When America No Longer Owns America

sealybobo

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Jun 5, 2008
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ThomHartmann.com - When Americans No Longer Own America

The Dubai Ports World deal is waking Americans up to a painful reality: So-called "conservatives" and "flat world" globalists have bankrupted our nation for their own bag of silver, and in the process are selling off America.

Through a combination of the "Fast Track" authority pushed for by Reagan and GHW Bush, sweetheart trade deals involving "most favored nation status" for dictatorships like China, and Clinton pushing us into NAFTA and the WTO (via GATT), we've abandoned the principles of tariff-based trade that built American industry and kept us strong for over 200 years.

The old concept was that if there was a dollar's worth of labor in a pair of shoes made in the USA, and somebody wanted to import shoes from China where there may only be ten cents worth of labor in those shoes, we'd level the playing field for labor by putting a 90-cent import tariff on each pair of shoes. Companies could choose to make their products here or overseas, but the ultimate cost of labor would be the same.

Then came the flat-worlders, led by misguided true believers and promoted by multinational corporations. Do away with those tariffs, they said, because they "restrain trade." Let everything in, and tax nothing. The result has been an explosion of cheap goods coming into our nation, and the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs and thousands of manufacturing companies. Entire industry sectors have been wiped out.

These policies have kneecapped the American middle class. Our nation's largest employer has gone from being the unionized General Motors to the poverty-wages Wal-Mart. Americans have gone from having a net savings rate around 10 percent in the 1970s to a minus .5 percent in 2005 -

At the same time, federal policy has been to do the same thing at a national level. Because our so-called "free trade" policies have left us with an over $700 billion annual trade deficit, other countries are sitting on huge piles of the dollars we gave them to buy their stuff (via Wal-Mart and other "low cost" retailers). But we no longer manufacture anything they want to buy with those dollars.

So instead of buying our manufactured goods, they are doing what we used to do with Third World nations - they are buying us, the USA, chunk by chunk. In particular, they want to buy things in America that will continue to produce profits, and then to take those profits overseas where they're invested to make other nations strong. The "things" they're buying are, by and large, corporations, utilities, and natural resources.

Back in the pre-Reagan days, American companies made profits that were distributed among Americans. They used their profits to build more factories, or diversify into other businesses. The profits stayed in America.

Profits even trump the desire for good enough port security to avoid disasters that may lead to war. After all, as Judith Miller wrote in The New York Times on January 30, 1991, quoting a local in Saudi Arabia: "War is good for business."
 
So-called "conservatives" and "flat world" globalists have bankrupted our nation for their own bag of silver, and in the process are selling off America
.

If that's who you think are the only people involved in this mess you an idiot.
 
.

If that's who you think are the only people involved in this mess you an idiot.

Dude, selling off America on the cheap to foreign companies is the GOP's agenda.

That's why you only see liberals warning Americans.

This is just like every other thing we warned you was happening for 8 years buddy.

And when the shit finally hit the fan, you wanted democrats to share the blame. You wanted to blame freddy and fanny, when we know it was GOP policies/acts/laws that excellerated this process.

Yes, the saudi's and china were buying up America in the 90's too when Clinton was in office. Part of the reason I didn't vote for Hillary.
 
Here's the thing - America needs foreign capital. Why? Because America spends more than it makes. Spend, spend, spend. So if you don't want to foreigners to own everything, stop spending so much. Its the only way to make the math work.

It has nothing to do with who is in political office. It has everything to do with how American culture is wired.
 
Dude, selling off America on the cheap to foreign companies is the GOP's agenda.

That's why you only see liberals warning Americans.

This is just like every other thing we warned you was happening for 8 years buddy.

And when the shit finally hit the fan, you wanted democrats to share the blame. You wanted to blame freddy and fanny, when we know it was GOP policies/acts/laws that excellerated this process.

Yes, the saudi's and china were buying up America in the 90's too when Clinton was in office. Part of the reason I didn't vote for Hillary.



so, given how much you hate the opposition I will say if it makes you miserable then I'm all for it.. good on for the GOP:lol::lol:
 
Here's the thing - America needs foreign capital. Why? Because America spends more than it makes. Spend, spend, spend. So if you don't want to foreigners to own everything, stop spending so much. Its the only way to make the math work.

It has nothing to do with who is in political office. It has everything to do with how American culture is wired.

We went from the largest creditor nation to the largest debtor nation.

How old are you? When I was a kid, we used to discuss things like excusing 3rd world countries debts to us.

We spend spend spend and don't make make make because we don't manufacture anymore.

Who's agenda is that? Corporate America. And the GOP helped them with the process from 2000-2008. Don't say they didn't, because I was screaming every step of the way that they were doing it. And all anyone ever said was, "clinton signed nafta".

