Rebuilding American manufacturing not only returns jobs to our country, but also keeps profits here in America. Instead of strengthening China, we'd be rebuilding our own nation...
Big business may see the error of their ways but when the bottom line is profit it’s doubtful they’ll make the choice of country over profit. And as we proceed, with education on the chopping block, we’re going to doom ourselves handily. We’ve allowed the cost of living to exceed the cost of survival. Andrew Yang says the US is 24 years behind on tech. While we cripple our population with substandard education. We’re the fools handing our country and great democratic experiment over to fascism because we didn’t see the value in preserving our standard of living for the people who did the work... get it cheaper somewhere else... so the largest employer in the US sells Chinese made goods... pretty depressing.
You mention attacks on education -- thanks to the abundance of guns and failing mental health, children don't know if they'll return safely home after each day of pursuing education; not the greatest environment for learning.
Great point! I bet just about every kid has some level of elevated adrenaline/cortisol because of heightened fear, hyper-vigilance in school. Can't learn on that; too much stress.
Thom,you give evidence that communism and capitalism are not competing theories.
China is evidence that capitalism is an economic theory and that communism is a political theory.
And economics and politics can and do coexist and support each other. America as well, we are a mixed economy, so they say. But calling it a mixed economy is wrong, regulating the activities of corporations is not an economy. It is a political decision to mitigate the harm that unfettered capitalism does to a nation.
In like fashion, the Chinese political system of Communism, permits and encourages capitalist investment, with limitations and restructions more dire than that imposed by Congress and the Executive in America. For if egregious they will execute the malefactor, as happened with the powdered milk scandal
George Bush’s grandfather, Prescott, helped finance Hitler, as did Henry Ford and GM, and other corporations. There was even a conference in Switzerland after D Day in which representatives of American and German corporations met to strategize how to save German corporations (they knew it was over) Crime and Punishment of I G Farben https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Punishment-I-G-Farben/dp/0029046300
Corporations have but one directive per SCOTUS and that is to produce a positive return for investors.
Lenin said that capitalists will line up to sell the rope that will hang them.
It is a lie perpetuated by corporations that the American standard of living is because of capitalism.
We forget history but the history of this country is that of capitalists exploiting labor, and creating an insurmountable divide between the classes, that it took a labor movement and Congressional action To protect labor and regulate business, especially by raising taxes.
And it took two score years for the 1% to bounce back, buying up politicians, judges and the media
The old trope that a broken clock is right twice a day is true in the case of Trump. Trump has said many things that are true, just not in the way he intends. One of which is “the media is the enemy of the people” it certainly is, it made him President and it regularly distracts and misdirects us from the really important issues.
Be careful of reverse psychology , for example defending the media just because Trump attacked it.
Another example is Trump’s call to defund the FBI and law enforcement. This causes many progressives and liberals to forget that the FBI and law enforcement are staffed and led by proto fascists. COINTELPRO and persecution of progressives and civil rights leaders are an example.
Even today, our instruments of national security are not investing in monitoring the threat from the right, hence this Air National Guard, and retired or ex navy petty officer have distributed vital classified info to Russia and even Al Qaeda, Syria,,, Iran,Saudi Arabia and ISIS. But they sure have a magnifying glass on the left. Witness their association with the Proud Boys, Miliia, Oath Keepers, Boogaloo Bois. Don’t think so? Jan 6th, they had info of the impending attack, but withheld that info. Even today with Trump denouncing them, they are staffed by right wingers.
Lenin also noted that the Soviet system was state capitalism. The faux distinction of the right about socialism is creeping communism ignores the inconvenient pronouncement from Lenin.
The Chinese avoid some, but not all, of the dead ends of the Soviet system. There is better regional autonomy and a mix of state and private enterprises have proven to be more dynamic than the Soviet-sype Gosplan centralization.
Going forward China faces major challenges including multiple debt fueled bubbles that are all near bursting, a negative demographic trend, and major localized environmental issues caused by global climate change. There is no playbook for how this all unfolds, so don't listen to the talking heads who say they have an answer of what happens in China.
