DON'T REWARD OUTSOURCERS OF AMERICAN JOBS

This particular issue has always disturbed me. While I put this to paper, I am hearing in my head this song being played and replayed. It is the classic rock ballad “Won’t Be Fooled Again” by Roger Daltrey and the Who. For those not blessed to have been born a Baby Boomer, check it out at either Wikipedia or Google. The mark of any great song is in its ability to have its melody resonate in your consciousness long after the song has stop playing.

As for the problem of American jobs being outsourced and what solutions are available, the Conservatives say that Corporate America is victimized by high tax rates and excessive government regulation. They further imply that if we could take government ‘off of their backs’, they would then be encouraged to invest in America, once again. Oh, really, is that so?

You and I know as tax payers that having a tax rate based on your income is one thing, but what you actually pay after exemptions and deductions is quite another. These corporations are generating revenue in other countries and are ‘American companies’ in name only to take advantage of expense and cost write-offs, employing creative accounting to reduce their tax burden to non-existence. I won’t name names but seriously look into it and see for yourself. With the quantity and quality of tax accountants at their disposal don’t you think that they have figured this out long ago? Do they get a little cheese with their whine?

As for regulations, what regulations are we talking about? They move their companies into societies where these ‘oppressive’ regulations either do not exist or are inconsequential. It is not that the regulations are repressive and burdensome; it is just that operating where they are not in force enhances their bottom line. Complying with regulations is a cost of doing business, which they just as soon do without, because now they can.

What people need to realize is that that day in September, 2008 was not just a downtown, but a day of reckoning, where many ominous trends that have been forming over the last decade or two came to a point. The depth and magnitude of this crisis goes far beyond any single, simple explanation. This is not your simple ‘panic’, many of which we have experienced over the course of American history. Its implications are in some ways direr than even a ‘depression’. In other words, 'this ain't your daddy's downturn'. This malaise represents a fundamental structural shift in the economy that cannot be cured with the old nostrums of the past. We all know how certain infectious organisms develop immunity to specific medications over time. That is what has happened here.

We use to say that “what is good for General Motors is good for America”. Well, for a great deal of time that was certainly true. When the best interests of the CEO and the shareholders were parallel with that of the middle and working classes, everybody got more and better. This was the basis of wonderful relationship. But, because of the emergence of the global economy along with the now technically feasible breakthroughs in communication and logistics coupled with finding an educated and competent workforce willing to work for drastically less, that old adage is no longer true. These companies are moving into societies with higher economic growth rates than we have, do you really think that they are coming back home anytime soon? They are simply going to allow the American taxpayer to continue to appease them with more tax breaks, not leaving any money on the table. If I were a CEO, that is what I would do. The corporation is much like the Arnold Swartzenegger character,” The Terminator”, an amoral entity with a single minded focus. In the case of the corporation, it is profit and everything else amounts to a mere distraction. I am not saying the corporations are ogres; we just need to understand their motivation and make legislative and fiscal policy decisions that reflect that reality. Now the interests of “General Motors” and the interests of “America” are now on clearly divergent paths. That is why you are hearing that distressing sucking sound much like an atmosphere venting into a vacuum. If we all don’t stop the parlor games and do something soon we will suffocate. The Conservatives continue to offer only half-truths and slogans in the face of the impending reality. Many of my conservative associates point back to the time of the late President Kennedy as the last ‘progressive administration’ that they could support. They tell me that his prescription for economic growth was more tax cuts. I have to remind my right of center companions that this is not 1961 and that if Mr. Kennedy were still with us, he would provide more imaginative solutions tailored to our current crisis.

 Contrary to what Conservatives say, Progressives are not Socialist, Marxist, collectivist people. We are trying to preserve the capitalist, free enterprise system so that it can remain viable into the future. I will have more to say on this later. As for that ditty playing in my head, now that I have expressed myself, I can turn the radio off for now

Class Warfare: http://hubpages.com/hub/Class-Warfare-I-think-not

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http://hubpages.com/hub/GUN-CONTROL-MORE-FALLACIOUS-ARGUMENTS-FROM-THE-RIGHT?done