This ninth of November is a historic day. East Germany has announced that, starting immediately, its borders are open to everyone ~ Unknown Moderator speaking for the West German television channel, ARD (11/9/1989)
Short-circuiting the long-established principles of patient negotiation leads to war, not peace ~ Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States (1/20/1977 to 1/20/1981)
I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday yesterday. I would have posted on this topic then, but I was too busy celebrating. I am talking of course about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and also the day we recognize how President Jimmy Carter, by ending the cold war, made it all possible.
It would have been, however, President Walter Mondale who uttered the historic phrase, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!", since that challenge was issued in 1987, which would have been several years after President Carter completed his second term. Everyone would have, however, rightly acknowledged that it was President Carter who set things in motion.
Alas, it was not to be. President Carter did not win a second term, and instead credit goes to a senile B-movie actor who was probably the worst president our great nation has ever known. Reagan's October Surprise was just the first of many acts of treason he would commit after stealing the presidency from Mr. Carter.
A day to celebrate, or a day to mourn what might have been? The words preceding the "tear down this wall" line crafted by Saint Reagan's speech writers was "...if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate". He was, of course, talking about the bad kind of "liberalization", which has nothing at all to do with the Liberal, or Progressive wing, of the Democratic Party. "Most often, the term is used to refer to economic liberalization, especially trade liberalization or capital market liberalization".
The Reagan Presidency started us down the path to ruination, and every president since Saint Reagan has bought into the lie that sending our middle class manufacturing jobs to China is a good idea. Luckily the united German people did not buy into Reagan's hogwash. They moved to the left along with the rest of Europe, and thus were not hit as hard by the worldwide effect of the bush recession.
If you read my previous day's post, you know I was obviously not celebrating, but mourning. For 28 years we've been following Reagan's advice to seek economic liberalization. As I pointed out with my 9/6/2009 post, all the Republican - and, unfortunately, a majority of Democrats PLUS our current President still have not realized we can't survive as a first world nation by relying primarily on the Service and Financial sectors while creating nothing of value (because we've outsourced virtually all our manufacturing).
See also: The Myth of the Gipper: Reagan Didn't End the Cold War by William Blum, Strategy Page 4/29/2004.
In a way it's both tragic and poetic justice that so many high level jobs that were held by republican leaning people are also being outsourced. Why pay an engineer 75 grand a year here when you can get one from India for 20 grand. Or you can email xrays to Asia where an Asian technician can read them for a third of what the American will get paid.
ReplyDeleteBut the CEOs will keep their jobs. Nobody is outsourcing these traitors to America.
Interesting theory, I like it a whole lot better than St. Ronnie getting any credit. He hadn't a clue where Germany was.
ReplyDelete"......creating nothing of value (because we've outsourced virtually all our manufacturing)."
ReplyDeleteWhich has happened because people in other countries are often/sometimes better than Americans at these jobs. It is hardly "traitorous" to employ the best people for the job.
Paying auto workers $50 an hour to do a lousy job making the worst cars sold in the country (i.e. Chrysler) is not sustainable.
Excuse me dmarks, but your entire comment is utter boloney.
ReplyDeleteHow, exactly, are workers in foreign countries "better" at manufacturing jobs? Other than their being able/forced to work for less. Your profile says you are from Michigan... last time I checked that was part of the USA.
So I've got to wonder, why are you running down American workers? "Love it or leave it" is something I've heard those on the other side of the aisle say. Maybe you don't hate America, just Americans with manufacturing jobs?
BTW I never mentioned auto manufacturing. I was speaking of manufacturing in general.
In any case, $50 an hour? If you're going to use a completely BS number why not at least use the one all the people inflating the auto worker's hourly wages are using, which is $70.
From Media Matters: The average GM assembly-line worker makes about $28 per hour ... [the higher hourly figure is] obtained by adding up GM's total labor, health, and pension costs, and then dividing by the total number of hours worked. In other words, it includes all the healthcare and retirement costs of retired workers. (11/25/2008)
I have no idea if the Chrysler is the worst car in the country, but wouldn't that have more to do with it's design rather than the people who put it together?
Finally, I never suggested it is "traitorous to employ the best people for the job". The October Surprise of negotiating with the Iranians to release the hostages after the election was the only act of treason I specifically mentioned. Although there were others.
Trade liberalization is just bad policy, not treason. Not "traitorous" in a legal sense either. Although I would argue that it is morally traitorous. Hundereds of thousands of people lost good paying jobs and their and their childern's standard of living never recovered.
This is Reagan's legacy. He declared war on the middle class, ran up the debt, and liberalized trade. I'll tell you what isn't sustainable -- a trade deficit of over $390 Billion a year.
Why don't you explain to me why that's a good idea?
According to economist John Maynard Keynes, "failure [to maintain a trade balance] could have serious consequences". The consequences being that people in the US lose their jobs and the US, as a whole, gets poorer.
I guess that's just fine with dmarks.
To bad you are an ignorant Michigander, must be a lopper, or you would know that the Criminal Clinton sold out America for his wife's corporate partner Wall-mart. YES, Hillery was/is/was Chief Legal Council for this mega-store and a pawn for the richest man in the U.S. Bill Clinton and the Dem party created NAFTA, gave "Most Favored Status" to China, and causes the Genocide of the Kurds in Iraq. Jimmy Carter caused the oil crises, double digit inflation, and could not make a decision: send in the troops, recall the troops, send them back, no recall...
ReplyDeletePS I DARE YOU TO POST THIS!!!