaner generally have plenty of money, enough to maintain the luxury throughout this economic downturn. How long that will last I don’t know. Overall, I remain skeptical of the continued existence of such luxury services that I provide.
I will continue to make the same new years resolution that I have for three years, to not get a real job.
RE has a great point above. Not only are factory jobs not coming back – but do we really want them back? So what is the solution to creating jobs? “service” jobs?? you only need so many friers at McDs and greeters at WalMart. “IT jobs” – the US workforce is simply not well-educated enough as compared to India, China, etc. So what is left – subsistence farming (peasants)??
Also with that job market you describe above I would not count on inflation – no matter how much the Fed prints. Get ready for the next phase of the Greater Depression …
Persistence farmer? You got Land and a mule?
How about “sharecropper” …
I agree with StuckinNJ, this country did have plenty of good paying jobs in manufacturing. They may not have been something you looked forward to going to, but they we’re sure as hell better than the McJobs nowadays.
Look around, follow the money.. The something-for-nothings and the parasite (robber baron) class have left little reward for anyone who does an honest day’s work.
This just can’t keep going; the ones who produce something of real value are running out of reasons to keep on.
CrazyCanuck — of course we want (need) factory jobs. As you pointed out, what else is left after service jobs, IT jobs, and farming. Of course you forgot all the medical jobs, engineering, etc … but that’s not enough for a nation of 310 million people.
Factory jobs aren’t that bad at all …. depending on what you do.
My dad loved building machines. There are many exciting highly skilled jobs in factories.
On the other hand, I worked two factory jobs in the summer before I joined the Air Force. In one, I made plastic paint buckets. Push the green button to start the injection process .. when the green light came on push a button to open the doors … remove bucket and stick it on a pallet. That was my mind numbingly stupid job. I hated it. The only reason I lasted two months was because it was so damn hot by the injection machines, and the girl operating the machine next to mine wore thin blouses and her nipples would show through by around noon time. This was important to me as an 18 year old horny manchild.
But there are many people that love mind numbingly boring repetitive work. For some, it’s all they CAN do. Others can do more but they don’t want to — they love the simplicity and lack of stress.
StuckinNJ:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/29/iraq-war-veteran-wife-assaulted-outside-florida-theater-teen-mob/#content
RE, I think you mean Corporatism, not Capitalism. Anyone who thinks the “free” market is responsible for our mess is either woefully ignorant or stupid. Americans had a great thing going once, its a tragedy that they let it slip out of their hands. Now the majority are screwed in two ways. Not only are their savings inflated out of existence while their standard of living falls as wealth generating activities go abroad, but they have to pay for the global military empire that protects the foreign investments.
I don’t wanna be a farmer. I know plenty, the farmers daily “to do” list rivals the fucking healthcare bill. Maybe I can find a nice farmer to hire me to polish faucets and dust baseboards. Fat chance.
Zara, I thought you didn’t read any of RE’s posts? Anyway, I’m pretty sure RE knows the difference between Corporatism and Capitalism. Prepare yourself for a major beatdown. You will soon be dispatched to the Great Beyond. Good time for you to take a vacation to Iran.
Hey, if gasoline hits $5-$10/gallon, we’ll have all kinds of “manufacturing” jobs available again. Most everything people need will revert to a local level, with goods and services produced and consumed locally. It will be too expensive to import anything, let alone goods that are made with petroleum. People will have to get used to doing without cheap crap from China (CCFC).
Too bad for those people in the cities, though.
RE
America’s manufacturing sector pays its workers better than every other country in the world, save for Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, and Australia.
Your pitch for strong unions (” When were factory workers EVER paid well? Only very briefly when Unions were powerful in the manufacturing industries, and only during the post WWII years when industry had been for the most part blown off the map in Europe.”) hasn’t worked very well for GM and Chrysler, has it? GM’s legacy costs (pension and health benefits for retired workers) amount to over $1 billion a month and help make up the $2,200 labor costs GM must add to the price tag of each car it makes. In contrast, Toyota’s labor costs are about $200 per unit. And if weren’t for Fedzilla’s multi-billion dollar bailouts, GM and Chrysler would be in the dust bin of history, where they belong. And both managers and the UAW should look in the mirror to find the culprits.
Correction – Population in 2000 was 281 million, not 248 million. US population as of last week 308,700. Increase in population was 27 million in the past decade not 61 million mentioned in article. Sorry Jim, just pointing out the error.
LOL Stuck. I read this one because it’s uncharacteristically brief. As for the Iran vacation, I might just do that. Today I got an offer to do a consulting gig in Anand India. I can stop off on the way. Nice time of year to do a bit of skiing on Mt. Damavand.
Population for completed census for 2010 is 308,700,000 not 308,700, just in case anyone didn’t figure this out. Sorry for error.