It gets more complicated. The US changed its entire manufacturing process. Nothing gets machined, made and assembled into a finished product in the US anymore. We made truck brakes. The casting for the brake was done in China, where the part was rough-cut. The part was then shipped to Mexico for intermediate finishing. Then, It came to Kentucky for CNC finishing and assembly...into the brake. The brake part was still several assemblies away from a finished truck. The labor in China got paid about $1.40 a day and lived in dorms above the plant. Labor in Mexico? About $2 an hour. After shipping all over the world, the savings weren't really as much as you would think - cost was about $.70 v. $1.00 in the US for full manufacturing, assembly and final production. All for a well-scrubbed balance sheet with which the Wall St. guys/Banks were obsessed. I remember one guy asking why we couldn't have a Board Meeting on Dec. 25th. We reminded him, 'It's Christmas Day.' His response? 'Oh, well OK.'
Good link. I didn't see this a year ago when it came out. A couple takeaways:
(1)
the current-article links in the right-hand column have, at the top, labeled "Debate" and listing two people with a "vs" between them - The blurbs seem more or less the same side:
"It's not the role of government to protect us from Apps"
"VS"
"Don't put TikTok out of business based on hypotheticals"
I should note that the Chinese have been "looking" at us for a long time (experience in server recovery because of Chinese hackers more than 20 years ago). TikTok is of course just one of many items used to infiltrate our networks. When the servers for a company I worked at in 2002 were hit, it was destructive but we only saw vandalism, and had to get all new equipment. Now I suspect these are also trial runs and scouting runs for tactical and strategic disruptions. It certainly threw us back to older global sales (fax/phone) for most of a week.
(2)
Revealing quote from Biden last year. More should have been made of this:
"On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had warned him during a phone call after the U.S. leader's 2020 election victory. "Democracies cannot be sustained in the 21st century, autocracies will run the world."
"Why? Things are changing so rapidly," Biden quoted Xi as saying in remarks that did not reflect the readouts issued at the time. "Democracies require consensus, and it takes time, and you don't have the time."
Xi may look mild but he is very calculating. My view of him is that he is like a fighter or thug, biding his time for an opportunity while making himself seem not so threatening. I think Thom is right to call attention to trouble ahead.
When global supply chains .got disputed by covid we got some optimistic stories about how that risk is going to be addressed in Washington. Then such talk goes away.
Media stories say China bad. Corporate profits still say China good.
In 1876 only half of the nation had the right to vote, and in the south the black males were intimidated away from the polls, leading to the election of Rutherford B Hayes, which had to be settled in Congress.Resulting in the end of Reconstruction.
Anyway your statistics muddy the water, 1876 there were no women voting, and the black vote was suppressed.
Hi William, yes when radical reconstruction ended it upset the gains made through 1875, when eg the second black senator was elected in Mississippi. Still was known as a period of intense political interest and participation regardless of that reversal, up to and through the 1890s (populist era) maybe on through 1915.
I recall how from the late '90s thru mid 2010 how H1-B visas were dramatically increased. This was all pushed by the high-tech corporations and fed with the 'startup' hype. The lobbyists in DC all touted this necessity was due to lack of US skilled labor - there was little (or reverse) incentive to hire US residents. In fact, the education level of US residents was subtly disparaged in many ways (like willingness to work 'harder' and 'work-life' choices).
I worked at Cisco and startups during this period (director and VP levels) and we had no end of service companies like HCL who would provide (relatively) low cost labor from India. They spoke fluent English (thanks India post-British colony !) and were educated with Masters in Computer Science (thanks to India govt. investment in thousands of Universities offering Masters !). And, did I mention low cost? They not only were hourly based contractors with impressively low rates but required no benefits. A real win-win. China was also pushed but less effectively due to the language barrier.
I was in management and certainly enjoyed their skills at work and found them dedicated and personable in the office (and some on the golf courses ;). But, I certainly realized that, as a country, we were all being played politically and economically. There were certainly resident US candidates but low cost and lack of significant employment obligations were paramount.
Then, in addition to this win, the visa hires became a core component in offshoring of labor. Instead of hiring in the US, we could hire one or two 'coordinators' under H1-B in the US who would oversee a team of engineers offshore. Whoa. Talk about low cost and eliminating employment headaches! We could have 20-30, even hundreds offshore.
At this stage, the larger strategy became clear (yes, I was slow on the uptake): 1) bring some talented workers onshore 2) establish growing off-shore teams 3) as the local H1-Bs expire the US trained workers return home and become very well paid mid-level managers offshore. Genius.
