Posted on 06/18/2006 7:49:43 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer
Based on the facts as I see them, the American people are about to get arguably the rudest awakening in the last one hundred years. The middle class will vanish, our social programs will fall into insolvency, and a select few people will make a hell of a lot of money at the expense of the rest of us.
Imagine the arrogance necessary for one to believe he’s justified in wrecking three vibrant cultures – the US, Canada and Mexico – just to make his financial bottom line more attractive. Hitler, as twisted and evil as he was, sincerely believed he was working for the benefit of his people. Those I will describe below can make no such claim. They seek only to serve their own selfish interests.
There are a number of circumstances that work together to create the current situation. It’s a situation that crosses party lines and involves both elected leaders and private sector executives in three nations. Here’s what’s coming down…
Corporate Greed…
First, let’s take a look at the wage gap between CEOs and non-management employees. In 1980, the average pay for a corporate executive officer was 42 times that of the average employee compensation (42:1). In 2004, the ratio was 431:1. In other words, the gap had widened by slightly over a thousand percent. This was actually a drop from a high of 531:1 in 1999. A one hundred point drop is significant, but the gap remains far too wide.
CEOs generally hold considerable sway over corporate board members, and therefore exercise a tremendous amount of control over their own compensation. In 2004, Yahoo’s Chief Executive Terry Semel raked in $230.6 million dollars in total compensation. That works out to $631,780.83 per day. How many of you reading this earn 600 G’s per day? Per year? Per decade?
I’m not singling Terry out of a crowd. But this is a good example of the extravagance of corporate pay packages. Let’s say some CEO earns $100 million per year. That’s $273,972.60 per day. If we cut his pay to “only” $50 million per year, that’s still one hundred thirty-six thousand dollars per day. One would think that he could scrape by on that amount, although he might be forced to keep his old yacht an extra year before trading it in. Oh… the hardship!
The other $50 million could be pumped into the company’s retirement fund, paid out in dividends to shareholders, or maybe even (gasp!) used to finance a pay raise for employees. Assuming this theoretical company has 5000 employees, that’d be a ten thousand dollar a year pay increase for each of them. Yes, I know I’m over-simplifying things a bit, but space doesn’t allow for nit-picking details. You can find the hard numbers by following the links at the end of the article.
Governmental Complicity…
Have you wondered how it is that President Bush can be such a hawk when it comes to waging the War On Terror and simultaneously be a lame duck with our southern border? The answer to this question is as simple as it is disturbing. Bush and many of his fellow Republicans are in the pockets of businesses both large and small. You shouldn’t (and probably aren’t) be surprised. Both major parties have long been for sale to the highest bidder.
The disturbing part is the fact that our government is evidently working hand in hand with American corporations to drive our wages into the gutter. Manufacturing jobs are becoming an export commodity. Service-oriented jobs are being outsourced to foreign entities. And in a grand move that will cement our future as a third-world pseudo-republic, Bush and Company are moving forward with their grand dream of globalism: The NAFTA Super-Highway.
Globalism…
What will this multi-gazillion dollar 10-lane highway do to America?
It’ll allow imports from all over the world to bypass American ports by making landfall in Mexico. The American section of the NAFTA Super-Highway will stretch from our southern border at Laredo, TX all the way to Canada along the I-35 and (new) I-69 corridors. There will be only the most superficial security measures in place, and low-wage Mexican truckers will stream unimpeded across our border. Left out in the cold will be American trucking and logistics companies, especially union shops. In bypassing union ports and truck lines, the Bush Administration will effectively remove the clout of the Teamsters and Longshoremen unions.
I’m not a huge fan of labor unions because of the level of corruption within them, but I’m not stupid, either. By wrecking the unions’ ability to exercise a bit of control over U.S. shipping, the Bush Administration will fling open the door to lower wages for all workers, both union and non-union.
The end result will be an overall equalization of wages for Americans, Mexicans and Canadians. That’s good news for Mexicans, but very bad news for everyone else. Bush, like his father, is a globalist. Remember Old Man Bush and all his talk about a New World Order? The NAFTA Super-Highway is the road that leads to the formation of the North American Union. For an example of how this sort of thing works, check out that shining star of success called the European Union.
If this process continues to move forward, the American middle class will be a dim memory. Like modern-day Mexico, we’ll have two classes: The very rich and the very poor. This is the goal of globalists like Bush and his ilk. The bulk of the money and power in this nation will rest in the hands of a select few. The rest of us will be little more than peasants.
Many of our manufacturing jobs have already been shuttled off to Mexico. This allows American companies to produce their goods at a substantially reduced cost. But that isn’t enough to sate the hunger of corporate America. In the interest of padding their already-swollen pockets, corporate suits now seek ways to lower the wages of those who work in service-oriented jobs. Warehouse workers, truck drivers, carpenters, plumbers, and others will all be faced with the specter of competition from Mexican workers willing to work for half the wage of legitimately employed Americans.
How so? Illegal aliens and outsourcing are the tools of an unholy alliance between the federal government and Corporate America to push our wages down, thereby freeing up money to finance their own extravagant lifestyles. This is why George W. Bush has done almost nothing to secure our borders. He and others like him plan not to secure our borders, but to instead eliminate them.
As time passes, American corporations will find it unnecessary to move their facilities out of the country. Our already stagnant wages will be just as low as those of Mexico. The cultures of three great nations will be diluted. Our currency will be replaced with the “Amero.” And, we’ll be one giant step closer to the U.N.’s perverse dream of a one-world government.
What To Do?…
We have critical elections coming in 2006 and 2008. We need to demand of everyone running for office, at every level, to pursue two basic goals. We must break away from NAFTA, and end our membership in the United Nations. These moves will create a firestorm of controversy worldwide. Mexico will scream bloody murder, but who cares? I for one am sick of seeing our nation being used as Mexico’s welfare cash cow.
Additionally, we must find allies in Canada to pursue similar goals in their country. If Canadians and Americans can be persuaded to join together, we’ll be able to return to a time when national sovereignty actually held some meaning.
Unless we take steps now to stop the process, America as we know and love her will cease to exist at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the NAFTA Super-Highway.
Robert Reich and George Will were talking about the appointment of Paulson as Sec. of Trea. on a Sunday AM talk show about 3 weeks ago. They both agreed that the main reason he was hired was to devalue the dollar a little at a time.
Liberals and environmental extremists have been denouncing I 69 for 40 years.
ping
The peasants will enjoy both. They'll also spend almost all of their wages on food and housing. Cock fighting is cheap entertainment, like in Mexico today.
The only real wild card is what happens when the masses figure out the bread and circuses can't keep going on.
Welcome to the New World Order and the race to Third World Status for the U.S. and Canada.
Republicans voters need to elect more fair traders in their Congressional primaries.
Is it too late to stop this or is there still time to take corrective action?
"What goes on in Texas is of marginal interest to what goes on elsewhere."
Ignore that guy Tex, his IQ is marginal
assuming I purchase foreign products, which I do not.
tis a conspiracy theory, nothing more than a rat hole that is a decade old and three decades deep..
Jump on in, there is nothing like plausible mirage to dissuade you from direction.
assuming I purchase foreign products, which I do not.
tis a conspiracy theory, nothing more than a rat hole that is a decade old and three decades deep..
Jump on in, there is nothing like plausible mirage to dissuade you from direction.
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