A recent PEW Research study shows that the top 7% of Americans saw significant increase in wealth while the rest of the nation, which is very politically divided over civil rights and gun issues, saw their wealth shrink. The US economy has been decapitated with the jobs moved overseas for cheap labor, high capital returns and these free trade deals have made goods cheaper in the US but this fixes nothing in the long run since US jobs have been seriously depressed since free trade began. Yesterday, workers producing cheap goods for sale in the EU and US were killed when the building they were in that produces clothing, collapsed. The workers knew this would happen but were told to go into the building, anyways.
CAN’T BE BOTHERED: Yesterday, Congress had a hearing about the huge problem of millions and millions of Americans unable to find work. This has created the War on Drugs since drug smuggling and selling on the street is probably one of the last job opportunities for many Americans. The politicians on both sides of the aisle claim they want more jobs and for Americans to become ‘richer’ but in reality, the rich own Congress and wants to have little done to fix what is wrong since their wealth depends on using and exploiting cheap labor overseas.
I went to the bank bail out hearings back in 2008. The room was packed and 90% of the people there were bankers or very rich. Now, few to no one bothers to come if the subject is saving the general US populace. The War on Drugs makes drug dealing very lucrative. The profits flow to all sorts of odd places. The money flowing into the drug trade comes from stealing stuff for the most part. Any family with an addict knows this all too well. The addicts tend to rob those who are the nearest and most trusting which is mainly neighbors and family. The War on Drugs has made drugs more expensive and this increases the predation of addicts which wrecks families and destroys communities.
Drug running and dealing would be far less appealing if drugs were legalized and even more, if addicts were given their choice poison by the government. Then, at least, the social crimes caused by addicts seeking money for high-cost drugs will vanish. But the underlying problem of unemployed millions in the cities and countryside won’t vanish. They need drug dealing for profit reasons. This army of unemployed drug dealers who are wrecking our cities has to find some sort of employment. And the US government has basically decided, thanks to being owned by the very rich, to do absolutely nothing about the job problem.
The horrors of free trade are basically ignored by Congress. It costs money to make a safe workplace and countries that don’t protect their workers should not be allowed to compete with corporations that protect workers. But our rulers want the near-slave labor conditions because they get bigger profits making stuff in third world countries and then importing it into our own country: Bangladesh Building Collapse Kills Scores Of Workers, Pressured To Clock In Despite Dangers nearly 130 garment workers dead.
Success story of Bangladesh in textile exports | Bolta Karachi
The growth story of our apparel sector is simply spellbinding. In 1983-84, the total apparel exports of Bangladesh were only $31.57 million, 3.9% of total exports. During this period there were only 134 factories, which employed around 400,000 workers. The breakthrough occurred during 1985-86, when the number of factories increased to 594 and volume of export grew to $131.5 million.
In FY90 it became a $624 million industry with a share of 41% of total exports. During 1985-90, the sector grew at a cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) of 40%. The earnings from this sector crossed the billion-dollar mark in FY92, with a total export of $1.18 billion.
In FY95, the share of apparel export increased to 64% of total exports and earnings doubled to $2.2 billion. The industry grew at CAGR of 29% during 1990-95.
Within the next five years, the export proceeds from this sector again doubled to $4.35 billion and the share of apparel export to total exports grew to 76%. Since then, the apparel sector has continued to contribute more than 75% of total exports.
Several internal and external factors contributed to the phenomenal growth of the RMG sector. The key factor behind the growth was the quota regime under the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA). The General System of Preferences (GSP) facilities and RoO (Rules of Origin) offered by the developed nations also helped Bangladesh to accelerate its export…
Of the total apparel exports, 30% goes to the US, more the 60% goes to the EU countries, and the rest goes to other countries. In FY08, the total export receipts from woven garments was $5.16 billion, out of which $2.37 billion came from EU, and $2.41 billion came from the US. Knitwear export in FY08 was $5.53 billion, of which about 79% was exported to European countries and around 15% went to the US…In Bangladesh, as per the minimum wage policy, a new worker draws only $24 per month. After working for three months, the worker gets to draw $29 to $36 a month, whereas a skilled worker gets paid around $45 a month.
