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Wanted: Economic Patriots to Save American Dream
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AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka yesterday described the upcoming elections this way:
“This election is about economic patriots, and it’s also about corporate traitors.”
Economic patriotism resonates among working people and the millions of America’s jobless workers—and corporate traitors is an all-too apt description of many in Big Business, such as anti-patriotic corporations moving jobs out of this country. A paragraph buried in a New York Times article on Wall Street this week hit me hard:
Just last week, Paul S. Otellini, chief executive of Intel, said at a dinner at the Aspen Forum of the Technology Policy Institute that “the next big thing will not be invented here. Jobs will not be created here.”
Mr. Otellini has overseen two big acquisitions in the last two weeks—the $7.7 billion takeover of the security software maker McAfee and the $1.4 billion deal for the wireless chip unit of Infineon Technologies. If he is true to his word, those deals will most likely lead to job cuts in the United States, not job creation.
Otellini is not an outlier.
Reports this week say Citigroup—which received $45 billion in taxpayer bailout funds—now is creating 12,000 jobs. In China.
Also this week, a new report shows that between November 2008 and April 2010, the CEOs of the top 50 job-cutting companies made $598 million in compensation. The top 50 layoff firms reported a 44 percent average profit increase for 2009, the Institute for Policy Studies report said.
Calling out such behaviors and casting them for what they are—unpatriotic, anti-American—can help us take back the ground grabbed by reactionaries for so long, with the Tea Party just the latest manifestation of such warped usage of the red, white and blue.
Patriotism means more than lip service. It means taking action to ensure that working families have the good jobs they need to support their families—creating an environment that’s worthy of our American Dream.
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12 Comments
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The 4th of July and Labor Day should be synonymous with one another. America’s Labor Day is not observed by overseas unions nor Nations we trade with. It’s the celebration of the AMERICAN Labor Movement. Therefore; the lion’s share of Labor Day is rightfully spent on economic PATRIOTISM to the United States of America. The American consumer desperately desires to purchase American/Union made products. I implore all ambassadors of Local, State and Federal Governments to work toward not restricting our options. Your Country is depending on you to demonstrate, at the least, a shimmer of Patriotism for the People of whom it’s made, more humbly known as the meek. The job of our President should include being the biggest cheerleader America has for exporting goods when negotiating trade agreements, not simply for importing only. Such lopsided agreements should be subject to mandatory evaluations which include cost/benefit ratios to accurately gauge the degree of negative economic impact they have on America. Trade agreements do not require escape clauses as long as our Constitution includes provisions demanding we avoid entangling foreign alliances. That cost/benefit ratio should be the defining document for discerning what is entangling and what is beneficial to the vital interests of the People of the United States of America, not the International Corporations that operate within it. They call our Patriotism, “Protectionism.”
Labor owns the Patriotic high-ground…period! Every local Chamber of Commerce that flies a flag outside its facility exercises the same level of treason as Benedict Arnold.
The sole remaining purpose of unions is to extort above market wages and benefits from employers. Strikes are planned coordinated attacks on personal property of investors. No small wonder that investment capital has left our rustbelt and has gone overseas where capital is treated with respect. If we did not legislate that foreign autos must be assembled here we would have no industry at all. But capital is like water … it seeps through barriers and goes where it is treated the best. Unions once help our nation become great by getting minimum wages, worker safety laws and such. But now there is no remaining purpose for unions beside making sure that our manufacturing industries never rebuild. Unions have become legalized bust-outs, harvesting the assets of employers until there is nothing left. Labor now has no high moral ground whatsoever. Labor is corrupt and its inability to win secret ballots is a testimony to that fact. Labor’s attempt to get rid of the secret ballot speaks volumes as to the character of union management. All of America’s enemies combined have not done the damage done to us by unions.
I am proud to be a union worker, my work it constantly changing I have yearly reports from my manager that my work is outstanding so the idea, that we just lay around all day is a lie, We are hard working Americans who are lucky enough to have a union represent us if and when needed something non-union workers do not benefit from…so i think that is probably the word that bother’s you …BENEFIT, well you can also become a Hard working Union member to, just go a look for a job that works not only for the Company but for you to.
