Friday, December 29, 2006

The Myth about Globalization

Globalization sounds good at first. Its suppose to be good for the consumer. We all enjoy the lower prices at Walmart. We say we do care if child labor and or prison labor is being exploited. The only problem is Americans are the only ones buying in. The big corporations love the idea because China represents one fifth of the worlds future consumers, China and India will be one third of the planets consumers. If you think these are American companies and or patriotic, think again. They fly a flag and it looks like $100 bill. Loral/GM Huges sold rocket secrets to China and didn't have the United States governments blessing. However, no one was imprisoned and or fined. At the moment America is the number one consumer of the worlds goods and services. Most of us do not know who the number two nation in consumption is. If you said Japan your right. However, by 2025 China will surpass us. Their growth rates has to be maintained to prevent civil unrest. If not they might have an uprising and redistribute the wealth. Keep in mind that those high level communist party officials were never real communist. In fact many of the Hong Kong factories belonged to them. No wonder nothing changed when the British returned Hong Kong back to China at the lease end. Mexico too was all for globalization/NAFTA, that is until it saw some of them macinadoras moving to China. Then too remember that NAFTA also promised less illegal immigration. Back to China now. They have a top down economy and are interested in only one metric. Jobs is their concern and they have in fact propped up an inefficient steel industry. By their gov't supporting this industry they will force the more efficient steel producers to close. This will cost the consumer more and therefore in not good for free trade. steel today and something else tomorrow. The question is what are we going to do after all the jobs have been shipped overseas ? Will this corporate greed subjugate us to a position of less than the #1 superpower ?
One only needs to see what Japan has done to their people in order to protect their cattle/farm industry. The Japanese like going on vacation just so they can eat steak three meals a day. If you ever go to Disney, The Grand Canyon, and other popular American vacation destinations you notice that the Japanese travel agents have booked lodging years in advance. I've been twice to each and observed this first hand, I might have thought that I was visiting Japan.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

family values and comp time

This is the label which they used to screw workers out of their overtime. Prior the courts had come down with some very expensive decisions. These big companies had to open their wallets and pay up. Next they went and lobbied/bribed their/our/your representatives. Sure they believe in family values and therefore want you to spend more time with your family. It had nothing to do with them wanting to not hire the next marginal worker. This next marginal worker has greater cost associated with them, so it has always been cheaper to work overtime. This alone saves them money, paid time off, vacation, insurance, and whatever other benefits an employee gets, even if they have to pay overtime wages. But speaking about cheap skin flints, misers, and pathetic penny pinchers, this takes the cake. The courts and juries, sane and reasonable people as you and I, saw right through their BS.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

I read it in the Enquirer

The word on the street is that Laura is on to GW and Condy. Sources in the inner circle have first hand knowledge of oval office events. Rumor also has it that GW is getting back for the first term trist Laura had with Collen. In any event the American public would like them to fess up and quit beating around the bush.