Economic Nonsense
Posted by MFScooter on August 2nd, 2010BY: MICHAEL FROME AND UNCLE DAVE 8.2.2010
Joe Sixpack started the day early, having set his alarm clock (made in Japan) for 6 am. While his coffeepot (made in China) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (made in Hong Kong). He put on a dress shirt (made in Sri Lanka), some jeans (made in Singapore) and tennis shoes (made in China).
After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (made in India), he sat down with his calculator (made in Mexico) to see how much he could spend from his depleted savings account. After double-checking his watch (made in Taiwan) against the radio (made in Korea) he got in his car (made in Germany), filled it with some gasoline (from Saudi Arabia), and continued his search for a decent paying AMERICAN JOB.
At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day Joe came home to check his computer (made in Malaysia with parts from China, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, and Ireland) for email – nothing except a message from tech support (India). Joe decided he had better relax. He put on his sandals (made in Brazil), poured himself a glass (made in Canada) of wine (made in France), turned on his TV (made in China with parts from Japan), and sat down on his couch (made in Mexico using hardwood from Columbia).
As the news came on, the President (made in Kenya, programmed in Indonesia) came on and explained to him that the economy has ‘turned the corner’ and we are all actually better off than we would have been if – uh – an asteroid had hit Kansas, which of course would have been “Bush’s Fault” if it had happened.
The question is, of course, what the heck happened…and how do we fix it?
There are several concurrent reasons. I wish to address just one today.
When a corporation or union gets big enough, it starts to actually write the laws that get passed to regulate it. When this happens, you wind up with a bloated and inefficient parasite (think GM) that specifically lobbies for laws and regulations that drive out its competition. Like Komoto Dragons, if you’re big enough, you eat your young so they don’t effectively compete. If you’re a very big wheel inside a very big union (think SEIU), you are effectively in government…and again you are protecting your interests first, your constituents’ interests second, and to hell with the broader economy. The problem with unions starts to occur when they realize they can (rightly or wrongly) demand their own number on their paycheck – in ordinary circles this is called ‘extortion’. The Union leaders benefit greatly, the company becomes less competitive (the Chinese are not going away), and the rank and file think they are getting a great deal with their ‘prevailing wages’. In reality they are getting a somewhat bigger piece of an ever-shrinking pie. Price inflation created by above-market-rate wages eventually erodes even them into insolvency. Happening now. Everybody else, including those who would like to afford American products, either purchase cheap foreign goods or do without. A downward spiral we’ve only just begun.
Is it any wonder that small business innovation does not occur in this country at the same rate as in, say, China? By some measures, the Chinese are more capitalist than we are, in that while they will run you over with a tank if you diss the government, they largely leave business alone (allowing for graft of course). Their labor force is much much hungrier than ours, both literally and philosophically. They are not stupid people.
How can this web be untangled? It will be painful. It will be painful no matter what we do or fail to do. But in my view our best hope of revitalizing American business, resuscitating the can-do economy our country enjoyed in the past, is to secure all subsidization to big business. End regulatory ‘revolving doors’, both in the corporate world and that of Labor Relations. Allow the big banks to implode; let Fanny and Freddy disintegrate. As history has shown again and over again, a society thus freed from the constraints of an ossified, byzantine, and corrupt structure will reinvent itself with astonishing rapidity. It won’t be pleasant, but the alternative is perpetual subjugation of the working class to a government contaminated and corrupted by special interests. The alternative is multigenerational debt servitude for our children and their children.
Who understands the magnitude of the problem?
Denny Heck does not There is no question at all in my mind on this. I heard him with my own ears: “Social Security will be solvent until 2037, and we’ll deal with it then if it becomes a problem”. Wow! Uh, Denny, that ponzi scheme went cash-flow-negative this year, six years earlier than projected in 2008. There is absolutely nothing in the trust fund either…unless you count IOUs from “self” to “self”.
Jamie Herrera, I hope so. I have heard her speak in generalities of the horror of multi-trillion dollar deficits, but I am still convincing myself at this late date she feels it in in the gut. She has a record of fiscal discipline from her time in Olympia; I hope that she just doesn’t think the country just needs a few tweaks on the corporate-government complex…tune the carburetor so to speak, to pop the economy right back up again. The situation is truly more dire than that.
Dino Rossi? Again, he has a track record of responsible spending (ahem) in government. Not enough. If he does ‘get it’, his habitual refusal to answer straightforward questions with straight, hard answers disqualifies him as an obfuscatory elitist. Sorry, had my fill of those lately.
Patty Murray? We really don’t need to go there. The woman truly does not understand that all life will not grind to a halt without government to direct it with its usual efficiency and fairness.
The best viable candidates I’ve seen demonstrating a grasp of the severity of our situation: David Hedrick for the House, Paul Akers and Clint Didier for the Senate. All three of these gentlemen say their story straight, and they don’t change it for the benefit of a particular audience. Not popular I’m sure to tell a crowd how we’re not just teetering on the edge of the fiscal and monetary cliff but have already actually plunged off and are heading for the rocks. These men have clearly articulated to me that they understand their task in government will be crisis management, not “business as usual”.
Opinions belong to their authors, who understand they are responsible for them.
Thanks for the help, Uncle Dave!
Tags: 3rd congressional district, akers, austrian economics, candidate, clark county, david castillo, david hedrick, denny heck, didier, dino, election, hererra, house of representatives, jamie hererra, libertarianism, obama, patty murray, politics, republican primary, rossi, seiu, senate, socialist, striking gadsden, tax, unemployment, washington, washington primary, washington state