The US and EU are responsible for the terrible working conditions in Bangladesh. The US loves to point out work hazards and deaths in China but goes mum when it comes to other countries doing the same thing. Universally, now, the famous 40 hour work week has been destroyed, too. The last bastion of this is in Europe and ‘austerity measures’ have worked tirelessly to undermine this.
As free trade progresses, conditions for workers declines. When Europe and the US stopped child labor, instead of this fixing things, it was simply moved overseas to other countries. The Rules of Origin which were supposed to protect EU and US workers became a farce when first, manufacturing was offshored to islands owned by the US or EU and then workers were imported to these places. And then the Rules of Origin was finally simply killed off by extending this to any place which was a former colony in Asia and elsewhere. So now we are seeing high unemployment in Europe and the US and cheap goods flooding in from every possible corner of the world.
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What we need is FAIR trade, not FREE trade; free trade has become a free lunch, for China and others, and they ARE eating our lunch. I love it when pols and the establishment press natter on about the recovery; there is NO recovery, and there NEVER will be one until the US reindustrializes, perhaps through some sort of domestic Marshall Plan. That means disengaging from empire, ending the wars, and slashing our bloated military budget so that we have the money to rebuild our industrial base. It also means (even though I’m no fan of taxes) taxing imports at such a prohibitively high rate that it would be cheaper for them to manufacture here than in China, India, etc.. Never happen.
Look at Bill Gates. He does charity in Africa more than the USA or even nearby Haiti.
Is there a solution? What?
EMS, did ya read that Indians are now attempting to make
‘rape proof underwear’?
‘ So now we are seeing high unemployment in Europe and the US and cheap goods flooding in from every possible corner of the world.’
And a ‘debt based’ system [I wont call it an economy’]
In US people buy things on credit.
Cars and homes w ‘nuthin down’.
Bankruptcies are sky high.
In the 1930s 1 in 200 declared bankruptcy.
Off topic, but silently passed by us:
http://rt.com/usa/defense-used-chemical-weapons-401/
Our new Colin Powell just declared that Syria used chemical weapons and that the “game has changed”.
Sigh.
Why bother with a new rationale if the old one still works? Right?
Let’s see:
Afghanistan: Ossama bin Laden
Iraq: weapons of mass destruction
Pakistan: insurgents
Libya: (I cannot remember)
Syria: chemical weapons
Iran: nuclear weapons
This plan was laid down 20 years ago, and it just rolls onward.
Why would they show up for the unemployment hearing?
They already have a solution to “long term” unemployment: put everyone who asks for it on SSDI as long as they can gin up two synergistic clusters of symptoms identifying two different psychological maladies from the DSM manual.
For example, “attention deficit disorder” and “bipolar disorder,” or perhaps “seasonal affective disorder” might combine to make someone 100% disabled and thus unable to work. The DSM manual keeps expanding. My personal favorite was a combination of “poly-substance abuse” and “substance abuse related mood disorder.” In other words, all the psychiatrist could come up with was that the guy was an “a-hole” because he did smoked too much crack. True story. The guy was living on SSDI and had a free section 8 apartment voucher, got free counseling and prescription psych drugs, etc. Had a criminal record like a phone book. All that free time didn’t keep him off the street or out of court, either.
From the perspective of the powers that be, SSDI is even better than the dole, because the people have to participate in the lie in order to get the benefits. They live poor but they don’t have to work. Their lives become a fraud, and thus they become de-politicized, such that they are not in the streets with a sign that says “what happened to my $30/hr factory job you sent overseas?”
Some rich dude pockets the $4800 per month and you the taxpayer get stuck with paying SSDI and free Section 8 housing, etc. And the politicians wring their hands over the SS problem for all those who actually do work.
They don’t want you to worry; the SSDI website says the money has nothing to do with SS.
