Baloney for Steak

I know that I’ve asked this question before, but WHAT THE HELL HAS GONE WRONG WITH AMERICANS?

I don’t know about YOUR mom, but my mom taught me that I can expect to get what I pay for. Not more… not less. And yet somehow, Americans have come to feel that they can pay for baloney and get steak. Think back to all of the problems that we had with Chinese stuff over the last couple of years. Lead paint in the toys, mercury and lead in the toothpaste and pet food. Now’s there’s melamine in Chinese milk. Thank God we don’t import milk from China, right? Well, that same melamine has found it’s way into some canned produce that we DO import.

Why am I bringing this up? Simple. President-elect Obama has promised to close the tax loophole that allows corporations millions of dollars in tax breaks for outsourcing America’s jobs. This program, begun under Bill Clinton and processed with a vengeance under George W. Bush, has played a large part in ruining America’s economy. So, if President-elect Obama is able to fulfill that promise, what does it mean? Well, first off, that it would not be as financially sound for U S corporations to send our jobs overseas. That means that more jobs would stay in America. Yay, right? Except for the fact that American corporations repeatedly remind us of… if they manufacture products in America, the products are going to cost more. Because, God forbid that Phil Knight should cut his income by a million dollars per year or so to manufacture in the states, so he’s going to pass that expense on to you, the consumer. SO PAY IT!

That’s right folks… if you want steak… YA GOTTA PAY FOR STEAK! That’s because our laws here force employers to pay a living wage (we call it the minimum wage) and we have safety oversights in place… all of which cost money… that keeps the lead paint OFF of our kid’s toys and the melamine OUT of our milk.

Here’s the way that corporations paint this… American employees = higher cost = inflation = bad.

Before I type this next statement, I want everyone to turn their bullshit detectors on. I realize that all of the spin and advertising and commercial news in the US has caused our bullshit detectors to be damaged, but trust me – turn it on. Here’s the real equation… American employees = higher cost = larger wage base = inflation balanced by higher wages = good. What happened to us in the seventies is that we had high inflation coupled with high unemployment. That’s bad. That’s REALLY bad, and that’s one of the primary reasons that we put Reagan in office. There’s a lot of credit that’s given to Reagan for reigning inflation in. He didn’t really. What he did was to kick the outsourcing of American labor into high gear, thereby lowering the cost of goods and reducing inflation. The reason that I asked you to turn your bullshit detector on is because I want you to run this sentence through it… we cannot have the standard of living that we used to enjoy in the US and low inflation. It doesn’t work. And by standard of living here, folks, I ain’t talking about goodies. Okay? I’m not talking about how your daughter has an Ipod to match any color in her wardrobe. I’m talking about less unemployment. I’m talking about less homeless people. I’m talking about more money in our public coffers to help addicts and the mentally ill. I’m talking about quality of life, not material possessions. I think that one of the most important lessons that Jesus tried to hand down to us in the gospels is that material possessions do not make one happy.

Speaking of Jesus, I’d like to take a second here to address my fellow Christians about another benefit of bringing our jobs back from overseas.

If Bill Gates said “I’m going to open an American plant to manufacture my software. I’m going to staff that plant with twelve-year-olds, make them work twelve hours per day for a dollar an hour, six days per week,” what would our response be? “You go, Bill, because that’s capitalism, and that’s what America is all about”? I think not. I think that we would run Mr. Gates out of town on a rail. But every time that we buy goods made overseas, we make that contract. What would Jesus do, you think?

Democracy and capitalism are only compatible when the capitalism is controlled by the democracy… not the other way around.

Peace.

Randal