Chasing lower costs by relocating production was not new with tech.
If you look at how the automotive industry moved plants into Indiana and Ohio in the 1930s and late 1940s, it was the same thing.
What happens with any exploitive system is that when the resources are exhausted in one place, the organization moves on to the next location. The remaining targets beyond China, e.g. Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Mexico, Columbia, etc., do not have the size and scope of China. India is large but perpetually challenged with infrastructure.
Relocalization through automation is one likely scencario but it turns the countries claiming a "demographic dividend" into a situation of a "demographic disaster" of unemployment and crashed expectations.
I lived in Redmond, the home of Microsoft and supporting companies. They celebrate Holi the Festival of Colors. When you shop at a supermarket or big box store, one notices that "anglo"'s are a minority. Not complaining just saying, I find that the diversity is exhilarating and there is virtually no racial or religious discrimination.Although I can't say the same about misogyny,women as property is quite evident. Men dress in western attire and women in traditional ethnic costume, including the abaya,walking two paces behind the man.
Indian and Pakistani men, walk with hands clasped behind the back, in imitation of the British Sahib that one ruled over them., but you will see Indian vs Pakistani cricket teams playing at the local park.
Yep. Similar to Silicon Valley. Although I have not seen the festival - it may be happening here also.
I find the diversity also very positive. I will point out that racism seems alive and well within the Indian community. Generally, the darker the skin color the lower in the social structure.
The progressives are generally of the Vaisshyas, Sudras even the Dalits (untouchables)
The caste system is goes back to the Aryan invasion and embodied in Hindu sacred literature like the Rg Veda.
The initial purpose was to keep the races separated, to that effect it decreed that you had to drink you own urine if the shadow of an untouchable fell upon you. Reformers like Ghandi turned it on it's head by drinking his own urine.
But laws of man are of nothing when it comes to needs of man, especially sex. So it wasn't long before the Aryan invaders interbred with the dark skinned natives, and although the Indians will fervently deny that their caste system is racist, it's origins certainly are, and today it is quasi racist, though the system has devolved into that of occupational with the Dalits, untouchables doing the preparation and burning of corpses and hauling garbage
Bravo Thom, this needs to be stated over and over again as our lamestreet media never addresses these issues. America built China and what it is today, The politicians from both parties were the levers that created this huge communist economy or should we say "Greed" greed of the titans of industry keep paying them to off for the continuation of neoliberalism.
We used to be informed of all the subsidies we give to other nations, our own industry but we don't hear those facts anymore. What is the amount of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ us taxpayers give out each year to these greedy corporations and nations who treat their people better than we are treated here in the US. ???
The elites were in need of a new strategy with the emergence of strong worker unions under FDR during the depression. The Powell Memo provided the answer and a new strategy. Instead of fighting the unions they could move their factories out of the union strongholds. Initially the factories were moved to the red states with their more compliant workers and then to Mexico and finally to China and more recently to Vietnam.
With the unions severely weakened the Democratic Party sought campaign contributions from the same people that had been funding the Republicans. So the weapons industry and banking and Wall Street are now determining who gets on the ballot.
When factories were established outside the USA there was a movement of capital and technical expertise and technology (as with the Intel chip fab in Vietnam). After 2008 more than 2 million machine shops closed their doors permanently. There is no longer the senior workforce that can train the newbies in this country when they graduate from school.
This shift has been hugely profitable for the overclass in America and only the middle class and working class families have suffered. If anyone thinks that the elites give a damn about others they are delusional.
America's Business Elite are addicted to a plantation-style, less power/salary for workers syndrome.
Arguably, they have the classic Slave-Holder mentality. i.e., looking for labor in the cheapest places on earth. My high-end label clothes are from a veritable UN of manufacturers, but esp. China.
All for Me. And Me for Me. Which is why the elite idolize Trump; who damn near enslaved Polish workers to teardown Bonwit Teller on 5th Ave, to make room for his Dark Tower.
China is tricky, literally. While the world kept seeking their fortune thinking they were using the Chinese, the CCP knew exactly what they were doing.
The Communist Party really wreaked havoc on Xi's early life, but all he wanted was to be part of it. He had no control then, but now they have given HIM control. The ultimate revenge? He claims to identify with the working poor, but he's just another dictator who knows every breath they take and expands his reach day after day.