@DeVaul,
For Libya, I think the simple existence of Muammmar Khaddafi was always the sticking point.
It certainly does look like it’s all about the land for “Greater Israel.”
@ JustIce,
You know, maybe you’re on to something. Maybe if we got all those white, free-loading breeders who suck down welfare in Utah, and who throw out their teenage sons for “sins,” [read “sins” as sexual maturity and wanting access to young women, thereby competing with the elders] maybe we could discuss. You know, the FLDS cults, where the “worthy elders”–male, of course; have 15, 20, and more wives and so many kids they can’t afford them. So they go on welfare with the excuse “We’re bleeding the beast.” Get rid of these frauds along with the SSDI users. And yes, the 13 and 14-year olds who have been thrown out ALSO get welfare.
Or maybe, instead of piling on your fellow Americans, you can watch this video and figure out where the problem REALLY lies. And yes, it’s gone viral–i’ve even seen it in my e-mail.
http://mashable.com/2013/03/02/wealth-inequality/
@N00b
Libya is a bit west of the promised land.
@N00b
http://mashable.com/2013/03/02/wealth-inequality/
Those richest folks on the far right of the chart got (relatively) so much money (in part) because they pocketed the $4800 per month from shipping $30 per hour factory jobs overseas.
Then those richest folks on the far right of the chart rigged the political process to pay the poorest folks on the far left just enough to eat and live month to month, so they wouldn’t revolt.
Then those richest folks on the far right of the chart decided they didn’t want to pay taxes to fund the handout to the poorest folks on the far left of the chart, so they made the government put it all on credit.
The complication to the discussion is that the wage and pricing differentials in currencies and commodities that make our nation as a whole “wealthy” are maintained by debt, ZIRP and derivatives. Although unsustainable, it is a net plus game for US, as long as it lasts.
And that’s where we are today.
The FLDS “bleeding the beast” is a bloated, freakish side-show, an exploitation game made possible by the malady, a symptom but not a cause.
Of the three ways for a nation to fall (starvation, war, and wealth disparity), we are only vulnerable to the third. It’s no wonder folks are concerned about the wealth gap. But, looking at the wealth gap in isolation doesn’t give a clear picture of the problem.
Or how the rest of the world views it.
Let me suggest to you that the strongmen in many these (weaker) nations toppled in the last decade understood that they were being underpaid for non-renewable assets.
And, what if the realization of how intractably bound pricing control is to western wealth could cause someone like Ron Paul to secretly throw in the towel, muster out with some nepotism for his son, and then just march his followers around in a circle.
Just Ice has it just right. The top 0.01% has rigged the game. The media & government puppets throw the “top 1%” (upper-middle class) under the bus at every chance, but never mention the true oligarchy; if they did, they’d be out of their jobs.
John,
What you say about the top 0.01% is true but it is not the whole story.
Their existence of the 0.01% has now become a liability, via the extreme wealth gap, and a danger to sovereignty, particularly in a system of declining resources. However, we did it to ourselves, in a sense. Their bloated existence is a symptom of banking, credit, and derivatives pricing control policies set up for our own benefit, or at least rationalized so we could fill our garages with crap we don’t need while pumping up an “economy” with a bigger tax base to support the biggest military. The 0.01% just happened to be the very wealthy in the right place and time, and ruthless enough to take advantage of those policies, gorging themselves. They are as much a freakish, exploitative result of these policies as the FLDS “bleed the beast” is a freakish, exploitative result of welfare and disability programs set up by them to ameliorate the negative domestic implications of these policies.
I suppose now the 0.01% will take the fall as the well deserved whipping boys. Everyone will be instructed to blame the very real “globalist elites” lest the majority of the world’s nations turn on a few wealthy nations (and the security council) when the unsustainable finally breaks (I guess the plan is sometime after most of the non-renewable assets are expended).