Yes, and the Newt Gingrich congress created it.
 
Here's the thing - America needs foreign capital. Why? Because America spends more than it makes. Spend, spend, spend. So if you don't want to foreigners to own everything, stop spending so much. Its the only way to make the math work.

It has nothing to do with who is in political office. It has everything to do with how American culture is wired.

The Unions played a HUGE role in electing Obama. Why did they back Obama? Because the GOP are sending jobs overseas and hurting American workers.

When you feel like not blaming the GOP, all you have to do is remember who Labor votes for. Democrats.

The Democrats better do something about protecting American Labor/manufacturing.
 
so, given how much you hate the opposition I will say if it makes you miserable then I'm all for it.. good on for the GOP:lol::lol:

That's only because you are a conservative and conservatives hate hard working Americans who believe in God. :lol:
 
Here's the thing - America needs foreign capital. Why? Because America spends more than it makes. Spend, spend, spend. So if you don't want to foreigners to own everything, stop spending so much. Its the only way to make the math work.

It has nothing to do with who is in political office. It has everything to do with how American culture is wired.

Much agreed.
 
If we choose, we can protect jobs her in the US by placing all types of restictions on foreign trade. Over time, competing countries will catch up to us, although it may take them longer without our help. Once that happens, everything falls apart. Those countries we try to stifle will surpass us in everything.

On the other hand, by helping them grow their economies, so they become more like us, without artificially overvaluing our own goods, we will eventually be able to trade evenly with other economies, which will help expand our economy.

What we are already finding is that many American companies are bringing jobs back home anyway due to varying reasons. As the cost of energy skyrocketed, transportation costs have risen to the point that the savings no longer was significant enough to justify moving production overseas. Of course, with energy prices in decline, things are changing again. Also, product quality issues are forcing companies to rethink their strategies as well as customer service.

All of this needs time to play out before we find a decent balance. What we should be upset about, however, is the fact many of these countries put restrictions on what we can sell in their countries while we leave the door wide open for them to bring their products here. If other countries do not wish to play on a level playing field, then we should stymie their ability to sell their products here.

In the end, you can talk as much as you want about protecting American manufacturing jobs. The fact is that we choose to buy foreign because it's cheaper. It's a consious decision that we make. If we wanted it different, we wouldn't continue buying every single product that is produced everywhere but here.
 
If we choose, we can protect jobs her in the US by placing all types of restictions on foreign trade. Over time, competing countries will catch up to us, although it may take them longer without our help. Once that happens, everything falls apart. Those countries we try to stifle will surpass us in everything.

On the other hand, by helping them grow their economies, so they become more like us, without artificially overvaluing our own goods, we will eventually be able to trade evenly with other economies, which will help expand our economy.

What we are already finding is that many American companies are bringing jobs back home anyway due to varying reasons. As the cost of energy skyrocketed, transportation costs have risen to the point that the savings no longer was significant enough to justify moving production overseas. Of course, with energy prices in decline, things are changing again. Also, product quality issues are forcing companies to rethink their strategies as well as customer service.

All of this needs time to play out before we find a decent balance. What we should be upset about, however, is the fact many of these countries put restrictions on what we can sell in their countries while we leave the door wide open for them to bring their products here. If other countries do not wish to play on a level playing field, then we should stymie their ability to sell their products here.

In the end, you can talk as much as you want about protecting American manufacturing jobs. The fact is that we choose to buy foreign because it's cheaper. It's a consious decision that we make. If we wanted it different, we wouldn't continue buying every single product that is produced everywhere but here.

Great reply.

Perhaps we made a mistake? Perhaps the hidden cost of buying cheap goods is too great?

What do you mean they'll catch up to us? If we sent Honda and Toyota out of the USA, and the only cars American's ever bought were from the Big 3, how would that ever come back to hurt our economy? Cars might be more expensive, but how would that kill the economy? Is that why we let Honday and Toyota in? Without them America was going to die?

And I'm not looking to put "all kinds of restrictions" on anything. I'm looking to make trade fair, not just free. There are wrongs out there that need to be corrected. No?

How will those countries surpass us in everything if we stop FUNDING THEIR GROWTH? We did fine when they were third world countries.

We do need to protect a certain amount of industry here in America. Automotive is one. Defense is another. Yes, every other country has some amount of protectionalism, except us. I'm not saying isolate ourselves. But we used to be the largest creditor and now we are the largest debtor, and we don't make anything. That's not right. I read somewhere that no superpower ever remained a superpower for very long when they gave up their manufacturing base. I guess that was England's downfall?

