You say that as if Americans have some sort of birthright to a job, regardless of how eager Liberals are to buy import automobiles and such.
Sorry for the confusion.
I was trying to say something far less ambitious.
I think a portion of the people (on both sides of the aisle) who tell us that tax cuts = American jobs have been busy doing the exact opposite - i.e., creating the legal/regulatory framework for moving jobs to foreign sweatshops. I was merely trying to offer a counter-argument to a truism about the relationship of tax cuts to jobs. The postwar years and the Clinton boom suggest that the relationship might be more complex.
But, I beg of you. Consider....
The postwar model was one of shared prosperity - American capital and American labor
both benefited hugely from an albeit tenuous compact. The compact amounted to this: a higher portion of the money coming in was disbursed to middle class labor in the form of higher wages and benefits. This lead to a virtuous cycle of wage based consumption, e.g., the American worker had more money to spend, so the capitalist was forced to innovate and add jobs to capture that demand. This grew the economy and everybody benefited.
But a group of extremely powerful interests were attracted by the 3rd world model where much higher levels of prosperity accrued to capital ("business", "investors"), while labor received only subsistence wages (not consumption wages) and was (in most 3rd world countries) toothless, malnourished, living in mud huts, paid pennies a day. So this group of powerful interests funded Ronald Reagan, who helped them create a global system where all the world's capital could leverage (buy) governments and shift jobs to the 3rd world and/or oppressed parts of communist Asia like China (which is ironic if you consider that the Cold War was against Communism or state controlled economies. One of our largest businesses - Walmart - gets 100% of its manufacturing from a state controlled economy - China. But everyone knew that the official Cold War narrative was designed for moronic homelanders who listen to talk radio. You get it right? By constructing an enemy, the president can claim to be protecting you
while he undermines your job on behalf of capital, which funded his election. Indeed, the point of the Reagan ascendancy was to help capital get around American labor costs, i.e., cut the middle class out of the gains of economic growth > and the Cold War was a context for moving jobs to the types of nations and economies Washington claimed to oppose. It's funny how the people trust government the least - the Tea Party types - are the one's who bought Government's Cold War narrative hook-line-and-sinker. But we all know that those people are Government's biggest suckers).
The funny part is this. They said "give us tax cuts and we'll give you American jobs". But they did this at the
exact same time that they were laying the foundations to move jobs to the 3rd world. (That's really my main point. I don't think anyone has a birthright to anything. I was just commenting on a truism RE tax policy and jobs, and how the people using that truism were/are full of shit).
Anyway, after they moved the jobs to dictator-run nations (the ones they were "protecting" us from), they tried to sustain domestic consumption through the expansion of credit. (Again) look at household debt starting in the 80s. This is why we all started receiving 3 credit cards a week. Washington wanted to maintain the very consumption levels that had sustained the economy for 45 years. They had to make up for the falling wages and benefits somehow. They did this partly so our transition to a 3rd world model (i.e., a small group of wealthy owners surrounded by a massive group of impoverished and superfluous workers) was gradual and less socially disruptive.
But it was high comedy because as we started giving capital the mobility to shed American jobs, each president promised the middle class more prosperity than the last generation. Each president - Reagan more than any other - acted like the growth of middle class prosperity was a birthright. But ...(and this is the hilarious part) both parties spewed this bullshit
while undermining American labor on behalf of special interests. Is it any wonder that the global economy is in trouble? The world's greatest consumer - the credit-card-wielding American - is too indebted to buy a pot to piss in.
Alas, the great credit bubble started under Reagan (necessitated by the export of American jobs) has finally burst. Indeed, we leveraged the last piece of value we had left - our homes. There is nothing left to draw credit from. We are now ready for a quick transition to the 3rd world model where the wealthy realize all the gains of economic growth and the poor are distracted with demons - terrorists, gays, liberals, marxists, illegals, etc.
I may be a liberal, but I'm not a dumb liberal. I moved money into oil and gold funds to stock up for the end of the American moment of history.