We closed the gold window in 1971 and this is what started the consumer, debt based economy. As we became consumers instead of producers, other countries wanted a piece of the pie. Our failed monetary policy and government regulations encouraged countries to sell the largest consuming nation with cheap products. Easy money due to a closed gold window and engine of inflation AKA the Federal Reserve created an artificial demand for goods and services. As we became addicted to these cheap goods, many US manufacturers had to go overseas to stay competitive. The question becomes could this all have been prevented if we never closed the gold window? I believe things would be a lot different today if we didn’t. The fiat system was a total failure. Only the elite rich and government benefited from it.
All the way back to the first comment: Good post, Stuck..
I’m just forging forth, doing what logic says to do, diversifying investments across the board (staying out of $$ for the most part), tucking a few boxes of MRE’s (yuck) in the shed JIC, and already have a pretty gas efficient vehicle (that could be improved on).
Experiences as posted by Pirate Jo are going to become more common, and not just by teenagers either. And PJ? I could hear the ends of those tube SNAP at they tied up tight! LOL……
Milw05
Thanks for that catch. I was swimming in numbers last night putting those charts together. I’ve revised the article to the correct figures.
No one can predict what a real free market can do because we have not had one for so long. So far with all the currency manipulations, I don’t see a free market coming soon unless the whole financial system really fails. America has two financial roads to go down to produce wealth, agriculture or manufacturing; or both. For America employment with a decent wage is most important in life. Many people have no probem working a manufacturing job over an agricultural job that migrants now and have for a long time performed. In the old system everyone benefited both manufacturing worker and migrant farm workers.
I realize that modern technology requires very educated people to work in the industries that require their talant; however, we still need the mundane industries that produce for the needs of our society. We should not be exporting those jobs; nor should we be lowering their importance and wage paid for work. Life is just not about profits; it is also about employment. All of us obtain a certain part of our identity through our work and our networking through our work. If our corporations and our government cannot see that than they are corporations and (persons) without soul. This is the flaw in accepting corporations as persons also; corporations are “soulless persons” without flesh & blood.. If we are going to allow large corporations to continue to exist in our country let’s give them a soul; if not flesh & blood.
I would sugest if corporations create jobs with endevers of all types that immediately hire people with the profits they are holding outside the U.S. that if repatiated the money would only be taxed at 10% then this would be the best move for the economy. Even if the jobs are planting trees, putting in roads, water wells, and such in our deserts; for future development as we create new manufacturing industries for our own basic needs.
I do think subsistence farming will be the growth industry before the end of the next decade. Trouble is, subsistence farming is hard and kind of wipes out the concept of the 40 hour work week. That means about 25% of the population will die off during the winter after their first crop.
The other growth industry we have in N. California is the homeless. My son works 3 shifts per week while going to college at the homeless shelter, which has a capacity of 120 folks. By 2015 there will be probably 1200 per night and by 2020 it will be 12,000 souls. His attitude since taking the job is better. I don’t know if contributing to the families work ethic or that he has learned the true meaning of the “Prince Syndrome”.
StuckInNJ,
My reference to RE’s comment was to this line:
“Do we WANT Factory Jobs like the Chinese have? So we can measure our success by how many Suicides the factory workers commit each year? WTF?”
I agree we need to have factory jobs as they “used to be” (like the one your father had) not how they have become when off-shored to China/India. Forcing the huge multi-nationals to bring these kinds of “jobs” back to NA would be counter-productive in my view.
I think the only way “factory” jobs will come back to NA will be when eventually due to high transportation costs a lot of production becomes relocalized. I mean when the nails, roofing, etc. on RE’s cabin are made in Alaska in small local “factories” – like they would have been over 50 years ago. But this can only happen AFTER the coming deleveraging and deflation cycle (5-6 years) during which a lot of the multi-nationals (WalMart, HomeDepot, etc) will either no longer exist at all – or in a much much smaller form. There will be a lot of pain and adjustment in the next few years – but necessary to stabilize hopefully at a much lower normal than now. I am actually hopeful that my children will live in a better world (but much simpler). In the short term I think a lot of city dwellers will either be elbowing each other in soup kitchen lines – or moving to the rural areas and learning how to grow their own food (maybe modern day share-croppers).
Quite a few posts to respond to here. It will have to wait until tonight though, busy today. Far as the Capitalism-Corporatism “a rose by any other name” question goes though Zara, as Stuck said, you are in for a TSUNAMI of prose for making that distinction. So sorry.
RE
Welshman — you missed THE cash crop opportunity of a lifetime …
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Crazy Canuck, I don’t think the standard of living blue collar employees enjoyed in the 1950’s through the 1970’s will come back. That was a special time as the US was the only industrial country coming out of WW2 that was unscathed and there was worldwide demand for american products. It didnt hurt either that potential competitors (China, USSR, India, Argentina, etc.) shot themselves in the foot with horrible economic regimes.
