Posted on 09/17/2003 7:06:29 AM PDT by Theodore R.
The slow awakening of George W.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: September 17, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Last July, U.S. Trade Representative Bob Zoellick delivered a halftime pep talk to dispirited globalists, thrown on the defensive by the hemorrhaging of U.S. manufacturing jobs.
"What ... a surprise," Zoellick railed at his troops, "to see that the proponents of [free trade] ... have so often abandoned the debate to the economic isolationists and purveyors of fright and retreat."
But by September, Zoellick's own boss seemed to be drifting toward the camp of the "economic isolationists and purveyors of fright."
At a rally in Ohio, which has lost 160,000 manufacturing jobs since mid-2000, President Bush railed: "We've lost thousands of manufacturing jobs because production moved overseas. ... America must send a message overseas – say, look, we expect there to be a fair playing field when it comes to trade."
Yes, friends, at long last, we have their attention.
What's behind this radically revised presidential rhetoric? It is this: U.S. manufacturing jobs are vanishing, and unless he turns it around, Bush's presidency may vanish along with them.
The numbers are breathtaking. Manufacturing jobs have been disappearing for 37 straight months. Not since the Depression have we lost production jobs three years in a row. Since 2000, one in every six manufacturing jobs, 2.7 million, has disappeared. These jobs paid an average wage of $54,000.
Unfortunately for President Bush, while he has a good heart, he was horribly miseducated at Harvard. He simply cannot comprehend that it is free-trade globalism that is destroying U.S. manufacturing jobs, and may yet destroy his presidency.
The serial killer of manufacturing jobs is imports, which are now equal to almost 15 percent of GDP, four times the level they held between 1860 and 1960. What has caused this flood of imports? The trade deals that people like Robert Zoellick negotiate and George W. Bush celebrates.
Consider the numbers.
In July alone, the United States exported $86.1 billion in goods and services. But we imported $126.5 billion, for a trade deficit of $40.4 billion. The total trade deficit for 2003 is estimated at between $480 billion and $500 billion. But the deficit in goods will run closer to $550 billion.
The president's father and Bill Clinton contended that every $1 billion in exports created 20,000 jobs. Thus, a $550 billion trade deficit kills 11 million production and manufacturing jobs.
Say goodbye to blue-collar America.
What is the Bush prescription for curing this metastasizing cancer? In Ohio, he declared, "See, we in America believe we can compete with anybody, just so long as the rules are fair, and we intend to keep the rules fair."
How, Mr. President?
Consider the nation that runs the largest trade surplus with us. In July, we bought $13.4 billion in goods from China and sold China $2.1 billion. U.S. imports from China this year should come in around $160 billion, and U.S. exports to China at $25 billion.
We will thus buy 10 percent of the entire GDP of China, while she buys 0.25 percent of the GDP of the United States. Is this "fair trade"? But how does Bush propose to close this exploding deficit? How can he?
Where a U.S. manufacturing worker may cost $53,000 a year, a factory in China – with $53,000 and using the same machinery and technology as a U.S. factory – can employ 25 reliable, intelligent, hardworking Chinese at $1 an hour.
If you force U.S. businessmen to pay kids who sweep the floor a $5-an-hour minimum wage, while their rivals pay highly skilled Chinese workers $1 an hour, how do you square that with the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the laws?
Does the president, when he goes on about keeping "the rules fair," mean he will insist that China start paying its skilled workers $25 an hour and subject their factories to the same payroll taxes, wage-and-hour laws, OSHA inspections and environmental rules as ours?
Beijing will tell him to go fly a kite, Made in China.
It is absurd to think we can force foreign nations to accept U.S. rules and regulations on production and American standards on wages and benefits. And why should foreign nations comply, when – with their present policies and laws – they are looting our industrial base and walking away with our inheritance?
The men who have custody today of what was once the most awesome manufacturing base the world had ever seen are ideologues, impervious to argument or evidence. Like the socialists of Eastern Europe, zealots like Zoellick are beyond retraining. They are uneducable. They have to go. The sooner they do, the sooner we can get about rebuilding the self-sufficient and sovereign America they gave away.