If in fact it is true, as you would say, that only the rich ‘create jobs’, then we either have to do everything possible to try to coax the rich to do that, (such as giving them back all of their tax money), or just get rid of the rich and use their stolen wealth to hire workers to do the infrastructure work of our neglected nation. If it is ‘patriotic’ to give the idle rich everything they want all of the time, then certainly the unions could be called unpatriotic. That is ok with me, because ‘patriotism’ has come to mean ‘stop thinking and let the government take away your civil liberties while the bosses’ government drags you into one endless imperial war of conquest after another’.
rappstr:
So you want to turn our subject matter from Patriotism to extorsion…Alright, what exactly were the titans of investment capital (whom you serve up to be champions of patriotism) engaged in when they sent Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson into a Senate Banking Committee meeting demanding over $1 trillion in our taxes on a mere 2 page Bill, while threatening the death of America as we know it as a consequence for non-compliance? Those bozos obviously don’t give a damn about the soverienty of the United States. Do you really want to discuss the “planned coordinated attacks on personal property?” Well shucks, why don’t you go visit your nearest Military Cemetary? We’ve got plenty of them; I’m sure there are a few nearby where-ever you live in America. Go on in, look all around and gauge first hand exactly how well the investment capital of the finest Americans among us was treated when sent “overseas where capital is (aledegely) treated with respect!” You, sir, are nothing shy of a traitor to their Country when you betray their sacrifice in such ways. If life overseas is so great, then export yourself over there and stop sending them. Provide your own protection for the exploitation of labor with your own investment capital and stop using mine to do it with. I want my tax investments to honor their sacrifices…and I’m obviously not alone, judging from the original article above. Therefore; LABOR DOES OWN THE PATRIOTIC HIGHGROUND, afterall.
The following is a report for Congress in DEC 2009 that explains that national ballast water legislation would do the same thing as tariffs, plus protect our environment from the carbon footprint and dirty water trail of foreign ships bringing foreign manufactured imports into our country, stealing jobs from Americans. “Although estimates of the costs of ballast treatment may be imprecise and vary from vessel to
vessel, there is some general agreement on average costs.14 For example, it may cost an estimated $400,000 per vessel for modification of container/bulk vessels to use onshore ballast water treatment facilities at California ports. More generally, the cost of retrofitting vessels to treat
ballast water has been estimated at between $200,000 and $310,000 per vessel for mechanical
treatment and around $300,000 for chemical treatment.15 Most of this expense will be borne by
foreign shipping companies, as the U.S. flag fleet is a small percentage of the global fleet,16 and
likely passed along to consumers of products imported on these ships.”Now all we have is a Military plan, giving incentives to foreign ships bring foreign manufactured goods into our country to install technology to protect our environment. This is while Americans are out of work, forcing the states, without an infrastructure for enforcement into expensive legislative competition with each other while dealing with an international organization of primarily foreign economic interest. (IMO) Sadly after the historic vote by the House in 2008,(passed 395-7), was killed by one Senator Boxer over her belief in state rights, overriding all Americans rights to control the amount of pathogens and virus dumped in US waters, this administration has again promoted the grandiose plan of economic globalization over economic Americanization as a way to create jobs, by not instructing the Senate to work out her issues over the House historic request for American law. The top three members of this administration were Senators at the time. In the 1990′s as they began creating new trade treaties promoting economic globalization as the answer for Americas future, environmentalist were not happy with President Clinton and the delegation under the clean water act and the EPA for ballast water. They new then this only circumvented the problem on behalf foreign shipping. Now two decades later we have become a nation were are largest employers are non-union store clerks selling foreign made products. Senator Boxer’s only alternative after killing national ballast water legislation in 2008 was again to try and place, ballast water control under the Clean Water Act and the EPA . Obviously there can be no enforcement this way, as even during the Gulf disaster, despite repeated warnings to this administration about ballast systems moving substances released from ocean development, they allowed ships to move tar balls into Lake Pontchartrain. This warning was even posted on our Presidents Ocean Initiatives web site. This administration has promoted the idea that limiting US carbon emission, negotiating carbon emission and currency manipulation with a communist country, while facilitating destruction of our waters an atmosphere by foreign ships is the way to create spill over jobs for America from foreign countries. How can anybody who believes in the principles of an American labor union continue to support these people?
After watching the last 30 years of the economic history of this country, it is my opinion that out-sourcing of jobs and H1B Visa jobs should be on the list of treasonable behavior for any citizen and most particularly those in the upper echelons of wealth who have made it there by using the infrastructure that was bought and paid for and built by the common citizen.