Thanks for the clarification CC.
You are 100% correct when you said, “I think the only way “factory” jobs will come back to NA will be when eventually due to high transportation costs ”
Cheap oil (low transportation costs) is one of the biggest reasons globalization was possible in the first place. Amazing, is it not, how a Toaster in Topeka from Taiwan costs only $9.99 !! When it costs $29.99 then we’ll just start making them here again.
Another great Quinn article full of charts and data unlike the usual anecdotal bullshit. This is what I signed on for. There is no equal. This calls for the Quinn song…….
I guess it is a bitch going backwards for awile to catch up with reality.
Don’t kid yourselves that it’s only “factory” jobs that are going offshore. Software and EE jobs are going also, so if you took retraining for these jobs, lots a luck.
Silicon Valley is being hollowed out with many of the big corporations setting up large facilities in India and China.
And now research jobs.
Want a good job, take a look at this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/business/global/18research.html
Just for my BFF Smokey
http://www.mediaite.com/online/this-exists-snow-penis-terrorizes-small-community/
Admin – well done.
As much as I hate to agree with RE, he is right in saying that the high paying manufacturing jobs are not coming back. There are a great many reasons for this, and once we lost momentum by losing our skill base, high paying jobs in US manufacturing were finished forever.
However, the biggest reason they will not return is that large companies set up their operations to function around the lowest common denominator – Iidiots. And idiots are very plentiful. Manufacturing employees need little or no skills these days – even the need to push buttons is minimized or eliminated. And low skill jobs simply do not pay well
Stuck – I have had a lot of dealing with tool and die makers, and it makes a good case study. For many years I sourced high dollar tools from US toolmakers. In the late 70s and thru the 80s they were extremely well paid. What began to happen is that they were so well paid they began to take extended holidays. They started taking two months off a year, then three, then four, then as many as six! This is a true story from my experience. They could make enough in six months to well support themselves for the year so thet only worked six months.
The consequence of this was that I could not bear the increased leadtime. I, and many,many others, began to buy tools elsewhere, especially from Germany and Japan. The toolmaking business in the US is no largely dead. The toolmakers killed it all by themselves.
This type issue happened throughout manufacturing – unions gave business reason to buy from overseas, tradespeople did the same, and so did unskilled workers. The government didn’t help manufacturing either. So it left. We killed manufacturing in the US and we will not be able to revive the corpse.
Happy days are gone, my friends. .
I love Jimmehs charts – they remind me of ski slopes or going surfing maybe roller blading down a hills.
Well, my post in the subject isn’t as scholarly or as well documented as yours as much as lyrical but one of my readers sent me a link to this post. I have to agree with everything you said, mate. We live in a country with a larceny-based economy.
Read the papers, man. Jobs are being created – in the military, with the police, and with the FBI. If you want a job, hire on with the forces of authority. Salary’s good with regular increases, bennies are better, and retirement income’s great. Plus with never ending wars, terrorists to be protected against, and an increasingly restless society to be subdued, there’s absolutely no chance of layoff.
StuckInNJ,
“Amazing, is it not, how a Toaster in Topeka from Taiwan costs only $9.99 !! When it costs $29.99 then we’ll just start making them here again.”
No – we will begin making toasters again when WE can make them for $9.99 (or whatever the comparable price is in China)! What the workers salaries will be then – and what it will buy – is the BIG question! Transportation costs are only a small factor in what created globalization (cheap labour, lax environmental laws, corporate greed, etc.) but is the major factor that will bring a halt to globalization. Peak oil has thrown a gigantic wrench into the gears of the global economy – and its effects are not entirely predictable – but a huge reduction in global trade is a high probability. How that translates locally will depend on the local economy – and unfortuneately the local government response. Communities that respond properly, and have ample local raw materials and skilled labour – will prosper – but others will fail miserably.
Hello Jurassic, long time no see. Aka Zep.