We fell into their trap and failed to govern our nation for security as well as prosperity. This is learning the hard way. We can work our way out of this entanglement, and the Biden Administration has said we must. They have made a start, and we need to see it through.
This is exactly why our allies and NATO are more important than ever. The Chinese regime wants financial control of the world---together we can stop them in America, Europe, and Australia.
Stalin and Lenin said that the capitalist will sell another capitalist the rope to hang the last capitalist with. And our capitalist knew that to be true, so they moved their plants to China where they can be Kings. Covertly of course.
Seniors don’t need Social Security if they’re wealthy
And if they’re not they’re expendable.
What is being created is Oligarchy.
Government for and by the wealthiest and therefore the rewards and power that only they can claim .
Minorities without any advocacy to attempt to level the playing field after centuries of oppression .
Immigrants who settled this country are expendable .
Trans and LGBTQ individuals all blackballed.
Not allowed equal participations in school sports .
In fact Republicans are sponsoring legislation to disallow any participation by trans kids in scholastic sports.
We’re now seeing kids killed and living in spite of attempted murder because they mistakenly lost their way and ended up dead or severely injured because the GOP has stopped wearing a flag pin on their lapels and instead elevate AR15 s to higher level than the flag of the United States. More guns than people and all that this implies. Guns are elevated over children in schools ; Over people in supermarkets, restaurants , bars, concerts, churches , synagogues, mosques, sweet sixteen parties, or any other public place. No one is safe any more . And its not just the guns , its the displayed hate and violence against anyone who doesn’t believe the way the NRA and Trump and De Santis, and Reagan and the Bushes believed . Look at all the new legislation being brought by States to harass , hurt, dismiss as human beings anyone that isn’t on the team s indoctrinated by the NRA. No ethics needed as regards judges .
Anyone who thinks this is wrong or might be needs to become active in trying to restore our country to
The ‘land of the free and the home of the brave ‘
Not the land of the wealthy and the home of the haters.
Is there any element of the Nixon, Reagan, Bush years that garnered any thing positive for the majority of Americans ?
Im going to have to say no. It seems the legacy of these administrations : the wealth/poverty imbalance. Education imbalance . Wealthy kids to private schools supported in many cases by money marked for public schools .
So public school education only works where there is wealth and therefore adequate tax revenue . City schools have been left to die from the wounds received from suburban communities.
In many cases Republicans in government explicitly
Oppose any real education for poor people. Certainly not college.
There is a real movement across the board to make college unaffordable for everyone but the wealthy. What else ? State Schools shut down because of no taxes on the wealthy being not only acceptable
A "rebuilding industries" model à la Hamilton cries out for a rational and flexible industrial policy that takes people rather than just capital into account.
A centerpiece of any such policy should be enhancing the representation of workers and society in corporate governance. Without this component, "rebuilding industries" will amount to chasing shiny objects of capital flows.
Any "incentives" for such programs must come with requirements such as worker co-determination. There are plenty of models out there that work so no need to invent anything!
Thom, slight correction, Clinton did not sign NAFTA in 1996, it was earlier. On December 8, 1993, President Clinton signed the NAFTA Implementation Act, which had been passed by the House and Senate the previous month. NAFTA then went into effect on January 1, 1994. President GHW Bush signed the NAFTA treaty in December 1992.
The left seeks out the facts and the right makes up their own facts, while the corporate media protects the right from reality. I see little hope of things getting better. Public schools are for learning and private schools are for indoctrinating. The more tax money the private schools get the dumber the nation is becoming. Sue's daily stack has so many great articles and I know none of the right are the least bit interested. I would like to read them all but it only causes me more anger and anxiety. Especially when I see the media intentionally blaming Biden for the budget crisis. The media always seems to forget to blame the GOP for giving all those tax breaks to the rich, or as Paul Harvey would say, "now for the rest of the story"! Also the media forgets to mention that all those Americans losing health insurance were mostly from Red States...
Big business may see the error of their ways but when the bottom line is profit it’s doubtful they’ll make the choice of country over profit. And as we proceed, with education on the chopping block, we’re going to doom ourselves handily. We’ve allowed the cost of living to exceed the cost of survival. Andrew Yang says the US is 24 years behind on tech. While we cripple our population with substandard education. We’re the fools handing our country and great democratic experiment over to fascism because we didn’t see the value in preserving our standard of living for the people who did the work... get it cheaper somewhere else... so the largest employer in the US sells Chinese made goods... pretty depressing.
