Posted on 03/03/2013 7:25:02 AM PST by statestreet
In a shed atop East Pittsburgh's old eight-story Westinghouse plant, five men and the company's chief engineer made history when they broadcast results of 1920's presidential election. That culture-changing moment ended one of the most dramatic U.S. presidential elections, in which six once-or-future presidents — Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt — jockeyed for the White House. Although the election eventually came down to Harding and James M. Cox, early on, both Wilson and “TR” plotted third-term campaigns — Wilson to avenge his tarnished presidency, Roosevelt emerging as a clear front-runner in a year that soured on Democrats. “Teddy Roosevelt certainly would have won the office in that very Republican year,” said presidential historian David Peitrusza, “save for his death in his sleep in January 1919.” Franklin Roosevelt was Ohio Gov. Cox's vice-presidential candidate; Harding's vice-presidential pick, Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge, succeeded him in the presidency when Harding died halfway through his term. And Hoover won several primary contests in that year's Republican nominating process. Peitrusza calls the election a crossroads moment shaping modern America as it “stops experimenting, settles down, balances its books, and enters a decade of prosperity.”
(Excerpt) Read more at triblive.com ...
Can you imagine how our economy would be roaring now if we threw back the government regulations to 1920’s levels?!
Government is not the solution, it is the problem.
I thought Wilson had been incapacitated by stroke in his 2nd term.
True fact. There was a WH conspiracy to keep it a secret.
It may take a dose of deficit-caused galloping inflation to snap voters to attention. The question then will be what remedies will they pursue — neo-normalcy or hyper-progressivism?
The source of the Democrats’ magical power illustrated here.
The Democrats have succeeded in dumbing down their voting base (and maybe even their candidates) to the very basics of how the economy works and the impact of government spending on the economy.
People call in Keynesian economics which is a falsehood or at least a fantastic exaggeration because Keynes did not believe in deficit spending long term. Keynes called for a short run of deficit spending and then a return to balanced budgets.
I don’t see that a round of high inflation wising up the electorate because it does not seem to have that effect in other countries with a generational welfare class. I think unless we can educate the general public to basic economic and stigmatize welfare recipients again we have no chance of returning to a sound economy.
Wage arbitrage via globalization has created cheaper markets and outcome for products and manufacturing. Throw in the lower health care, environmental issues and other incentives.
The jobs aren't coming back to the USA no matter how much you get the Gov't out of it. Simply, the American worker and populace costs too much, and asks too much for wages. They are great for purchasing products, but are a waste for multinational corporations. The US is also great for the corps, in the form of a military to protect 'their' interest.
The American worker produces more per dollar spent than any other country, that is when a traditional American is the worker. The problem for multi nationals is that the paperwork and epa requirements in America cost more than the goods produced. It is not the wage earner that is the problem, it is the Government.
I have lived around the world, and from my perspective, it is hard to beat the American work-a-holic.
But that was based on a generation ago. Now with our socialized MacDonalds button pusher workers, it may not hold so true.
Spend less -- I like this idea a lot, but it is clearly difficult for politicians to do.
Raise taxes -- I don't like this idea at all, but it is clearly the only thing the Democrats want.
Grow the economy -- best idea ever because it will increase unemployment, raise revenue, and increase wealth.
Growing the economy will occur when the government decides to get out of the way and regulate less. It is rare for politicians to suggest such blasphemy. Smaller government costs less (nice) but the real benefit will be a growing economy and increasing revenue.
Then call it perpetual-Keynesian economics.
You are correct. When business cannot reasonably quantify future costs, the smart business does not obligate itself to said cost. Future Healthcare expenses cannot be quantified at this time. It’s easier to contract out a position than hire permanently, and if you hire locally it’s easier to create a position that is justifiably part time to avoid benefits.
In 2008 smart businesses realized it was time for “duck and cover” policy with obama. Another 4 years and we are going to see a more extreme version of it. It remains to be seen what will be left in 2016, but guaranteed it won’t be pretty.