The info produced on this site blows my mind, you guys are amazing! Thank you
OK, I have more than a few posts here I have to respond to. I suggest you go pour yourself a strong one, I am about to go on a major rant 🙂
First off is Stucky’s complaint, which he has voiced before that my “Capitalism is EVIL” spin gets a little tiresome and hard to take after a while. Why do I have to return to this theme and hammer down on it so often? Well, in case you haven’t noticed, I am the ONLy person on this board who argues an Anti-Capitalist point of view. No, that wasn’t Anti-Christ, it was Anti-Capitalist. LOL. I’m damn sure I am the only Tribalist-Primitivist on the board, but not only that, there isn’t even a freaking Communist or Socialist who will stand tall and make a freaking argument here! Somebody wanna raise their hand and come out of the closet and pick an Anti-Capitalist ideology to argue for here? I didn’t think so. I’m the Lone Fucking Ranger! All by my Lonesome, I have to take on every damn Capitalist argument that gets pitched out here, NOBODY else will question these assumptions on this board. Not only that, I have to take on the juvenile dimwits who cannot argue the merits of the case and who light up the board with Napalm every time I make an argument that demonstrates fallacies in the Group Think that Capitalism is the Cat’s Fucking Pajamas! You don;t think I get a little tired of hearing the nonsense spewed across these pages as Received Wisdom from the pages of Adam Smith every day? So whenever I get the opportunity, and particularly when its one of JimQ’s Feature Posts which has faulty Capitalist Ideologyin it, I recycle a few counter arguments just to keep the board somewhat balanced in its presentation of ideas. Elsewise, all the board is is a fucking Capitalist Propaganda Machine.
My next Pet Peeve, vocied here by Zara, is that I shouldn’t blame Capitalism, because we don’t have “Capitalism”, we have “Corporatism”. Or some other newly coined labels, like Krony Kapitalism or a Kleptocracy. The thing is here folks, right up until Capitalism took a nose dive in 2008, everybody was more than happy to give Capitalism the credit for tanking the Soviet Union (man, we sure showed those Comies didn’t we!), and perfectly happy to call it Capitalism when they were making juicy Profits flipping houses in the RE market, but as soon as it goes south, its no longer Capitalism, now its “Corporatism”! WTF? This is called Rebranding. Your Brand Name now has a Stink about it so you come up with a new name so you can keep perpetrating the myth that “Capitalism” in its “pure” form is still GREAT! Clearly, the people who beleive this shit are clueless about the History of Capitalism, because it has never been anything but Corporatism and Kronyism. Most of you now will admit that at least since 1913 when Da Fed was introduced to control our monetary system its been a corrupt system, but I can easily show you that it has ALWAYS been this way, right from its birth in the Banking House of the Medici back in the Middle Ages. So let us take a trip with Sherman back through History in Mr. Peabody’s WAYBAC Machine, shall we? RE will be your Tour Guide and do a Reader’s Digest version of the History of Capitalism from round 1400AD to the Present, OK? If you can find even ONE period in history where this whole thing hasn’t been a corrupt use of the control of Money and its relationship to power in Goobermint I will bestow on you the Title of Knight Errant, Defender of Capitalism, OK?
In 1397 the Bank of the Medici was founded. these folks established a monetary power base around Florence, and they established a connection with the Mongolian Empire. The Medici also drop about 4 mebers of their clan into the Papacy, which of course was THE major Goobermint form in the days of the Holy Roman Empire. Various petty Nobles throughout the Empire simply cannot function without using the banking house of the Medici all through this period. Not until the reformation gets well under way and the Catholic Church fractures in the 1500s does the power of the Medici begin to wane, at least on the surface level, as they’re expelled out of Florence.
However, just about the same time, Amsterdam and London become powerful banking centers, and by teh beginning of the 1600’s, the two major Trading Companies and Banking Houses are Chartered in London and Amsterdam, those being of course the British and Dutch East India Companies. These two companies basically as Monopolies fund the exploratory voyages of Britain and Holland, and fund the Goobermints of these two countries to build powerful Navies which will protect their Merchant Ships on all the trade routes they establish. Working into India in the 1700s, the British East India Company becomes the defacto Goobermint of India.
The American Colonies get established in the 1600s,and by the 1700s are their own little developing economy, but getting taxed to beat the band by their owners over in England, the Monarchy which by then is now owned by the House of Rothschild. I am glossing over the establishment of the Bank of England in 1692 and Sir Isaac Newton’s role as Master of the Mint during this period for the sake of brevity here.
Over in the colonies, you have your OWN set of Banksters who are trying to run a Fiat system of notes, because all the Gold and Silver is getting taxed out. Prominent among said Banksters is the father of my favorite Beer Brewer, Sam Adams. Here is a brief synopsis of the currency problems which faced the merchants prior to the Revolutionary War:
”
The Land Bank, Sam Adams, and the Revolution
A Now-Forgotten Crisis That Primed Massachusetts for Independence
Oct 4, 2009 Brian Deming
Samuel Adams – Library of CongressThe British Parliament snuffed out a popular plan to solve a a currency problem in colonial Massachusetts. This intervention ruined the father of young Sam Adams.
Massachusetts was the focal point of discontent in advance of the American War of Independence. Every American schoolchild learns about the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, all occurring in Massachusetts before the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Why was Massachusetts the center of the rebellion? Why did Massachusetts, of all the colonies, take up arms first?
