Posted on 03/19/2006 5:54:24 AM PST by B4Ranch
Very good article. Thanks for finding it.
Where have I ever said no one else knows anything? You said we had no industrial base. $3 trillion in industrial production says you are wrong.
You said the following: I saw(sic) we should vote our(sic) politicians who refuse to recognize America's steady march to third-world status in the name of human rights and internationalism.
Do you have any facts to prove we are marching to third-world status? Or, like Paul Krugman, should we take your word for it, despite all the facts to the contrary?
Because you're both as insolent and elitist as they are.
Feelings, whoa whoa whoa feelings.
Did you even see the anecdote ClaireSolt posted?
Some have always bemoaned the half-life of science and engineering as some people are rendered irrelevant by rapid progress when they fail to keep up. My son, the software programmer, consequently, has little sympathy for his uncle the system consultant who does mainframe data bases which is declining.
This anecdote talks about how some people fear progress. I think this is self-evident. On the other hand, the anecdotes I attack as irrelevant are those that use the experience of one worker to "prove" that statistics covering tens of millions of workers are wrong.
I do not deny that some people you know may have to work two jobs. That does not change the fact that the standard of living of Americans, overall, has been steadily improving.
Well its a bed of their own making. I don't feel sorry for them. (Although it may be too early to count them out. I do think once GM and Ford are forced into receivership...that is the end of the line. They will have been totally debunked among their last segments of the populace that has been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt).
They clearly don't deserve America's sympathy. They have none for it. Think how facile and conscience-free they have been about their 'creative destruction.' How lame their castigations at 'lazy' 'worthless' 'stupid' Americans. They tried this line along with other insane triangulations with the Dubai ports and it blew up in their faces.
And they are still in denial over that complete rejection.
Guess it all matters precisely who is being creative and who is being destroyed, eh?
Let's see just how much greater the standard of living is for us today verses 1955. I don't need a slanted graph for this analysis, I lived then and lived the experience.
We had TV and Air Conditioning then. Other than the microwave oven I can't see any great improvement in our standard of living.
In the 50's most families only had one breadwinner...the Man. As a matter of fact, it was rare to see the wife working in a middle income family to support their lifestyle. Today, it takes both.
In the 50's we didn't have credit cards. Some had local credit at the grocery store and some shops. In general, if we couldn't pay for it, we didn't buy it. The result was twofold. One, we were not in debt beyond our means and two, things were affordable since we asked "how much is it" verses today's question, "how much per month is it" or worse yet, "what is the lease payment?"
In the 50's most people did not have medical insurance and the cost of healthcare floated at the price people would pay. Today, we have insurance (robbery on the installment plan) and the welfare system and medical costs are no object...unless you are not on welfare and your employer doesn't have a medical insurance plan. Then it's a financial disaster waiting to happen.
An finally, in the 50's when you passed away, your family received your life's labors in the way of money and property. Today, you can bet that it will either be taken from you by the medical system or by lawyers.
Most people today are financial slaves. They just don't know it or don't want to see it. Don't believe it, have today's generation actually figure out their NET WORTH in real terms, not by accounting games. Take all that you have (cash and equity) and subtract all liabilities (both short and long term) and see whether you are a financial slave or not. I think it will become pretty clear that most people owe a whole lot more than they have, and worse yet, during their lifetimes, never move into the black or break even.
Back in the 50's dollar bills were backed by silver. Today they are backed by ink and paper. That's a better standard of living?
Roooooight. Your claims about production have been thrown in your face. The production is inflated. In fact, they are just importing more. The U.S. production numbers are inflated by....the imported subcomponents. Which then gets labeled "U.S." production. The labelling function is charged off for a huge percentage...really 'productive' function, eh? The imports are Displacing REAL U.S. production.
Poor Paul. From your post:
The Wall Street Journal reported the number of factories in the U.S. shrank last year to 336,000, down 10% from its 1997 peak, part of a steady decline that shows no sign of reversing.
Yeah, that's the funny thing about productivity, you can make more products with fewer factories.
