Why hate the rich instead of the poor...... well, for one, offshoring factories to foreign countries for profit. This ruined a lot of our big cities which were manufacturing centers. This didn't help the job situation for the poor, and especially blacks. Not to worry, the wealthy folks like the Kochs (who also invest in republican politicians who will work in the Koch's best interests, not the public's) now invest in private prisons for profit, which have guaranteed prisoners courtesy of the local jurisdictions. Link below
Anyway, I refuse to adore and defend and lick the boots of the wealthy and powerful like so many on the right seem to do on these forums.
Report Finds Two-Thirds of Private Prison Contracts Include “Lockup Quotas” | Prison Legal News
Offshoring is done to create lower priced products. Why do we need lower priced products? Because that's the demand of the American consumer.
One of our clients is a crate company. They make crates the size of suitcases to the size of tractor-trailers. I delivered those crates to companies that were packing up to move out of state or out of the country. Whenever possible, I tried to strike up a conversation about the move while getting unloaded with the supervisors or owners themselves.
You'd be surprised at how many moved because they had no choice. Overseas competition was killing them and their American clients were buying their products instead of the American made ones. Other times it was the same thing, except unions were causing them to lose customers and forcing them to move.
And the question here is, at what point does your world around you become more important than money?
It isn't my world around me, it's the general American public. I would sooner buy a quality product over a low quality product because I don't need the headache replacing shit or repairing it. When possible, I buy products produced by our American customers no matter what the price.
So you don't care about the world around you?
Of course I do, that's why I spend so much time here.
But I don't control the world and I don't expect everybody to think like me. I wish we had strong consumer support of American made products, but we don't. All we care about is getting our products cheap and we don't care who it puts out of work--as long as it isn't us.
A few years ago I went to see my doctor. When I approached the desk to check in, all the lights were off. A woman approached me from the side and guided me to their new kiosks. I objected to it to her, and I wrote the Clinic how I objected to it. It's not that I'm lazy, it's just that those things put Americans out of work. I only used self-checkout at my store once because the lines were so long and I was in a hurry. Other than that, I'll wait in line to be checked out by a human being.
But again, I don't expect everybody to think like I do. Many think just the opposite.
It's funny because you're talking about buying American, which I agree with. I think there should be incentives to buy locally made or grown things.
However on the other hand you talk about giving large multi-national corporations massive handouts. This in turn doesn't protect American jobs.
You take an American company like Apple. They sell i-Phones, i-Pads mostly to Americans.
They have production all over.
How and Where iPhone Is Made: A Surprising Report on How Much of Apple's Top Product is US-manufactured - Financesonline.com
Here, seems to be a few years old, you see they have more suppliers in the Far East than in the US by far.
Apple would pay 2% on tax abroad, or potentially 35% at home. Probably much less in reality.
It'd cost then $600 million more in wages in the US because US wages aren't competitive.
Does this mean you shouldn't buy an i-Phone?
What phone manufacturers actually produce everything in the US? Probably none.
Then companies like Walmart. They're more efficient, they save money because they buy stuff from all over the world at the cheapest prices. They use their power to put prices down as much as possible. A smaller local company is far more likely to buy things from the local area.
Yet you support giving a company like Walmart massive tax cuts so it can be far more competitive than the local company. This hurts the whole area.
Instead of the owner or owners being from the area and spending their profits in the area, rather than in Arkansas, or wherever it is the Waltons are spending their money.
Instead of this store sourcing from locally made or produced products which helps the local area, it sources from anywhere and everywhere. It doesn't help the local market at all, in fact it damages it massively.
So I don't understand the contradiction in your views.