Resentment Over Intervention by Parliament
Among the reasons was resentment over intervention by the British Parliament into a crisis in Massachusetts in the 1740s. That intervention had to do with problems related to money and the economy in Massachusetts. Parliament’s actions angered many people, especially farmers. It also ruined the fortunes of some, including Deacon Adams, the father of Samuel Adams, who became a leading revolutionary figure. One of the lessons of the episode was the knowledge that Parliament could and would act against the wishes of the majority. Young Sam Adams, among others, remembered.
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Banking Free Online Info Get Info On Banking Free Online Access 10 Search Engines At Once. http://www.Info.com/BankingFreeOnlineGet $250-$1,000 Cash Now $250 – $1,000 In Your Bank Account Get Cash Fast. Bad Credit OK! http://www.CreditLoan.comThe controversy that cause such a stir had to do with what was called the Land Bank. A chronic problem in colonial America was a shortage of coins made of silver or gold. Paper money was almost unknown. Coins made of precious metal was the only currency everyone trusted. But too few coins were in circulation. Many people managed by offering credit. Many then accepted goods, rather than cash to pay off debts. A tavernkeeper, for example, might keep a tab for a customer who bought drinks and meals on credit. That customer might then eventually settle the debt by, perhaps, shoeing the tavernkeeper’s horse. Many people recognized that this system was not satisfactory.
Shortage of Cash, Hard Times
In the 1740s, problems associated with the shortage of cash came to a head with hard economic times. Many farmers and artisans found themselves deeply in debt, mostly to wealthy merchants in Boston, who exacerbated the coin shortage by shipping money to Britain to purchase goods to sell in America.
Deacon Adams (whose name was Samuel, but was known as Deacon) was among the leaders of a movement to solve the money shortage by issuing paper money. The plan called for the creation of a Land Bank. The Land Bank would issue paper money backed, not by precious metal such as silver or gold, but by land. This paper money, Land Bankers hoped, would stimulate the economy as people accepted it and used it to pay off debts and buy goods. Most people in Massachusetts liked the idea. This was evident in elections as people voted into office men who favored the Land Bank.
Opposed by Governor, Many Merchants
But the Land Bank was opposed by the governor, who was appointed by the king. The governor prohibited appointed officials in the colony to associate with the bank. The bank was also opposed by some merchants, especially those who were owed money. They anticipated that the Land Bank money would be inflationary–an advantage to people in debt, but a disadvantage to creditors. Some saw the Land Bank as a scheme for debtors to escape their full obligations. Also, many merchants were involved in international trade and therefore preferred the most widely accepted form of currency–gold and silver. But despite this opposition, the Land Bank was launched.
Read on
John and Samuel Adams, Patriot Cousins
Voice of Loyalists, Daniel Leonard as Massachusettensis
Colonial American Currencies
Then, those merchants, working with the governor sought help from the British Parliament. Parliament responded by declaring the Land Bank illegal.
Many people in Massachusetts recognized Parliament’s action as potentially ruinous. Some considered resisting. But no organized resistance emerged. In the end, the Land Bank collapsed. Deacon Adams was financially ruined. Samuel Adams, a student Harvard College at the time, was reduced to waiting tables at the college, although he remained a student. Samuel Adams spent years sorting out his father’s financial mess.
Political Faction of Discontented Men
The main group of people supporting the Land Bank eventually formed the backbone of the political faction of discontented men that Samuel Adams pointed toward rebellion.
The crisis concerning the Land Bank in many ways paralleled the crisis in 1775 that led to the start of the American Revolution. In both cases, the majority of people in Massachusetts were pitted against a small, but wealthy, powerful and entrenched faction. In both cases, that entrenched faction called on Parliament for help. In both cases Parliament responded against the will of the majority. In both cases an Adams was in the middle of it all.
However, in 1775, Massachusetts was better prepared than in the 1740s to resist Parliament.”
As you can see, the motivation here for the Revolutionary war primarily came from disagreements about Money, and Sam Adam’s had to be one bitter individual indeed trying to sort out the mess in his father’s Bankster biz.
Moving forward to after the Revolution, most of us are aware of Alexander Hamilton’s role in founding the First Bank of the US, which allowed the banking families of Europe their first inroad into the financial structure of the newly independent FSofA. Again, Banking and Capitalism become inextricably intertwined with Goobermint into the 1800s, the First Bank of the US gives way to the Second Bank of the US, the one Andrew Jackson so famously “killed”. The reason he wanted to kill (but really failed) this bank was of course because it hadfirst of Bankrupted most of the population and second off was controlling the political system of the day. What follows this is a very sloppy period from 1850 until the Civil War, when Lincoln issues his famous Greenbacks, and then of course gets Assassinated at the close of the War.