It seems the plan is to hit two birds with one stone. By their elimination and condemnation, the US will rescue ourselves internally from the wealth gap dangerous to revolution, and rescue ourselves internationally from the world’s vengeance by blaming those same 0.01% globalist elites, instead of US. While maintaining a bigger economy to support the military upper hand. Maybe.
The 0.01% could wriggle out if, say, they were to voluntarily call for Congress to pass a 90% flat wealth tax on everything over one hundred million dollars. But they’re too greedy, I suppose. Those 0.01% read the writing on the wall, and they’re scared, and they have their own pet plan(s) to blame subgroups and followers of their own, such as their bankers, the masons, the jews, the ivy leagues, or any one else they can think of.
I see what you’re saying, but I wonder if “we did it to ourselves” is really completely accurate. Perhaps the globalist elite simply played upon the weaker aspects of human nature to establish these systems in the wealthier nations like the US and UK, ensnaring the bulk of humanity through its weaknesses?
@ Just Ice,
Doesn’t matter where Libya lies. What matters is that Ghaddafi spoke up.
@N00b
When is wrote that Libya was a little west of the promised land, I was responding to your assertion that it was toppled to make way for a “Greater Israel.”
It’s more likely going to become part of a “Greater China” once the African continent is cleared of all the pesky military strongmen and China gets to waltz in with shopping bags to buy everything.
@John,
Alright, everyone EXCEPT Tyler Durden did it to themselves.
@John,
The point is the world is going to see US (all) the way WE see the elites. We’re deluding ourselves into thinking otherwise.
@ JustIce,
Do you think it was the 0.01% that propagandized America with the glories of Free Trade? Who believes this?
Who tells people that it’s perfectly OK for presidents of insurance companies to make millions of dollars in salary, because its capitalism? And that socialized medicine is “evil?”
Why is it perfectly OK to privatize the profits but socialize the costs, like WalMart does?
Who hates the French and the Germans and calls them “socialists?”
The FLDS are a “bloated, freakish sideshow” but the actually non-existent “Welfare Queens” have beggared America? And you think the “symptom” would go away if things were different?
And back in the “Fabulous Fifties,” when “Father Knew Best,” the tax rate was 90%, but now such a notion is anathema?
Why is it bad to put a tariff on the goods of companies that have shipped production to Bengladesh but want to sell the goods in the US? Anti free trade?
Hm. Who could it be. Who would complain if anybody began making noises about these issues?
@JustIce
“When is wrote that Libya was a little west of the promised land, I was responding to your assertion that it was toppled to make way for a “Greater Israel.” ”
Yeah. I know.
Did you get my point.
@N00b
“Did you get my point.”
“Hm. Who could it be. Who would complain if anybody began making noises about these issues?”
No what is you point about Libya? Who do you think is in charge? I’m guilty of it myself, but rhetoric and sarcasm are difficult to interpret in writing.
Correction: I’m not saying welfare queens are beggaring America. Quite the contrary, they’re being paid not to complain about policies (like off-shoring) that are making the elites rich, making america rich, but limiting the opportunities of the poor. They’re being paid for political control reasons, to keep them from starving and voting down the policies or even revolting (and we have plenty of food).
It really doesn’t matter what insane a-hole thinks he is in charge. (They’re all pointing fingers at each other anyhow.)
Did you ever see the movie “Firebase Gloria”? At some point, the Sergeant Major will step in and stop an insane, suicidally negligent commander, however that need be done. Thus far apparently, our nationalists in the military and intel have seen fit to go along with the plan, for what its worth. On their part, that’s either wishful thinking, cowardice, that they saw some (real) benefit in it for the nation, or all three.
The exit strategy is a bit concerning, however.
As Bill Gates has probably figured out by now, this isn’t the time in history to be celebrated as the richest anything or anyone.
Suppose we’re going to blame the “globalist elites.” But the majority of those “elites” also happen to “command” other nations that are poorer than the U.S. Given the choice, they will blame us rather than themselves.