If you actually read my posts instead of counting them, you might be a little happier and a little wealthier too.
I quit bothering to take you seriously after that stupid "demand without supply" answer to supply-side economics. You might want to learn what is meant by "supply-side" economics. Then you might understand why Reagan was and nearly all conservatives are fans supporters of it.
More than you obviously. To focus on FR enough during "work" to be able to read through posts, respond 26 times, refresh constantly, reading more, means you aren't working. I am sure you have a "job". Santa Claus told me so.
Yeah, those lazy union firefighters and those lazy union policemen and those lazy union paramedics…. Perhaps when you are in need of their services they will prove you correct.
See #202.
This probably explains why you're so unhappy. Do you keep your money in socks under the bed?
You haven't a clue. I got out of the stock market years ago. Millions found out the hard way that the stock market is totally manipulated and tilted towards the house.
Me? I've put my money in real-estate, thanks. And I sleep much better.
You want to play in the stock market? Have at it. Be my guest. After all, without you, the fat cats go broke.
LOL!
Not really. It has about 15,000 members according to that last Freep-a-thon tally. That's pretty light. I can assure you I'm no GOP lobbyist. I don't think the GOP would be so dumb to waste their time "arguing" with paleos who hate the GOP and Bush and will never vote for them anyway. I just like entertaining myself by annoying paleo-morons.
It is, indeed, free trade that steals from the many to enrich the few. It directly converts wages and salaries of dispossesed workers into the bonuses and shareholder equity of those at the top. It consigns whole batches of non and semi skilled workers to permanent underclass status and is creating a future in which it will simply not be possible to earn a decent living above the age of 55.
Free trade is an historical accident, the ideology of whatever happenned to be the dominant exporter of the time. Pre 1945 America never had any use for it. It was only the 1945-1973 America that was free trade. Similarly England was free trade in its Victorian heyday. But the failure to shift to protectionism when economic rivals emerged prevented British industry from having a strong enough capital base to meet the demands of the First World War. If England had followed Joseph Chamberlain's wise advice and shifted to protectionism, maybe England would have had a strong enough industrial base to equip its own army instead of going in hock to the US (and that is a lunacy behind libertarian free trade. the assumption that since the world will always be at peace you can let whole important chunks of your economy go overseas. that is why, every nation has a protected, subsidized agricultural sector because you can't outsource food production.). It is not, your passionate, romantic convictions aside, in any way a moral imperative.
Your vision of pure free trade is one where governments, frankly do not do their jobs in protecting the well being of their country. It is in China's interest to pursue a mercantilist policy to build the industrial and technological base it will need to challenge the US ten years from now. It is in every nation's interest to see to it that their people have jobs so the leaders do not lose their jobs. So your vision of free trade is a fantasy world, like "free love", that collapses in the face of self interest.
PRESIDENT REAGAN, AMERICA THANKS YOU FOR INDUSTRY TARIFF PROTECTION
Harley cruises toward 100
BY RICK POPELY
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO--Harley-Davidson is cruising in the fast lane as it celebrates its 100th birthday, an easy rider in a bumpy economy filled with potholes.
In the midst of a recession, Harley's motorcycle sales and revenue rose to record levels in 2002, continuing a 17-year string of record growth.
This year, demand for 2003 models decked out with 100th anniversary trim is such that dealers can charge more than suggested retail price for the bikes.
Harley is an American success story in an industry dominated by Japanese brands. The company, with help from timely tariffs, resurrected itself from the manufacturing junk pile 20 years ago and captured the hearts and dollars of Baby Boomers, a generation that rejected American automobiles in favor of imports.
Here is a graph of your productivity. I "work on wall street too". See, I can post graphs! And, I can show a stock that has gained and claimed that I bought it!
See, I bought Neorx, a promising bio stock at $3.74 this morning, and it's up to $4.50. 22% in one day. I am a tycoon I tell ya. I just post here when I am not rubbing elbows with the captains of industry!
Awesome. Did they have any good "how to make a tin foil hat" articles in there?
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