Take a bottle of boutique hair shampoo that your wife used to purchase from her hairdresser for $35 a bottle. Now you can get it at the supermarket for $24.99. But wait, Target and Wal-Malmart have that same bottle in their shelves for $19.99. But it doesn't stop there! Go to Amazon.com or Ebay and suddenly you can get that same shampoo for under $10 a bottle.
Yes, people are now buying consumer products as basic as hair shampoo through large online retailers who cut out all the middlemen. The end result of this is less jobs and lower wages for those engaged in the actual manufacture of these products as they must compete against lower and lower pricepoints being set in the marketplace.
Home printers (HP, Lexmark, etc.) can now be bought for under $100. These devices, print, copy, fax, scan, etc., and only a few years ago, you would spend thousands of dollars for this functionality. At first, printer manufacturers were able to survive giving away the hardware as they built margin in their consumables (toner, imaging units), but now websites have sprung up to either offer generic versions of the same consumables or they actually are able to re-fill your existing cartridges for a fraction of the price of purchasing brand new ones.
I can go on and on with other examples but the bottom line is that as consumers continue to drive down price-points of virtually every product and service, corporations, in order to survive, must outsource their labor and manufacturing costs outside the U.S.A.
The next step in the process is to reduce the quality of the products and services, for as the pricepoint continues to be driven down, other things have to give.
That's why when you need technical assistance on a new laptop, you end up speaking to somebody in Pakistan who barely knows the product and reads possible solutions off a script in a broken English that you can barely understand. That's why when you go to BestBuy to buy a widescreen TV set, you encounter a pimply faced teen making minimum wage who doesn't have a clue how to explain the differences between LCD and plasma technology.
Even something as basic as hand tools aren't made the way they used to be. You used to be able to buy well-made wrenches and screwdrivers that lasted a lifetime but most of the hand tools you buy today strip out or break within just a few uses. This is because the manufacturers of these hand tools need to sacrifice quality and workmanship in order to remain competitive in the marketplace. They also figure that if the tool they sell you breaks, you will just toss it and buy another one. After all, they are cheap enough now.
The only hope t the Republicans have is to tell the truth. That truth being that the economy is already in a death spiral, inflation is already on the march but Obama’s administration is fudging the numbers. If we don’t curb government spending soon there will be no turning back.
As if it all happened by accident. Free Trade traitors knew their policies would wreck the American economy. That is what their intention was all along. They wanted to destroy our economic power and independence so we would be forced to accept their Bankster World Government.
The jobs will come back if we ever get a patriot government again and the return of the protectionist trade policies that built the country up in the first place.
Bull%^&*. Germany did not outsource their industry and manufacturing and they remain competitive. They have low unemployment and low debt. Their economy has only recently experienced a downturn because the rest of world economy is circling the toilet - thanks to Free Traitor globalization.
All the US government had to do was do its Constitutional duty an to place tariffs on the cheapo Red Chinese products to allow domestic manufacturing to remain competitive. Instead they PAID American companies to move the operations to Red China and other Third World pits.
Free Traitors have ruined this country and they should be treated like the traitors they are.
Keynes should not get a pass.
This deficit spending approach needs to be exposed all the way to it’s roots which are Keynesian. This economic weed needs to be pulled from those roots.
We can’t ignore this current economic approach’s history. For the most part we’ve been in Keynesian economics since the Depression. Just because it evolved into something beyond his original ideas doesn’t change the fact this is where it all started.
The long run is here and he is dead. Don’t give it a pass. Keynes’s approach may not be identical to what it’s become today but omitting it from the timeline is self defeating.
bump
I did not intend to give Keynes a pass at all.
My intent was to dismiss Democratic Economic Policy as having no basis in any accepted economic theory present or past.
I also was trying to point out that the average voter believes that Democratic Economic Policy is based in sound economic theory (Keynes and his acolytes) which is not the least bit true.
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