Now you move into the period where the Railroad Tycoons, the “Robber Barons” including such notables as Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller, whose legendary exploits in Goobermint influence peddling can be Googled up by anybody here who would like to sift through the VOLUMES of information detailing this period of our history of “Capitalism”. It was of course accompanied by the Long Depression of the 1870s, another very sorry period of time for J6P.
Barely fter this shit gets over and done with, Teddy Roosevelt around the turn of the Century tries to “Bust the Trusts”, of course also failing miserably just as Andy Jackson really failed miserably in “Killing the Bank” back in the 1850s.
A scant 13 years later, a few Krony Kapitalists board a train bound for Jekyll Island in Georgia, Da Fed is BORN, and the rest of course is History you folks should be acquainted with by now.
So tell me here folks, WHERE in this timeline was there EVER the kind of Fantasy Capitalism of the “Free Market”? It has NEVER EXISTED, any more than Communism ever existed in the Soviet Union. That wasn’t Communism as envisioned by Karl Marx, it was Krony Kommunism as practiced by their own version of Da Fed, which was the Politburo. Centrally contolled economies favoring the well connected in BOTH places. Just far as our group of Oligarchs were concerned, they kept themselves better hidden since 1913 then the Commie Oligarchs did, but it was essentially no different in either place. The Illusion of the “Free Market” presented by the Stock and Bond Markets over these years has now been exposed for what it always was, an ILLUSION. Da Fed has ALWAYS had the power to manipulate the market and to feed endless amounts of money to its member banks, to loan out to J6P. These Banks could NEVER go broke, not from the bad loans my Dad made to Brasil in the 60s right up to the S&L crisis or the Enron debacle. Its NEVER been the kind of Fantasy Capitalism people here believe in so righteously, and at no time in history has it ever been proven that such a system could really work either, its just a Faith Based idea with no real grounding in reality.
On the other hand I CAN prove to you that Potlatch worked for well over 2000 years in the Pacific Northwest from the years 1200-1400, through a population well over 100,000 strong through that period. A larger population than most of the Kingdoms incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire of the same period, just these folks never got into the trap of Land Ownership and over harvesting their natural resource.
You really think you can make a case agaisnt the history I present here of what Capitalism truly IS and has always been? Feel free, be my Guest. It’s what I LIVE for here on the pages of TBP. Not Napalm, not homophobic insults, not platitiudes and Group Think, show us all you know as much about this as I do, and prove me wrong. I DARE YOU. I’ll take on ever last one of you folks, and I will make you regret the day you were ever born.
I know, you are wondering, did RE only fire 5 shots off his Keyboard here, or did he fire all 6 at the False God of Capitalism? Challenge me and find out. Go ahead PUNK, Make My Day.
RE
OK, now that I have got that one out of my system, time to address yet another set of questions here with respect to the perceived Hypocrisy that while RE goes on his endless rants decrying the Evils of Capitalism and the worth of the Manufacturing and Factory models, he lives in a Log McMansion built with plenty-o-stuff made in factories, not to mention he drives a 20 year old Mazda also built in a factory. If RE REALLY believed in what he was writing, WTF isn’t he living in an Igloo and commuting to work Mushing a Dogsled?
Back in the late 60s and early 70s, there was a movement called “Back to the Land”, most notably promoted through Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalogue. During this period “Hippies” of the time made the attempt to go back to a sort of communal living, raising their own veggies, “dropping out, tuning in and turning on”. It of course ended up in failure mode, because they were battling against a powerful cultural tide, not tom mention the fact that paying the Porperty Tax on a Commune is pretty hard if nobody is working in a money producing job but is just raising subsistence food and subsitence marijuana. LOL.
I was a bit too young to go out into the Commune world of the time, and grew up in the great Consumer era of the FSofA from the 70s until today. Any real possibility for surviving inside this society as it is structured now requires that you buy into the making money idea, at least enough to put food on your table and a roof over your head anyhow. So, for this entire period, with the exception of a couple of short periods of Unemployment, I have worked at one sort of job or another. Sometimes making a lot of money, other times not so much. Mostly hovering just above the median income in the society. However, because I am a minimalist and chose not to remarry and raise a family, I have always had plenty of money. Its just comon sense that in our current society, even in Alaska, to try to live a complete subsitence life is pretty hopeless. Not even the local natives try to do it, they get their Goobermint Dole. Not even Susan Butcher did it, because even though she sure did live a rugged life, she funded it all by being one of the greatest Mushers of all time, and won plenty of money racing her Dogsleds and got plenty of endorsements also.