To all my brothers and sisters ,Isn`t time we woke up and stop backing the Democratic Party. Please open your minds,we are not as stupid as our union leaders think.
Look at what is happening in our Great Country,9.6% unemployment and if you trully believe that I have a bridge for sale.
This Administration is so far to the left of center,with socialist and other far left people in our Government thanks to our President.
They want to bring this Great Country down to the statist of a Third world crap hole.
We that still have jobs are breaking our asses to keep a roof over our heads and our family feed.
But these dumb asses in Washington just want to keep raising taxes and spending money we don`t have.
By the time OBUMMER is out of office this country is going to have to buy new airplanes to be called AIR FORCE 1
If he is not on vacation he flying all over the world, and us stupid jackasses are paying for it.
The hell with these Crooked Union Leaders if you think they real care about you ,then why are they spending all your dues money to keep these crooks in Washington. wake up they want POWER and they could care less about you or your familys.
The ONLY PERSON THAT CARES ABOUT YOUR FAMILY IS YOU.
VOTE THESE LOSER OUT ON THEIR ASS AND LET SEE THEM GET THEIR HANDS DRITY.
The magic of the marketplace is war. Those are the only jobs that Democrats and Republicans care to fill – soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and big money mercenary outfits like Blackwater and Halliburton, or whatever aliases they use now. Oh, yes, and high-priced whores, yacht crews, butlers, maids, nannies and chauffeurs for the rich
The rest of us get no magic – we can go to hell for all they care..
I think patriot2010 has it all wrong. It is big business ,Wall Street that are turning this country into a third world country. He can’t see back to what happened over the last eight years.
This whole mess started back when Nixon went to China. I was just as elated as most people were. They talked of all the trade that would be created by being friendly with China. What I and most other Americans thought was that we were going to sell all kinds of goods to China and provide Jobs for Americans. But that was not what trade meant to Nixon and his big business friends .They had other ideas and we were a bunch of suckers. They could see ahead to the day they could exploit the cheap labor in China, and do away with American workers
It really went down hill for workers after Reagon became president. Union members supported him in a big way and he declared war on unions almost immediately. It wasn’t long after Reagon became president that we started losing benefits ,vacations costof living increases, and jobs
The Democrats sure haven’t been as good as they should be, but they have done more all through history to help working people. But under the Republicans we would be completely down the drain. They have no use for working people except their votes to keep them in power.
I certainly believe President Obama could have done more to create jobs, but considering the shape things were in , by the time of the election , I don’t know if anyone could have done better. I surely don’t believe he is a socialist.. Most of the people who keep talking about socialism don’t even seem to know what it means. Socialism is when the government owns everything,, and everyone works for the government. We don’t have anything even remotely close to that in America. If so all these big companies and their high paid CEO’s and directors,wouldn’t be in control of our government , and everything else.
It is not working people and unions who are the cause of all Americas problems. As long as people keep spreading that kind of propaganda,and finding people to believe it , we’ll continue down the drain
It was working Americans that made this country great and who have been the most to die for America in all its wars
An Alternative to Capitalism (which we need here in the USA)
The following link takes you to an essay titled: “Home of the Brave?” which was published by the
Athenaeum Library of Philosophy:
http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/steinsvold.htm
John Steinsvold
Excellent piece. To those who would dump blame on the unions, I say, you have been suckered completely into the corporate robber barons trap. Conservatives have been working for a century to take the country back to the time of Carnegie, Frick, and J.P. Morgan, and the latest gang, Koch, Murdoch, Blankenship et al are cut from the same despicable cloth. And some unfortunate working people are taking this catfish bait wrapped in a red-white-and-blue tea bag, hook, line, and sinker.
Any company that is investing in the illusory Chinese manufacturing market now will eventually drive itself off a cliff. In the “Special Economic Zones” that China has created, wage rates are already on the rise because as the workers become more properous and become middle class, they are realizing that they hold the cards, and they can choose where they want to work. This “investment capital” structure only works where corporations can exploit desperate people at slave wages, and people won’t be expoited forever.
Labor will always get by, because there will always be work to be done. But corporations can produce nothing without labor, they are like brains without hands. And investors produce NOTHING, they are parasites on an economic system that they have been able to rig to their own advantage since the despot Reagan.
Our next export to the world needs to be our Unions, and our government must support that.