You mention attacks on education -- thanks to the abundance of guns and failing mental health, children don't know if they'll return safely home after each day of pursuing education; not the greatest environment for learning.
Great point! I bet just about every kid has some level of elevated adrenaline/cortisol because of heightened fear, hyper-vigilance in school. Can't learn on that; too much stress.
💯
Thom,you give evidence that communism and capitalism are not competing theories.
China is evidence that capitalism is an economic theory and that communism is a political theory.
And economics and politics can and do coexist and support each other. America as well, we are a mixed economy, so they say. But calling it a mixed economy is wrong, regulating the activities of corporations is not an economy. It is a political decision to mitigate the harm that unfettered capitalism does to a nation.
In like fashion, the Chinese political system of Communism, permits and encourages capitalist investment, with limitations and restructions more dire than that imposed by Congress and the Executive in America. For if egregious they will execute the malefactor, as happened with the powdered milk scandal
George Bush’s grandfather, Prescott, helped finance Hitler, as did Henry Ford and GM, and other corporations. There was even a conference in Switzerland after D Day in which representatives of American and German corporations met to strategize how to save German corporations (they knew it was over) Crime and Punishment of I G Farben https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Punishment-I-G-Farben/dp/0029046300
Corporations have but one directive per SCOTUS and that is to produce a positive return for investors.
Lenin said that capitalists will line up to sell the rope that will hang them.
It is a lie perpetuated by corporations that the American standard of living is because of capitalism.
We forget history but the history of this country is that of capitalists exploiting labor, and creating an insurmountable divide between the classes, that it took a labor movement and Congressional action To protect labor and regulate business, especially by raising taxes.
And it took two score years for the 1% to bounce back, buying up politicians, judges and the media
The old trope that a broken clock is right twice a day is true in the case of Trump. Trump has said many things that are true, just not in the way he intends. One of which is “the media is the enemy of the people” it certainly is, it made him President and it regularly distracts and misdirects us from the really important issues.
Be careful of reverse psychology , for example defending the media just because Trump attacked it.
Another example is Trump’s call to defund the FBI and law enforcement. This causes many progressives and liberals to forget that the FBI and law enforcement are staffed and led by proto fascists. COINTELPRO and persecution of progressives and civil rights leaders are an example.
Even today, our instruments of national security are not investing in monitoring the threat from the right, hence this Air National Guard, and retired or ex navy petty officer have distributed vital classified info to Russia and even Al Qaeda, Syria,,, Iran,Saudi Arabia and ISIS. But they sure have a magnifying glass on the left. Witness their association with the Proud Boys, Miliia, Oath Keepers, Boogaloo Bois. Don’t think so? Jan 6th, they had info of the impending attack, but withheld that info. Even today with Trump denouncing them, they are staffed by right wingers.
Lenin also noted that the Soviet system was state capitalism. The faux distinction of the right about socialism is creeping communism ignores the inconvenient pronouncement from Lenin.
The Chinese avoid some, but not all, of the dead ends of the Soviet system. There is better regional autonomy and a mix of state and private enterprises have proven to be more dynamic than the Soviet-sype Gosplan centralization.
Going forward China faces major challenges including multiple debt fueled bubbles that are all near bursting, a negative demographic trend, and major localized environmental issues caused by global climate change. There is no playbook for how this all unfolds, so don't listen to the talking heads who say they have an answer of what happens in China.
Outstanding, Thanks so much for that analysis.. Glad to have met you.
It gets more complicated. The US changed its entire manufacturing process. Nothing gets machined, made and assembled into a finished product in the US anymore. We made truck brakes. The casting for the brake was done in China, where the part was rough-cut. The part was then shipped to Mexico for intermediate finishing. Then, It came to Kentucky for CNC finishing and assembly...into the brake. The brake part was still several assemblies away from a finished truck. The labor in China got paid about $1.40 a day and lived in dorms above the plant. Labor in Mexico? About $2 an hour. After shipping all over the world, the savings weren't really as much as you would think - cost was about $.70 v. $1.00 in the US for full manufacturing, assembly and final production. All for a well-scrubbed balance sheet with which the Wall St. guys/Banks were obsessed. I remember one guy asking why we couldn't have a Board Meeting on Dec. 25th. We reminded him, 'It's Christmas Day.' His response? 'Oh, well OK.'
