I am getting sick of the word 'austerity', thrown around haphazardly by all of the Serious People in the news as the answer to our budgetary and economic woes. Austerity, as a media buzzword, has come to mean a new round of mass privatizations, wage cuts, tax cuts, and a general dismemberment of the people's half of our government ledger.
Our teachers are expected to get by on McJob wages, our firefighters are to be thrown into the streets the second their bad backs (from carrying the morbidly obese down flights of stairs on stretchers, thanks food lobby!) become too much of a burden. Our middle class is expected to pay for the education required to have a shot in hell at a decent living through burdensome, non-dischargeable student loans or service to the imperial war machine. Our elderly are expected to work as Wal*Mart greeters and live in their rusting out 93' Oldsmobiles for the crime of expecting a pension upon retirement. Our sick are expected to sit quietly in a corner and die of easily treatable illness.
Not once do these Serious People seek to discuss cuts which would have real, tangible effects- the big ticket items on the plutocrat's portion of the ledger are of course off limits.
The imperial war machine? Someone connected is making a buck off of our addiction to war and empire. We can't cut 'defense', mind that the actual salary for our nation's men and women in uniform are a small fraction of the system. The graft must go on, after all.
Taxing wealthy people on their capital gains? That would hurt investment!
Taxing multinationals that have the gall to operate in country? No, we cannot tax them, we must tax small businesspeople instead- they are not politically connected, you see.
Competitive contracts for government work with sizable penalties for going over budget? Nope!
Letting banks and big businesses fail when they fail in the marketplace? That would be socialism, surely! We must prop up outmoded institutions- they pay for my next election.
The poison pill of austerity is not directed at the powerful and the connected. This medicine is a weapon force fed down the throats of the working and middle classes. Is there waste and fraud at the low end of the totem pole? Sure. But the numbers matter. If some guy on welfare smokes a joint in his off time, I really am not to blame him. His life sucks. The 300 dollars in odd cash he might extort monthly from the system cannot and does not compare to the trillions being pilfered by investment institutions, defense contractors, our scam of a healthcare system, and university presidents.
Before we knock the last pillars of support from our least able citizens, we should give those at the top a damn close shave of a haircut.
After that we can and should address problems at the bottom. Not until then, though.
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Industry That Makes Industry
From: http://rightleftwrong.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/industry-that-makes-industry/
Cincinnati, Ohio one hundred years ago was once the machine tool capital of the world. As recently as the 1970s, Cincinnati was home to leading machine tools manufacturers such as Cincinnati Milacron and Carlton. Factories hummed day and night with the sounds of expert machinists on the lathe creating true precision parts. The industrial might that beat fascism was made possible by American machining. Every bullet fired, every tank, every plane in the sky over Europe, all of these were made possible through an accessible, ready supply of American tool and die.
The globalization of industry that has hollowed out the industrial base of the entire country can be seen in the demise of American machine tool manufacture and market share. Domestic market share held by American machine companies is barely 30%. Even if we wanted to properly reindustrialize we would be beholden to foreign interests for the very tools to kit the factories. This is tragic. Strategically, the loss of control of capacity this represents means that were we to end up in a hellish, true war against a credible threat we have no native way to upscale our defense manufacturing needs. Economically, this loss is a good representation of why so many of our young people's highest legitimate aspirations will end with them serving burned coffee at a Starbucks. Skilled, fulfilling, well-paying manufacture has been on the wane for longer than they have been alive.
The only lucrative path in the early 21st century seems to be the path of finance. Wall Street always wins big. Owning your regulators and media outlets can't hurt. The recovery hasn't. It has been a lie spun of whole cloth. Main Street has been mugged, government is nearly insolvent, those lucky enough to have jobs won't see a real raise and are more likely to see their purchasing power decrease as the dollar radically devalues thanks to QE. Young graduates, freshly laden with student debt, can be sure to find applications at the counter of the nearest Starbucks. Or are they online only now, I cannot recall.
It all goes back to industry. Industry that creates industry. Policy promotes growth. If you build a massive highway system, cities will sprawl to take advantage of cheaper land resources on the outer belts. If you kill tariffs, nations which utilize serf-grade labor practices will siphon off industry. A free people need be a productive people. An America built on entitlement and finance, ever more stratified, is an America begging tyranny. The more important finance becomes and the more the average person relies on government handouts to meet their basic needs the less free we become. The more we enslave our youth to debt through ever heavier student debt burdens the less entrepreneurial chances those kids can take in the future. The more we punish risk and reward rent seeking behavior the closer we are to feudal hierarchies with rights and privileges for the financial elite.
Freedom isn't free and policy can promote freedom. We need to promote the growth of American machining and American tool and die. Should we need to reindustrialize as fuel costs soar and resource wars loom on the horizon, we will need the expertise and capabilities here at home. We need these things should we wish to remain a free people in the days to come.
Cincinnati, Ohio one hundred years ago was once the machine tool capital of the world. As recently as the 1970s, Cincinnati was home to leading machine tools manufacturers such as Cincinnati Milacron and Carlton. Factories hummed day and night with the sounds of expert machinists on the lathe creating true precision parts. The industrial might that beat fascism was made possible by American machining. Every bullet fired, every tank, every plane in the sky over Europe, all of these were made possible through an accessible, ready supply of American tool and die.
The globalization of industry that has hollowed out the industrial base of the entire country can be seen in the demise of American machine tool manufacture and market share. Domestic market share held by American machine companies is barely 30%. Even if we wanted to properly reindustrialize we would be beholden to foreign interests for the very tools to kit the factories. This is tragic. Strategically, the loss of control of capacity this represents means that were we to end up in a hellish, true war against a credible threat we have no native way to upscale our defense manufacturing needs. Economically, this loss is a good representation of why so many of our young people's highest legitimate aspirations will end with them serving burned coffee at a Starbucks. Skilled, fulfilling, well-paying manufacture has been on the wane for longer than they have been alive.
The only lucrative path in the early 21st century seems to be the path of finance. Wall Street always wins big. Owning your regulators and media outlets can't hurt. The recovery hasn't. It has been a lie spun of whole cloth. Main Street has been mugged, government is nearly insolvent, those lucky enough to have jobs won't see a real raise and are more likely to see their purchasing power decrease as the dollar radically devalues thanks to QE. Young graduates, freshly laden with student debt, can be sure to find applications at the counter of the nearest Starbucks. Or are they online only now, I cannot recall.
It all goes back to industry. Industry that creates industry. Policy promotes growth. If you build a massive highway system, cities will sprawl to take advantage of cheaper land resources on the outer belts. If you kill tariffs, nations which utilize serf-grade labor practices will siphon off industry. A free people need be a productive people. An America built on entitlement and finance, ever more stratified, is an America begging tyranny. The more important finance becomes and the more the average person relies on government handouts to meet their basic needs the less free we become. The more we enslave our youth to debt through ever heavier student debt burdens the less entrepreneurial chances those kids can take in the future. The more we punish risk and reward rent seeking behavior the closer we are to feudal hierarchies with rights and privileges for the financial elite.
Freedom isn't free and policy can promote freedom. We need to promote the growth of American machining and American tool and die. Should we need to reindustrialize as fuel costs soar and resource wars loom on the horizon, we will need the expertise and capabilities here at home. We need these things should we wish to remain a free people in the days to come.
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