This IS the society we have, and to try to fight against it while the Oil was still flowing copiously was just a losing cause overall. So I don’t fight it, I just wait for it to Collapse. Far as my Cabin goes, while yes its true that the nails were made in a Factory, nails do not HAVE to be made in a factory. If we had a local Blacksmith, he could make the nails. The Double Paned Factory Made Glass Windows would be a bit harder to duplicate but not impossible. Even if you couldn’t do it though, it doesn’t take a factory to make glass, individuals have been blowing glass since even before metals were smelted out. Back in the 1800s during the Gold Rush, many of the cabins were built with no nails at all, you put them together like Lincoln Logs. My personal specialty in building shelter without nails is Geodesic Domes. I can build a very nice one with just 1-2″ diameter saplings and twine, up to 20′ in diameter and 10′ high at center. Once the frame is built, you can surface it in many ways.
Do I live in one of these things now? Hell no. Why do that when I can rent a perfectly nice cabin? Why would I mush a dogsled while I still can afford gas for my Mazda and its still available? Do I seem fucking STUPID to you or what? I’m not so ideologically driven here that I can’t see reality when it hits me over the head with a sledghammer you know. LOL. I’m not going to be moving into one of my Geodesics OR an Igloo until well after TSHTF, and probably not even then because for the rest of my lifetime there are more than enough good shelters already built as a result of the housing fiasco of the last decade. Somewhat better likelihood I will be mushing a Dogsled though, but not even that since at least around here there is probably enough fossil fuels to keep us going for the rest of my life if we don’t export it all.
The argument here is that since I am the beneficiary of many things made in factories, I should be greatful for and pay homage to the factory model. BULLSHIT. It pisses me off no end that this is the way society developed and I have to live this way. You cannot fight this stuff though, not while the Conduits are still functioning. As long as they do function, the Illuminati have the power, they own the means of production and Da Goobermint, you pay your fucking taxes and you make your money or you end up a pathetic victim and member of the dependent class, with whose plight I sympathize with but to which class I endeavor NOT to descend into if I can help it. CAPISCHE?
The fact is that once the Conduits DO fail, just about everything I normally use and need besides my Laptop here can be pretty well substituted by things we can make ourselves WITHOUT using a Factory Model or “Manufacturing” in the sense of the way the word has been used since the dawn of the Age of Oil. Will I miss my Laptop once the Internet goes the way of the Dinosaur? Of course I will, just as I will miss my 20 year old Mazda, but if I never had them to begin with, I wouldn’t miss them.
Clothing, once made by individuals spinning fibers at home and weaving it up into cloth was turned into a Factory Model, where Indian Children work 12 and 14 hour days in the sweatshops of Calcutta. Do we really NEED all those Abercrombie Fashions and closets full of clothing we only wear once or twice a year? Hell no, you can get by with just a couple of changes of clothes easily, and they can be made right here at home by your neighbors, in their homes while their children play ball outside, instead of sitting in front of the Plasma TV paying the Wii. You can go out Hunting together with your friends with Bow and Arrow, you do not need an AR-50 Sniper rifle to knock down a Caribou, although to be sure it makes it a whole lot easier and you have a lot more range with it. You can go out fishing and crabbing in a Kayak, you do not need a Downeaster powered by a 150HP Outboard motor. Yes I use all these products of the industrial model when I fish and hunt with my friends, but do I really NEED them? No I do not, and when they go the way of the Dinosaur, for the most part we will have a better world as a result.
The model that has functioned for the last 250 years or so since the thermodynamic energy of fossil fuels was first accessed to pump out water from coal mines in England utilizing the Steam Engine is going the way of the Dinosaur. The factory model which grew out of that is going to follow it into the dustbin of history. The economic system of Capitalism, which used the monetary system and ownership of the means of production to enslave and impoverish the Working Class is on its Deathbed now, and all to the good there. Those “Godd Jobs” in manufacturing all came at a tremendous cost, to our society, to our families, to our health and to our Spiritual well being. The End of this era cannot come soon enough for me. Sadly, I will be dead before it really comes to a close, we are in for a fairly protracted period of trying to make this failure of a model keep working, and the devastation of war that will result from that is incalculable.
I will not see the Better Tomorrow in my Mind’s Eye while I walk the Earth in this go round, I will only see a further level of destruction and loss of Freedom for most people, including myself most likely. My job as I see it before I walk into the Great Beyond is to write about what we have wrought here in our hubris that we can and should dominate the Earth, and to make it clear to anyone who ever reads what I put down on the servers around the world that it does NOT have to be this way, and we can live a wonderful life once we give up this nonsense, and return to th simpler technologies that proved themselves to be sustainable, and the spriti of generosity and giving embodied in the economic system of Potlatch. That is the legacy I intend to leave with my writings. Defy me at your own risk. I will make you regret the day you were ever born if you do so.
See You on the Other Side.
RE
JFK wanted people on the Moon, ” not because it`s easy, but because it`s hard ” . Looking
forward sounds like a crime in some of your posts. Going backward, just because some
Illuminati want, is not a path to be chosen by mankind. Humans change, it`ll only take time.
