Obama's State of the Union Address.

Obama said a lot of great things in his State of the Union Address the other night.  It is very frustrating that he and the American people know the path that we should be on, but it seems impossible to get the rest of government on the right track.

One of my Facebook friends posted what I guess was a mock bumper sticker that said "Republicans 2012: Keeping millions out of work to put one man out of a job."  which about sums up what is going on in Congress.  They all know what the right thing to do is, but because of their own political agendas they won't even bother to try doing it.   And on their agenda is making sure Obama is not re-elected.

What is really scary is Newt Gingrich portraying himself as underdog of the middle class when he is just the opposite. 

I would rather have a do nothing President like Obama than a phony like Gingrich who will tell everyone that is going to put out the fire while not bothering to tell everyone that he will be using gasoline. 

Our path to economic destruction appears to be inexorable, it is just a matter if you want to take the slow route with a do nothing President like Obama or the quick route with a Republican president.

Offshoring of American jobs: What the US government needs to do, but won't.



Taken from Wikimedia Commons

 The massive off-shoring of jobs from the United States has only been around for less than ten years but we already have national unemployment rate of over eight percent.  If the United States government continues to take no action, having a totally liassez faire attitude towards business and economics, unemployment will continue to rise inexorably. 

The United States government needs to take action now, by making a law that forces American companies or companies that do business in the United States to pay off-shored workers at least the current federally mandated minimum wage.  They also need to add high taxes to overseas telecommunication in order to make off shoring less attractive and give American workers a chance to compete for jobs.

This kind of action will be labeled protectionism, which the right-wing yahoos have tried to label as a taboo, worse than incest or bestiality.  But it is not a taboo.  We don't try to protect what we have?  The rich don't try to protect what they have by off-shoring their money and refusing to pay taxes? You don't try to protect what you have by having locks on your doors?

Protectionism is not a bad thing.  We need to put the brakes on off-shoring and free trade.  We need balanced trade and jobs paying livable wages for anyone who wants to work.  We will not get this by letting the wealthy live tax-free or letting business do anything they want without regard to the law.  We will not get this by allowing federal debt to exceed our GDP.   We desperately need to stop big business and special interests running this country into the ground by taking away jobs from Americans.

We can only do this if American politicians start developing a conscience and start serving the American people and not serving big business and special interests who want to send your jobs overseas and see the American middle class completely disappear.

Don't believe the [insert adjective here] media.

This past summer, some right-wing nut job posted signs all over the town where I work that stated "Don't Believe the Liberal Media!"  The first thing that came to my mind when I saw those signs was that they should read "Don't Believe the Corporate Controlled"Media." 

I personally feel that the media is far from liberal.  It focuses on criminal trials of celebrities and baby murderers and totally ignores or downplays topics like the fact that US Debt exceeds our GDP, that we appear to be in an endless war in the Middle East that we cannot afford, that information technology as well as move to free trade is taking away jobs from Americans, that political lobbies run by multinational corporations, and other special interest groups hold more sway over government than do the needs of the American people, and that we cannot have clean elections without violating the rights of multinational corporate entities, that claim that they have the same rights as individual American citizens.

Over the past several years laws have loosened up about corporate media control and the amount of media a company can control nationwide and in specific markets and this has had an overall detrimental effect on news coverage, but the media won't report that either.

Made in China: You get what you pay for

During my childhood when the term "Made in Japan" went from being synonymous with cheap imitation to being synonymous with a quality product, I was thrilled. I had grown up loving Japanese monster movies and anime. These were the people after my own heart, and I felt they deserved to become the successes they were because to me their pop culture was much more interesting than American pop culture. Perhaps a silly reason to be routing for them, but I was routing for them.

While all of this was going on I think the powers-that-be, evil people who control the means of production in the West, started to rub their greedy hands together and say if the little island nation of Japan can go from zero to manufacturing whizzes in a matter of years, then their Chinese cousins on the verge of numbering in the billions could do so also. And they can do so in a lot cheaper fashion because there are so many of them. So many workers will mean millions upon millions of people willing to manufacture things at minimal cost.

This came to pass in the 1990's and the early 21st Century. And now we get tons and tons of cheap manufactured goods from China. But they are not only cheap in price, they are also cheap in quality. But I think for many Americans, it doesn't matter, one TV breaks go out an buy another one. This is the dream for those who profit from a consumer driven economy. Consumer driven economy requires that people keep consuming and this new model of consumerism made possible by cheap labor and production costs.

I am also noticing that China is becoming the clothing manufacturer of choice for many name brands on both the higher and lower end of things. And from my personal experience I do not think it is a good thing. A couple of years ago I had bought this one Stratford dress shirt from JC Penny because JC Penny marketed it as a very durable product. And it was. It was made in Vietnam and it was a great deal for the price, I still wear it on a regular basis to this day. When I went back a year later to buy another shirt, I had found that they had changed their manufacturing to China, but I gave it try expecting the same quality. Unfortunately the "made in China" version did not really live up to the quality of the Vietnam shirt. While it has held together OK, the fabric has become pilled. It is also a lot thinner fabric than the Vietnam shirt. I feel that this was sort of a bait and switch on the part of JC Penny, but I guess they are just trying to keep the price down, which is OK if the quality doesn't go down with it.

