Posted on 02/18/2004 5:12:57 AM PST by beaureguard
Jobs .. and the economy. Those seem to be the issues that are driving many, if not most, of those who are supporting the Kerry candidacy.
First of all ... I'm going to repeat this simply because it makes the whiners so unbelievably angry. Listen up. They're not your jobs! The jobs belong to the employers .. not to you! You have job skills and, presumably, a willingness to work. Your task in a free economy is to get out there and find some employer with a job who needs your skills ... and strike a deal.
If you do not have the particular set of job skills that an employer needs, of if you have priced your labor out of the marketplace, guess what? It's not the employer's fault. The fault lies with you. Either develop a new set of job skills that are actually in demand, or adjust your pricing. The employer knows what he's looking for you. If you're not it .. it's your problem, not his.
Now ... you say you're going to vote for a Democrat this year because of jobs? You mean to tell me that you're going to vote against George Bush this year because you don't have a set of job skills that are in demand in our free marketplace? Yeah .. that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?
Tell me. Just what do you want the president to do? You information technology people out there .. just what are you demanding? Do you want companies to stop outsourcing IT jobs to India? OK ... tell me how to do that. These companies aren't shipping parts overseas and completed products back. All they do is ship information overseas by phone lines or the Internet. Then that information is modified and shipped back the same way. What do you want the government .. the president to do? Do you want some federal law that prohibits companies from transmitting information overseas by the Internet, having that information transformed or modified, and then shipped back? And tell me just how do you enforce that law? Does that law then apply to you also if you seek information from a company that is located overseas, thus depriving a domestic company of your business?
Ditto for manufacturing. I've already told you the story about the California company that makes computer mouses. (computer mice?) This company ships the components to China. The mouse is assembled in China and shipped back, then sold for around $40. Why? Because the assembly is cheaper in China than it would be in the US. So, you say you want the president to force this company to have that mouse assembled in the US? Fine .. then the price for the mouse goes up to about $70 a pop and sales drop. As the sales drop the jobs of the people in this country who manufacture the components for that mouse go away. Then the 100 marketing jobs this company supports in California also go away. You see, perhaps you can succeed in forcing this company to assemble these mouses in the US, but there just isn't any way you can force the American consumer to pay 80% more for the "made in America" version.
As Bruce Bartlett says in an article listed in my reading assignments, "No nation has ever gotten rich by forcing its citizens to pay more for domestic goods and services that could have been procured more cheaply abroad."
What we are seeing here is a demonstration of the "government owes me" mentality of far too many Americans. Every time you arrive at a speed bump in your life's journey you start screaming to the government for help. Sure, the speed bump is going to slow you down a bit ... but just keep moving forward and things inevitably pick up speed again. Americans are becoming helpless whiners. The more helpless you are, and the more you whine, the more likely it is you're going to vote for a Democrat. Democrats specialize in stroking the malcontent.
Congratulations, whiners. At a time when America if fighting World War IV, the war against Islamic terrorism ... you're going to vote for a candidate who wants to treat terrorism as a freaking law enforcement problem because you've made some pitiful jobs choices. Pitiful.
So what do you tell those AMERICANS--you know, folks like you--who just saw their retirement nest egg get nuked because you decided that companies owe more to the government than paying their taxes?
They're on their own!
Well, that's what you just told millions of Americans--they're on their own, and kiss their retirement nest egg good-bye. You think they're going to vote for your re-election after you just completely cratered the stock market, and sentenced them to eating Alpo for the rest of their lives? Hell, do you think that any politician who did that is going to LIVE to see the next election?
It always amazes me what a large number of anti-freedom people there are on a forum called FREE Republic.
By borrowing? Interest rate is low and they can borrow against the equity in their homes.
Do you believe that economics is a zero-sum game?
I guess that it almost never is. When the whole country prospers it is a positive-sum game, when it is in decline it is negative.
No Pooh, I don't think any company owes anything to the government. I do think it owes something to the society that was reponsible for creating the conditions that let them succeed. You know, your fellow Americans! It's called a social contract.
How can you expect any American fighting man to put himself in harms way to protect the interests of a company that will not even want to employ him? That is not the America I served!
SELL THE STOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How are people supposed to pay for the products made by these "living wage" employees (and protected by tarriffs) when product prices inflate, stock prices dive, and most Americans STILL buy the (now only slightly cheaper) foreign good (thereby costing MORE American jobs when the US companies go bankrupt thanks to the "protection")?
There is a difference between freedom and chaos.
What the free traitors desire will bring chaos to America in the end. Haven't you heard the saying "Freedom isn't free"?
Why is it that folks like you are quick to take credit for creating conditions where a company you had nothing to do with can succeed, but quickly disavow any responsibility for creating the conditions (asinine tort law, asinine levels of regulation and taxation, etc) that encouraged the company to leave?
How can you expect any American fighting man to put himself in harms way to protect the interests of a company that will not even want to employ him? That is not the America I served!
The America I served did not guarantee me a lifetime sinecure after my service.
In the meantime...America's stock market is cratered. Millions of Americans are suddenly unemployed, and forever unemployable. Tax revenues from those evil companies that outsourced are no more.
What do you propose to do to fix the crisis you created with this policy?
A. Yes, they do.
B. No, they think they don't.
I don't think you quite get it ... I am Republican and I voted in the Democratic Primary - for Al Sharpton. He didn't get any delegates from my state (darn it.)
Pass another law creating jobs with the stroke of a pen.
I respectfully disagree with you.
Ever hear of World War I? The real reason America went to war was because of all the money it had loaned to Britain. The war was not going well for Britain and France and if Britain lost the war, they would have no way to pay back the millions they owed to America. America jumped in to protect the investment of the bankers. The Lusitania sinking was just smoke.
In unrelated news, scientists at Taliesan University have just announced the invention of a perpetual motion machine. It produces more energy than it consumes. The sun is obsolete.
I'm sorry, what were we talking about?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.