The following link shows that since 1997, manufacturing output has grown by 9.5%. With 10% fewer factories. Sounds like higher productivity to me. I'm sure you can find a Paul Ross data dump that proves it's not. LOL!
Like your tag line!
You have a funny memory that seems to suit your idoeology. I remember Robert Byrd and and a treasury secretary competing in the senate, both claiming to have grown up without any hot water. If you had AC in the 50's, you were part of a very small group. Maybe your father was a draft dodger. For the families of many veterans it was a time of rebuilding, if they were lucky.
For every person that works two jobs I think I can certainly introduce you to someone who choses not to work at all. Neither group, by the way, wants your interferance in their lives. And they especelly don't want busybodies making things more expensive to social engineer things to be the way they think they should be.
"Maybe your father was a draft dodger..."
No, he wasn't. He tried to join but they would not let him. He had a severely crippled leg due to Polio when he was 9.
My father was a lawyer. He graduated with honors from Old Miss and UT. He took jobs like letting mosquitoes suck his blood and any other job that he could to pay for his schooling. He started his law practice in the 30's in Alice, Texas by setting up some crates on a downtown corner and practiced law right there. We were able to afford a TV and air conditioner because this crippled person never thought to blame his handicap for any hard bumps he met in the road.
Once he was making a decent living he refused to pay me an allowance and made me start sacking groceries at 9 years old. He said if he could do it, I could do it.
He taught me how to work and what a work ethic was. He also taught me that when duty called...you went...and for four years during the Viet Nam war, I served in the Air Force.
What branch of the service did you and your dad serve in?
This is another free trader tactic. You all have "special codeword" names to call people. As soon as they call you names -- simple or otherwise, it's "ad hominem." A little ways forward in #52, you suggest that DH's father could be a draft-dodger. On FR, that's about as low a blow as one can make. But you slipped it in between veiled snipes about air conditioning.
This particular name that you've chosen to call me is of great interest. TP tried to suggest earlier that the blood of our fallen troops offers no argument in favor of protectionism. You both have lost your sense of connection to the world around you. This is why you can so easily call protectionists "collectivist." You've forgotten that even the people don't own the greatest gifts America has been bestowed.
Where do you think the economic power came from that propelled America to the greatness you both claim is only getting better and better?
It came from the security provided to Americans by their troops, from the souls they offered up and the blood they spilled in the defense of your future economic security. This is not yours to "spend" or "slough off" lightly in foreign debt and weakened manufacturing independence.
It came from the kinship Americans felt for one another as they worked side by side for a better world. It came from the land grants that gave Americans a sense of ownership they'd never had before. That common cultural bond of being an American, of being part of this great country -- is also not yours to waste or abuse.
Our financial security and independence has come from the vast natural resources buried deep in the earth and dredged out by the toiling of the American people. It came from the geographic isolation provided by the North American continent. This, too, is not yours to seize or misuse. It was given to us by a force far more eternal that your passion for "free global trade."
America's economic security has come from work ethic shared by so many who were born or moved here from Europe. This deeply rooted sense of what it means to be an American is yet another thing that is owned by nobody, and yet has priceless value to us all. Our cultural compatibility is something else that shouldn't be squandered in the name of open trading zones and a globally-mobile workforce. It's not really yours to "own" and "consume" as capitalist with "enlightened self-interest."
You call those who wish to protect America's advantages "collectivist." You're the worst kind of collectivist because you believe it's a foreign-owned corporation's right to determine the sole outcome of the use of these shared resources, including the precious and delicate trade balances that TP yearns to dismiss.
You both refuse to recognize that America's greatness was as much a gift given us by the Creator as anything else. You're forgetting the origins of our success. You think it's in enlightened self-interest. That's only part of the story of America's rise to glory. If all we had were the values the two of you espouse, we never would have risen at all. This is why you can't be entrusted with our future.
So God told you higher tariffs are needed?
Bump.
Thank you. This is a work of true heart and soul. Patriotic gospel truth from one crying in the wilderness of manna-worshipers.
Eagles UP!
Where ever did you get that idea? Do you even know what I'm talking about?
Obviously the notion that there is a Creator is an uncomfortable idea to him.
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