Antidotes to the ignorant media, Volume 1

email | Craig J. Cantoni

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I recently rode with an over-the-road truck driver, who told me that he gets all of his news from USA Today, which he considers an excellent newspaper. The poor soul. That makes him just as ignorant of complex current events and economics as those who rely solely on network TV or their hometown newspaper for news. Such people are unaware of facts like the following.

- Contrary to what the ignorant media have led the general public to believe, it is not just the United States that has been losing manufacturing jobs. Due largely to worldwide factory overcapacity, manufacturing employment decreased over the last seven years by 11.3% in the U.S., 11.6% in S. Korea, 12.4% in the U.K., 15.3% in China, 16.1% in Japan, and 19.9% in Brazil. (Source: Oct. 20, 2003 Wall Street Journal)

- As American manufacturing employment has decreased, government employment has increased to a record 21 million workers at the local, state and federal levels. Government employment now exceeds manufacturing employment by about 9 million workers. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

- The more that people are taxed, the less they work. For example, in high-tax Italy and France, the average workweek is 16.5 and 17.5 hours, respectively, versus 25.9 hours in the U.S. This is partly due to high-tax countries having rich social-welfare benefits that serve as a disincentive to work. But it is also due to another disincentive: the more that people work, the more the government takes in taxes. (Source: October 20, 2003 Wall Street Journal)

- The preceding fact has serious implications for the United States as it faces huge tax increases to pay the Social Security and Medicare benefits of current retirees and the baby boom generation. Like European countries, the U.S. will end up in a vicious cycle unless the addiction to entitlements, a k a other people's money, is cured. As taxes are increased to fund entitlements, people will work less. As people work less, taxes will have to be increased even more to make up the shortfall in income and payroll taxes. (Source: Oct. 20, 2003 Wall Street Journal)

- Continuing with the above, as taxes reach confiscatory levels, capital and jobs will shift to lower-tax countries. Despite their class warfare, the Democratic presidential candidates cannot suspend the laws of economics. (Source: the author)

- Elderly Americans are retiring earlier, saving less and consuming more, thanks to sending the bills for their retirement and health care to future generations. For example, in the early 1960s, an average 70-year-old consumed about 63 percent of what 30-year-olds did in non-health care goods and services. Today, the average 70-year-old consumes over 90 percent of what a 30-year-old does. When health care consumption is added, the 70-year-old consumes over 115 percent of what the 30-year-old consumes. (Source: "War between the Generations, " Cato Institute Policy Analysis No. 488)

- Half of the uninsured in America are non-citizens. Prior to W.W.II, only 2 percent of Americans had health insurance, but the streets were not littered with dying people. (Various sources)

- The aforementioned over-the-road truck driver does not have health insurance. and is counted as one of America's uninsured. Why? Because he prefers to own his own rig and work as an independent than to be on a corporation's payroll and health insurance plan. (Source: the over-the-road truck driver)

- The average American spends more on cars than medical expenses. In that sense, the United States is facing a crisis in priorities, not in health care. (Source: the author)

- American companies are opening up call centers in the Phillipines. To attract more American business, the government of Manila has reinstated English as the language of instruction in schools and universities, replacing such local languages as Tagalog. (Source: October 20, 2003 Wall Street Journal)

- Meanwhile, English is taught as a second language in American public schools to many Hispanic children, who graduate with such a poor mastery of English that they are not qualified to work in a call center. (Source: the author)

The preceding suggests that education will not enable the United States to maintain a competitive advantage over other nations. Too many third-world countries are beginning to catch up in education -- and in technology. The United States' real competitive advantage has to come from entrepreneurialism, which is what made the nation an economic powerhouse to begin, what raised our standard of living to an unprecedented level, and what cannot be easily replicated by bureaucratic nations. Unfortunately, entrepreneurialism will not thrive in an environment of high taxes, regulatory overkill, litigiousness, anti-capitalism, Democratic class warfare, and ignorant media.

Stay tuned for more antidotes to the ignorant media.

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Mr. Cantoni is an author, columnist and founder of Honest Americans Against Legal Theft (HAALT). He can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.