Note this storyline from Newsweek which contradicts much of our cherished narratives.
https://www.newsweek.com/most-china-call-their-nation-democracy-most-us-say-america-isnt-1711176
Good link. I didn't see this a year ago when it came out. A couple takeaways:
(1)
the current-article links in the right-hand column have, at the top, labeled "Debate" and listing two people with a "vs" between them - The blurbs seem more or less the same side:
"It's not the role of government to protect us from Apps"
"VS"
"Don't put TikTok out of business based on hypotheticals"
I should note that the Chinese have been "looking" at us for a long time (experience in server recovery because of Chinese hackers more than 20 years ago). TikTok is of course just one of many items used to infiltrate our networks. When the servers for a company I worked at in 2002 were hit, it was destructive but we only saw vandalism, and had to get all new equipment. Now I suspect these are also trial runs and scouting runs for tactical and strategic disruptions. It certainly threw us back to older global sales (fax/phone) for most of a week.
(2)
Revealing quote from Biden last year. More should have been made of this:
"On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had warned him during a phone call after the U.S. leader's 2020 election victory. "Democracies cannot be sustained in the 21st century, autocracies will run the world."
"Why? Things are changing so rapidly," Biden quoted Xi as saying in remarks that did not reflect the readouts issued at the time. "Democracies require consensus, and it takes time, and you don't have the time."
Xi may look mild but he is very calculating. My view of him is that he is like a fighter or thug, biding his time for an opportunity while making himself seem not so threatening. I think Thom is right to call attention to trouble ahead.
When global supply chains .got disputed by covid we got some optimistic stories about how that risk is going to be addressed in Washington. Then such talk goes away.
Media stories say China bad. Corporate profits still say China good.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/09/tech/apple-china
Our 2020 presidential election had a 66% "turnout" of voting-eligible population, best in a century but still a ways off Tilden-Hayes in 1876 which had close to 82%. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1876_United_States_presidential_election
In 1876 only half of the nation had the right to vote, and in the south the black males were intimidated away from the polls, leading to the election of Rutherford B Hayes, which had to be settled in Congress.Resulting in the end of Reconstruction.
Anyway your statistics muddy the water, 1876 there were no women voting, and the black vote was suppressed.
Hi William, yes when radical reconstruction ended it upset the gains made through 1875, when eg the second black senator was elected in Mississippi. Still was known as a period of intense political interest and participation regardless of that reversal, up to and through the 1890s (populist era) maybe on through 1915.
I recall how from the late '90s thru mid 2010 how H1-B visas were dramatically increased. This was all pushed by the high-tech corporations and fed with the 'startup' hype. The lobbyists in DC all touted this necessity was due to lack of US skilled labor - there was little (or reverse) incentive to hire US residents. In fact, the education level of US residents was subtly disparaged in many ways (like willingness to work 'harder' and 'work-life' choices).
I worked at Cisco and startups during this period (director and VP levels) and we had no end of service companies like HCL who would provide (relatively) low cost labor from India. They spoke fluent English (thanks India post-British colony !) and were educated with Masters in Computer Science (thanks to India govt. investment in thousands of Universities offering Masters !). And, did I mention low cost? They not only were hourly based contractors with impressively low rates but required no benefits. A real win-win. China was also pushed but less effectively due to the language barrier.
I was in management and certainly enjoyed their skills at work and found them dedicated and personable in the office (and some on the golf courses ;). But, I certainly realized that, as a country, we were all being played politically and economically. There were certainly resident US candidates but low cost and lack of significant employment obligations were paramount.
Then, in addition to this win, the visa hires became a core component in offshoring of labor. Instead of hiring in the US, we could hire one or two 'coordinators' under H1-B in the US who would oversee a team of engineers offshore. Whoa. Talk about low cost and eliminating employment headaches! We could have 20-30, even hundreds offshore.
At this stage, the larger strategy became clear (yes, I was slow on the uptake): 1) bring some talented workers onshore 2) establish growing off-shore teams 3) as the local H1-Bs expire the US trained workers return home and become very well paid mid-level managers offshore. Genius.