I still hold some hope that science and people like Newton, Hawking will count more than
hollow idiots. Maybe it`s just a phase or a bad dream that we`re living now.
Guys like AJay Nock will exist as long as the sheeple has something to learn from books.
” Never complain, never explain, never argue ” was his motto about how people learn.
Those who want to learn, will learn.
We are all slaves and have been slaves for some time. The middle class has been destroyed and we are all slaves. How do you keep a slave happy? Don’t let the slave realize he/she is a slave! Tell your slaves they are “free” people. Remind them often that they are “free”. In reality, you pay your slaves the minimum they need to survive on, or, slightly less than they need to survive.
A slave struggling to survive will not have time to question the Master. Such a slave will be kept busy producing and out of the Master’s bussiness.
I lived in Beijing for 4 years after college. Here is some on-the-ground info you guys should find interesting…
Firstly, a college graduate in Beijing will earn approximately 3000 RMB per month for a full-time job. That is roughly equivalent to 350 FRN. I learned by teaching English at the Beijing University of Science and Technology (Beijing GongYuanDaXue) and asking my students what the average salary post-graduation was, or what they were expecting to get paid after they were done with school. Secondly, guys with PHDs in hard sciences make 10000 RMB – or 1250 FRN – per month. I learned this teaching English at a JV biotech company outside the 6th Ring Road towards the Great Wall.
A Chinese factory worker? Forget about it… we’re talking dollars a day. Dollars a day, you live in what is basically a factory shelter with stacked beds and hundreds of dudes per room. Your “company provided meals” are basically a bowl of noodles and maybe some water or something, to keep you alive. Yes, we shipped the jobs to China. The basic laws of supply and demand work: China has a nearly infinite supply of peasants. The last time I checked, there was something like 700 million farmers in China – two Americas worth of pure farming. Another 100 million fishermen. Therefore, only 500 million left for the other shit – “only”. That is why the factories are there; life is cheap.
So there we are, infinite supply of labor = global wage arbitrage. OBVIOUSLY American companies want to set up shop there, why pay American wages? Why bother with American safety standards? The per-unit cost of making shit in China is so so low.
What kind of factory jobs are in America? What we needed was to get through industrialism and move on to… HyperIndustrialism. The future of shit based on technology. America needs to develop technology to the point where we can make anything and everything at a “cost” that is less than what it takes to make when you throw a dozen Chinese dudes at it. The Star Trek holodeck manufacturing assembly plant, basically. Where would the energy come from for something so drastic? How about nuclear plants using uranium from the ten billion or so atomic weapons we have lying around? Why isn’t America building a nuclear supergrid to replace our shitty century-old power distribution system? America just needs to move onto the 21st century. Our technology has come a long ways since Chernobyl. Science and technology are always the answer. How much would a nuclear supergrid cost to make? Trillions? Quadrillions? The real question is: do we have the resources to make it happen? We certainly don’t have the sheer manpower to compete with basic laws of supply and demand on the labor side. Economics is about taking advantage of your relative strengths; in this case, Corporamerica decided to take advantage of low-cost labor to provide Americans cheap shit. I like my 58 inch hdtv, and my desktop computer that I attached to it. My tv cost 1400 dollars in June – what would it have cost if it were made here? The cost would have included union benefits, COL adjustments, etc… Fuck that.
We whine, but we still love our consumer shit – or at least I do. I don’t want to make 5 dollars a day working on an overcrowded, minimally safe factory floor.
The answers here should be obvious, anyway. The main focus of the Chinese government is, and always will be, maintaining their fucking massive population. The history of China is the rise and fall of dynasties over thousands of years. Over thousands of years, the peasants get pissed off and revolt. The modern China is just the Communist Dynasty. The same shit will happen again: when China collapses from fiat/global depression, the peasants will once again be up in arms. Except they can’t own guns. At that point, yes, factories might come back to America, due to WW3, or whatever. When WW3 hits, it will be the same as WW2, America will need to industrialize its whole country to build the tank and planes we are going to use to fuck everyone else up. OR… the much easier solution… nukes galore, baby!
RE-
You seem to have thought it all through. Nothing like spending time in a log cabin in Alaska to do that. I see the value of the internet as providing information and connecting people of like mind from diverse locations. I don’t believe anyone is “converted” on the net. It is more like singing to the choir. The communists read communist blogs, the keynesians read keynesian blogs, the austrians read austrian blogs, etc. Personal philosophies are developed over a lifetime, not from reading a blog. The downside of the internet is making yourself too visible.
He who is prudent and patiently waits for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.
–Sun-Tzu
I hope the Chinese nationalize all the US factories in their country. It will be nice to see those responsible lose their ass on their investment in overseas factories.