"All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State." Albert Camus
Interesting thread. I sometimes wonder if this constant shifting of work and resources to other nations will one day wake up the working class in this nation? India now houses our tech centers for instance. The thing that amazes me too is how much the Japanese, European nations, and Chinese now own in America. Today foreign companies are so prevalent, I would bet lots of people think their purchase is a purchase of an American company product. Count the Camry's. But we are a basically contented and entitled people, modern youth would cry like babies if someone took their iPhone or made them serve in the military. I laugh because there is this myth that the poor get too much in the way of entitlements, does anyone realize the upper classes are worse.
As someone noted above, we still have safeguards and complete fools are voted out of office eventually. But destroy social security, welfare, medicare, and unemployment compensation as some propose, then what? Had the economy crashed in 08 as we did during the great depression what would that have done to the dreams of America?
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." President Dwight Eisenhower
And a bit of reality.
"Lisa Gentner worked at a company called Carrollton Specialty Products, housed in a one-story warehouse in Moberly, Missouri, a town of 15,000 in central Missouri. Carrollton was a subcontractor for Hallmark Cards, the global greeting card giant based 125 miles west in Kansas City, Missouri. The largely female workforce of 200 provided the hand assembly for a variety of Hallmark products. They tied bows and affixed them to valentines and anniversary greetings. They glued buttons, rhinestones, and pop-ups inside birthday cards. They made gift baskets.
As in many towns across the country, the plant was an economic anchor for Moberly. Manufacturing is often pictured as a big-city enterprise, but a substantial number of plants are the lifeblood of small to medium-sized cities...."
Quote from p24 'Assault on the Middle Class' in 'The Betrayal of the American Dream' authors, Barlett and Steele.
"Yet by 2011, the Chinese had taken over the market: by then, more than 50 percent of the solar photovoltaic panels installed in America were made by Chinese companies. Chinese solar imports jumped from $21.3 million in 2005 to $2.65 billion in 2011.
What happened? In the last decade, the Chinese government set out to capture the market for manufacturing solar panels. It pumped the equivalent of billions of dollars into the country's nascent solar industry in low-cost loans, subsidies to buy land, discounts for water and power, tax exemptions, and export grants. Government aid to subsidize an export industry is illegal under global trading rules, but the Chinese forged ahead and soon cornered the world market on solar photovoltaic panels. China's exports of solar cells and panels to the United States rose a phenomenal 350 percent in just three years, from 2008 to 2010."