Chasing lower costs by relocating production was not new with tech.
If you look at how the automotive industry moved plants into Indiana and Ohio in the 1930s and late 1940s, it was the same thing.
What happens with any exploitive system is that when the resources are exhausted in one place, the organization moves on to the next location. The remaining targets beyond China, e.g. Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Mexico, Columbia, etc., do not have the size and scope of China. India is large but perpetually challenged with infrastructure.
Relocalization through automation is one likely scencario but it turns the countries claiming a "demographic dividend" into a situation of a "demographic disaster" of unemployment and crashed expectations.
I lived in Redmond, the home of Microsoft and supporting companies. They celebrate Holi the Festival of Colors. When you shop at a supermarket or big box store, one notices that "anglo"'s are a minority. Not complaining just saying, I find that the diversity is exhilarating and there is virtually no racial or religious discrimination.Although I can't say the same about misogyny,women as property is quite evident. Men dress in western attire and women in traditional ethnic costume, including the abaya,walking two paces behind the man.
Indian and Pakistani men, walk with hands clasped behind the back, in imitation of the British Sahib that one ruled over them., but you will see Indian vs Pakistani cricket teams playing at the local park.
Yep. Similar to Silicon Valley. Although I have not seen the festival - it may be happening here also.
I find the diversity also very positive. I will point out that racism seems alive and well within the Indian community. Generally, the darker the skin color the lower in the social structure.
William Farrar
just now
There are five major castes in India https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35650616. The majority of the right wingers like Dinesh D'Souza and Nimrata Haley come from the Kshatriya caste.
The progressives are generally of the Vaisshyas, Sudras even the Dalits (untouchables)
The caste system is goes back to the Aryan invasion and embodied in Hindu sacred literature like the Rg Veda.
The initial purpose was to keep the races separated, to that effect it decreed that you had to drink you own urine if the shadow of an untouchable fell upon you. Reformers like Ghandi turned it on it's head by drinking his own urine.
But laws of man are of nothing when it comes to needs of man, especially sex. So it wasn't long before the Aryan invaders interbred with the dark skinned natives, and although the Indians will fervently deny that their caste system is racist, it's origins certainly are, and today it is quasi racist, though the system has devolved into that of occupational with the Dalits, untouchables doing the preparation and burning of corpses and hauling garbage
Bravo Thom, this needs to be stated over and over again as our lamestreet media never addresses these issues. America built China and what it is today, The politicians from both parties were the levers that created this huge communist economy or should we say "Greed" greed of the titans of industry keep paying them to off for the continuation of neoliberalism.
We used to be informed of all the subsidies we give to other nations, our own industry but we don't hear those facts anymore. What is the amount of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ us taxpayers give out each year to these greedy corporations and nations who treat their people better than we are treated here in the US. ???
The elites were in need of a new strategy with the emergence of strong worker unions under FDR during the depression. The Powell Memo provided the answer and a new strategy. Instead of fighting the unions they could move their factories out of the union strongholds. Initially the factories were moved to the red states with their more compliant workers and then to Mexico and finally to China and more recently to Vietnam.
With the unions severely weakened the Democratic Party sought campaign contributions from the same people that had been funding the Republicans. So the weapons industry and banking and Wall Street are now determining who gets on the ballot.
When factories were established outside the USA there was a movement of capital and technical expertise and technology (as with the Intel chip fab in Vietnam). After 2008 more than 2 million machine shops closed their doors permanently. There is no longer the senior workforce that can train the newbies in this country when they graduate from school.
This shift has been hugely profitable for the overclass in America and only the middle class and working class families have suffered. If anyone thinks that the elites give a damn about others they are delusional.
America's Business Elite are addicted to a plantation-style, less power/salary for workers syndrome.
Arguably, they have the classic Slave-Holder mentality. i.e., looking for labor in the cheapest places on earth. My high-end label clothes are from a veritable UN of manufacturers, but esp. China.
All for Me. And Me for Me. Which is why the elite idolize Trump; who damn near enslaved Polish workers to teardown Bonwit Teller on 5th Ave, to make room for his Dark Tower.
China is tricky, literally. While the world kept seeking their fortune thinking they were using the Chinese, the CCP knew exactly what they were doing.