I had a similar experience with a Tommy Hilfiger rugby shirt that I bought a few years ago. It was made in Sri Lanka, and it was terrific, very durable and comfortable. And again I went back to the outlet store where I bought it with the intention of buying several more like it. Unfortunately, Hilfiger also switched to China as its manufacturer. The new line of rugby shirts appeared to be so poor in quality, I just walked out of the store disappointed.

Also for electronics, I am only buying products made in Korea as they seem to get the whole quality over cheapness thing that Japan had gotten for while. Nowadays Japanese have also seemed to have outsourced their electronics manufacturing to China with the same poor quality results.

But as long as people keep buying, I guess manufacturers don't care. I would say that we should not buy products made in China just based on the poor quality issue, but sometimes I realize you don't even have a choice. I can no longer find headphones made anywhere other than China, perhaps in the $100 range, but who wants to pay that much for headphones. Therefore, I can totally understand the lure of cheap Chinese goods. Of course the government could add tariffs to Chinese goods to make them less appealing, but why would they do that? It would be nice to see made in America once in a while as well, but without an attempt to balance trade this will never happen. The corporations rule and plutocracy will prevail as the middle class are crushed under a pile of broken consumer electronics made in China.

Gearing up for war with Iran while our national debt will exceed GDP.

Well, it looks like we are getting closer and closer to a possible war with Iran. Their recent threat of closing off the Straight of Hormuz is their way of drawing a line in the sand, a way of saying "go ahead make our day."

Well, as much as I know many Americans would like to may their day, we really really can't. Our national debt now exceeds our Gross Domestic Product. That means we do not produce enough in this country to cover our debt even if we could. This means that we really cannot afford to impose our will on the Middle East, as much as we would like to. We are really living beyond our means like the typical baby boomer with ten maxed out credit cards.

It is time for the United States to stop spending money,and the first thing we can stop spending money on is trying to impose our will on other countries through military might.

I believe that we can be just as effective by refusing to do business with the Middle East by moving to green energy independence, a move that the United States is just not making and US government is not encouraging. My guess is because big oil, the companies that control the world's old supply, don't us to. But this is much cheaper than sending more and more troops to the Middle East.

As far as keeping Israel, the Holiest of Lands, safe let's just give them some weapons and say good luck guys, you are on your own on this one, we can't afford to help you anymore beyond giving you the means to defend yourselves.

The United States really has to know its limitations and stop being the world police when we can no longer afford to do so.

Another big problem for retailers: Flash robs

I just saw a report on television about the "flash rob" that went down at "The Mall of America" in Minnesota. A flash rob is when a large group of people get together at a set time using social media like Facebook or Twitter and plan a robbery. The retailers and law enforcement are overwhelmed by the number people and cannot effectively deal with the situation.

Events like this will add to burden that owners of brick-and-mortar stores have to face, and ultimately lead to them not being economically competitive and shutting down.

Again here, the Internet is to blame for the changing economy, an economy that cannot support enough jobs for the people who want and need them. So far law enforcement has yet to come up with an effective method in dealing with them. If they ever do, I bet it will be really expensive, and there will be no way to pay for it with constant right-wing movement to eliminate government and government jobs.

Also, if the kids in this latest "flash rob" had jobs they wouldn't have had to participate in this phenomenon. My guess is that the kids who participated in this came from poor homes, and the Internet is now being used to have the poor turn on the middle class in their most sacred of haunts, the shopping mall. And this all happens while the wealthy watch from a safe distance.

To recap, as the middle class dies, the malls will close, and the poor masses will be left to riot on the streets. And will have the Internet to thank for it all.

The death of retail stores and jobs....

Now, I hate being a Luddite, I think overall progress is usually for the common good. But I really don't understand what will happen when retail sales jobs start to disappear. Retail sales for many people is a great way to enter or re-enter the workforce, especially if you have no special skills and don't have more than a high school diploma or a bachelor's degree.


What will kill retail? People walking around brick-and-mortar stores with their iPhone/Android apps that show if they can get a cheaper deal for the same product online. Already struggling electronic stores will probably fold by the end of next year. I haven't seen these apps in action, but I would imagine this might be useful for high-end clothing as well.

I think many stores will be forced to close because their overhead expenses are much higher than some guy or gal selling merchandise out of their basement using the Internet.

When Republicans keep saying that the future of economic growth is in small business, what do they mean? I think they mean that everyone will be selling stuff out of their basement over the Internet. But how practical or easy is that? How practical or easy is it to start any small business for that matter? How easy is it to raise capital to start a small business, especially now when the banks are tight about who they loan money to? I don't believe that the Republicans think about these things when they say that things like small business is the future of the economy. But what else are they going to say when they know that the Internet is slowly killing traditional brick-and-mortar businesses, and what else are they going to say when they want to eliminate as many government jobs as possible because their wealthy "1 percent buddies" are the only ones who can afford to pay taxes and they don't want to.

It used to be that you worked hard and saved money to start a business of your own, but how will that be possible when their are no more jobs left. And who will loan you money when you don't have a job.

Some people say that the new economy created by the innovations of the Internet and wireless technology are exciting, and that innovators like Steve Jobs, the late Apple founder, and Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon will be revered as major driving forces behind great economic change and the emerging new economy, but I think ultimately they will be hated for making so many jobs disappear especially in the retail sector, a major employer of the post-industrial world.