@ Just Ice: Rich is a relative term when you’re describing the US considering that our government borrows 40 cents of every dollar it spends to prop up an ultimately unsustainable welfare state. The 0.01% never saw the flaw in their control system until now, but the problem is that they’re wedded to that system, the Frankenstein’s monster of their own creation, that they can’t, under current conditions, make the necessairy adjustments the system without going down; their necks are in the noose, and they know it. Sooner or later, it’ll all come crashing down, once China and the rest of the world cuts up our credit card; things that can’t go on forever, won’t. That’s when things will get real interesting.
Rich is less than 5% of the world’s population consuming more than 20% of the world’s non-renewable resources.
Yeah. I know.
Did you get my point.
LOL. No, he clearly did not.
@ Just Ice: We’re paying for nearly half of that 20% on credit; the interest on our debt alone is literally paying for all of China’s defense budget. With Obamacare begining to come online, the debt level is only going to get worse; tax increases earlier this year are already slowing an economy that hasn’t recovered from the recession, Obamacare will kill it. We, as a nation, are living way beyond our means, this level of spending is entirely unsustainable. We are in the middle of the largest wealth transfer in the history of the planet. China’s economy is going to race past ours before the end of the decade, becoming the world’s largest; India’s is forcasted to by 2050; as a whole, Europe’s already is larger than ours; America’s economy is going to become less and less important to the rest of the world in the coming years. As it is, the only thing saving us now is that the USD is the world reserve currency, but that isn’t likely to continue much into the future. The BRICS are mad at us over QEInfinity, and are already making plans to dethrone King Dollar. Sooner or later, China is going to decide that they’ve had enough of our debasing our own currency, and they’ll call in their note; when that happens, we’re talking Weimar on steroids.
And once the US Currency loses its world reserve status, we’ll also become a backwater, as the global geography clearly shows we should be. A new banking gnomes’ scandal is brewing, and it could be just the thing to dethrone the dollar: The Biggest Price Fixing Scandal Ever, sponsored by the usual suspects (the “too big to fail” banks).
What will cause us to be ‘back water’ is all the low IQ third worlders we
import.
US/ Canada has imported 4 million Haitians.
Even Ms Marxist, EMS has complained about this drain on US, but she couched it in economic terms only.
Ya want to be like Haiti? Import enough of em to yr area and VOILA,
you have lil Haiti.
JUST ICE:
what 4800$ ? rent?
Some rich dude pockets the $4800 per month and you the taxpayer get stuck with paying SSDI and free Section 8 housing, etc.
@lucky13
$4800 is the monthly salary of a $30 per hour factory job shipped overseas. That’s how much it’s worth a month to a business man to put someone on disability. Forget about “welfare queens”; I’m talking about “welfare princes”: strapping young twenty something year olds whose prime ambition is to get on disability with some ginned up psychiatric/physical combination of lies. It’s our dole.
@DM
Who do you think is being tagged here?
@Spartacus
Sure we say we’re paying for half that twenty percent on credit. What about the other half? Or the derivatives currency and commodity price controls underpaying resource producers? Or the fact that no one in the world believes we’re ever going to pay off any of that debt; they think we’re just going to say oops there goes the financial system?
If that works for you, great. If that works for the American voters, I’d say great, except that their sons will be called to die fighting, and even defeating, a world that doesn’t buy the narrative once peak oil bites.
I know a guy, he and his 30? year old brother are both on disability.
One for ‘schizo’ [yet he has a pt job and is a bit part actor].
the other really does have post Iraq PTSD, and mumbles about his ADD.
He says the military docs are pill pushers.
J I:
‘ That’s how much it’s worth a month to a business man to put someone on disability’
The gov will pay the ex employee and the job will go offshore, thanks to Clinton etc?
Every single major US media outfit fully supports free trade and hates anyone suggesting we protect our nation from foreign goods and ownership. Ditto Congress.
Any anti-free trade candidate is savaged by the media and fellow politicians who are all, virtually with no exception, getting richer off of free trade. This is, like Zionism, totally ‘bipartisan’.