What would we do the next time we needed to mobilize for war? What if GM, Chrysler & Ford were not there to help us in WW3? Will we ask Toyota to help us fight the Japanese? :lol:

And you say "WE" decided that we want cheap goods. Who's we? I don't shop at Walmart. I didn't ok poison toys and pet food coming from China. We survived before Walmart and we'll survive when they are gone. Do you mean the GOP that opened the floodgates when they took control of our entire government from 2000-2006?

The rest of what you say I agree with.
 
We went from the largest creditor nation to the largest debtor nation.

How old are you? When I was a kid, we used to discuss things like excusing 3rd world countries debts to us.

We spend spend spend and don't make make make because we don't manufacture anymore.

Who's agenda is that? Corporate America. And the GOP helped them with the process from 2000-2008. Don't say they didn't, because I was screaming every step of the way that they were doing it. And all anyone ever said was, "clinton signed nafta".

Yes, and the Newt Gingrich congress created it.

Wrong sealy, It is the agenda of American's not to manufacture things. Children don't grow up saying i want to build cars, anymore. We have shifted to an economy that is mostly service based. there isn't anything wrong with that. Yet morons like yourself seem to believe that building something is the only way to have a healthy economy.
 
Wrong sealy, It is the agenda of American's not to manufacture things. Children don't grow up saying i want to build cars, anymore. We have shifted to an economy that is mostly service based. there isn't anything wrong with that. Yet morons like yourself seem to believe that building something is the only way to have a healthy economy.

Well it certainly would be nice if we made things that other countries wanted.
 
Great post Auditor. It takes a balance. The question is going to be how do we get there without destroying the American dream?
 
The Democrats better do something about protecting American Labor/manufacturing.

they are, their policies are sending all the remaining manufacturing jobs (including semiconductor manufacturing) to right-to-work states in the south and west

I know you communists hate freedom of choice, but we Americans like it.
 
ThomHartmann.com - When Americans No Longer Own America

The Dubai Ports World deal is waking Americans up to a painful reality: So-called "conservatives" and "flat world" globalists have bankrupted our nation for their own bag of silver, and in the process are selling off America.

Through a combination of the "Fast Track" authority pushed for by Reagan and GHW Bush, sweetheart trade deals involving "most favored nation status" for dictatorships like China, and Clinton pushing us into NAFTA and the WTO (via GATT), we've abandoned the principles of tariff-based trade that built American industry and kept us strong for over 200 years.

The old concept was that if there was a dollar's worth of labor in a pair of shoes made in the USA, and somebody wanted to import shoes from China where there may only be ten cents worth of labor in those shoes, we'd level the playing field for labor by putting a 90-cent import tariff on each pair of shoes. Companies could choose to make their products here or overseas, but the ultimate cost of labor would be the same.

Then came the flat-worlders, led by misguided true believers and promoted by multinational corporations. Do away with those tariffs, they said, because they "restrain trade." Let everything in, and tax nothing. The result has been an explosion of cheap goods coming into our nation, and the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs and thousands of manufacturing companies. Entire industry sectors have been wiped out.

These policies have kneecapped the American middle class. Our nation's largest employer has gone from being the unionized General Motors to the poverty-wages Wal-Mart. Americans have gone from having a net savings rate around 10 percent in the 1970s to a minus .5 percent in 2005 -

At the same time, federal policy has been to do the same thing at a national level. Because our so-called "free trade" policies have left us with an over $700 billion annual trade deficit, other countries are sitting on huge piles of the dollars we gave them to buy their stuff (via Wal-Mart and other "low cost" retailers). But we no longer manufacture anything they want to buy with those dollars.

So instead of buying our manufactured goods, they are doing what we used to do with Third World nations - they are buying us, the USA, chunk by chunk. In particular, they want to buy things in America that will continue to produce profits, and then to take those profits overseas where they're invested to make other nations strong. The "things" they're buying are, by and large, corporations, utilities, and natural resources.

Back in the pre-Reagan days, American companies made profits that were distributed among Americans. They used their profits to build more factories, or diversify into other businesses. The profits stayed in America.

Profits even trump the desire for good enough port security to avoid disasters that may lead to war. After all, as Judith Miller wrote in The New York Times on January 30, 1991, quoting a local in Saudi Arabia: "War is good for business."
Now you all see I was right?

Who owns the ports where American workers are striking? Foreign companies.

The maritime alliance represents the major shipping lines, all of which are foreign owned; as well as terminal operators and port authorities.

Isn't it funny no one mentions this?
 
It's hard to understand those that claim American workers are paid too much so we can't compete. Do they want people doing the same job for the same wages paid overseas?
 

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