The Communist Party really wreaked havoc on Xi's early life, but all he wanted was to be part of it. He had no control then, but now they have given HIM control. The ultimate revenge? He claims to identify with the working poor, but he's just another dictator who knows every breath they take and expands his reach day after day.
We fell into their trap and failed to govern our nation for security as well as prosperity. This is learning the hard way. We can work our way out of this entanglement, and the Biden Administration has said we must. They have made a start, and we need to see it through.
This is exactly why our allies and NATO are more important than ever. The Chinese regime wants financial control of the world---together we can stop them in America, Europe, and Australia.
Stalin and Lenin said that the capitalist will sell another capitalist the rope to hang the last capitalist with. And our capitalist knew that to be true, so they moved their plants to China where they can be Kings. Covertly of course.
But encouraged.
Continued...
Seniors don’t need Social Security if they’re wealthy
And if they’re not they’re expendable.
What is being created is Oligarchy.
Government for and by the wealthiest and therefore the rewards and power that only they can claim .
Minorities without any advocacy to attempt to level the playing field after centuries of oppression .
Immigrants who settled this country are expendable .
Trans and LGBTQ individuals all blackballed.
Not allowed equal participations in school sports .
In fact Republicans are sponsoring legislation to disallow any participation by trans kids in scholastic sports.
We’re now seeing kids killed and living in spite of attempted murder because they mistakenly lost their way and ended up dead or severely injured because the GOP has stopped wearing a flag pin on their lapels and instead elevate AR15 s to higher level than the flag of the United States. More guns than people and all that this implies. Guns are elevated over children in schools ; Over people in supermarkets, restaurants , bars, concerts, churches , synagogues, mosques, sweet sixteen parties, or any other public place. No one is safe any more . And its not just the guns , its the displayed hate and violence against anyone who doesn’t believe the way the NRA and Trump and De Santis, and Reagan and the Bushes believed . Look at all the new legislation being brought by States to harass , hurt, dismiss as human beings anyone that isn’t on the team s indoctrinated by the NRA. No ethics needed as regards judges .
Anyone who thinks this is wrong or might be needs to become active in trying to restore our country to
The ‘land of the free and the home of the brave ‘
Not the land of the wealthy and the home of the haters.
Is there any element of the Nixon, Reagan, Bush years that garnered any thing positive for the majority of Americans ?
Im going to have to say no. It seems the legacy of these administrations : the wealth/poverty imbalance. Education imbalance . Wealthy kids to private schools supported in many cases by money marked for public schools .
So public school education only works where there is wealth and therefore adequate tax revenue . City schools have been left to die from the wounds received from suburban communities.
In many cases Republicans in government explicitly
Oppose any real education for poor people. Certainly not college.
There is a real movement across the board to make college unaffordable for everyone but the wealthy. What else ? State Schools shut down because of no taxes on the wealthy being not only acceptable
A "rebuilding industries" model à la Hamilton cries out for a rational and flexible industrial policy that takes people rather than just capital into account.
A centerpiece of any such policy should be enhancing the representation of workers and society in corporate governance. Without this component, "rebuilding industries" will amount to chasing shiny objects of capital flows.
Any "incentives" for such programs must come with requirements such as worker co-determination. There are plenty of models out there that work so no need to invent anything!
Thom, slight correction, Clinton did not sign NAFTA in 1996, it was earlier. On December 8, 1993, President Clinton signed the NAFTA Implementation Act, which had been passed by the House and Senate the previous month. NAFTA then went into effect on January 1, 1994. President GHW Bush signed the NAFTA treaty in December 1992.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/3450/all-actions?overview=closed&q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22%5C%22hr3450%5C%22%22%5D%7D#tabs
The left seeks out the facts and the right makes up their own facts, while the corporate media protects the right from reality. I see little hope of things getting better. Public schools are for learning and private schools are for indoctrinating. The more tax money the private schools get the dumber the nation is becoming. Sue's daily stack has so many great articles and I know none of the right are the least bit interested. I would like to read them all but it only causes me more anger and anxiety. Especially when I see the media intentionally blaming Biden for the budget crisis. The media always seems to forget to blame the GOP for giving all those tax breaks to the rich, or as Paul Harvey would say, "now for the rest of the story"! Also the media forgets to mention that all those Americans losing health insurance were mostly from Red States...
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