All our nation exports these days is jobs...
By louisehartmann
Who's screwed? Anyone's whose not a CEO of a company on the S & P 500. While many have lost their jobs and many more have seen their hours cut at work and their paychecks not going as far as they used to go, transnational corporations are poised to see the biggest profit gains in 18 years. Some of the nation’s biggest corporations are expected to see a 9% profit gain this year – the biggest since 1993. And unlike in 1993 – when high profits spurred a hiring spree – don’t expect the same things to happen today. That’s because – thanks to insane free trade policies – these huge transnational corporations have gotten into a very lucrative business – shipping US jobs overseas. In fact – that’s about all our nation exports these days – jobs.
Comments
#2
How about one of the latest ... the Obama administration lifting the ban with Mexico, to allow Mexican truck drivers to drive all over the United States. Say goodbye to American truck drivers. That was one area my husband thought would be safe from outsourcing, when we lost our 30 year business to deregulation and Nafta, ten years ago. Not only more American jobs lost to another country (and here at home), but say hello to more highway safety issues, and we taxpayers will be paying for new electronic equipment in mexican trucks.
#3
Corporate and financial interests have taken over the government. Big business has no loyalty to America. They pay no taxes. They've exported our jobs. They've robbed our treasury. Most of our politicians have sold out, whether they see it that way or not. It is looking more and more that the only remedy for what has happened in our country is for the workers, and I mean ALL the workers including the poor and unemployed, to rise up and fight back. We need to take to the streets, vote for honorable people, and strike when appropriate. Most important, we need to educate our friends and neighbors about the relationship between the economy and the giant businesses that influence and corrupt our government.
#4
Patent and manufacture Tesla generators
#5
Tom answered this concern once before on his show. He stated its limited and there are huge restrictions on trucks.
What I find interesting is the GOP is cutting funding for boarder patrol and protection so watch them pack people in crates and bring them over. So who would be to fault there? Obama or the GOP?
On that tune Texas wants to pass a bill about illegal immigration that would exclude domestic help? Now who in Texas has the money for maids, pool boys and gardeners? Rick Perry for one :)
#6
I wish that I could tell you what we really need to do, but since that is only a dream, the best we can do now is put our hands in the air and give up. The only thing that will help America now is to let all of the registered Republican voters who work get exactly what they all voted for. Once they get tired of working 12 to 14 hour days; 7 days a week for $1.50 per hour (if they are lucky,) at a job they hate, witn no benefits, no vacation, no job security and no way to retire at 80 years old because they are so deeply in debt with no savings and are still leasing their car and paying rent because their monthly doctor bills and health insurance were not afordable and they are getting further and further behind on their "Breathing" taxes therefore in danger of losing their lives to the new Corporate-Supreme Court laws. . . they will change their minds and want to fight. When that day comes, their a%s better be nowhere near my hole because only God will be able to help them then.
#7
I agree that is why we in Wisconsin are raising so much hell over Walker's Middle class busting budget!! One person one vote and we have to help those that maybe affected by new voter restrictions laws get their ids and their right to vote! That is why the GOP trashed Acorn and now they're going after NPR.
A good documentary to watch is called the "Shock Doctrine." The book/documentary argues that the free market policies of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman have risen to prominence in some countries because they were pushed through while the citizens were reacting to disasters or upheavals. Nixon, Thatcher, Bush, and others are covered in it....its a real eye opener!
#8
Nah I'm half Irish we would never let it go that far! There needs to be a great awakening in this country like what is going on and keep the momentum going. Some people will remain ignorant to real facts and continue watching the likes of Glen Beck, Hannity and all those Fox talking heads but there are MORE of us than them!
#9
Did you notice the big sell off on Wall Street this past week with the disaster in Japan? That is the sound of greed when they quickly try to cash in on someone else's tragedy! Tom also state that Japenses millionares were buying up all the private planes to get out of Dodge. Sorry boys, your can run but you can't hide from radiation if the entire planet gets contaminated as a result of stupidity!
Another thing that disturbed me about this is how calus people have gotten with the advent of You Tube etc. Repeatly showing a dog not leaving his ailing friend instead of helping the dog. There is an expression that I think needs to be expanded. It goes like this: "You can judge a PLANET by the way in which it treats its elderly, disabled and animals."
#10
Funny with the fall of Wall street they still paid out big bonuses for failure. I remember a while ago when a worker got fired for zeroxing their butt!
#11
I agree and being over 50 with your 401K tanked in 2008 and now you're unemployed really, really sucks!
#12
Hello:
There are jobs that can be outsourced and there are jobs which must be done on site such as construction, factory work, service industries, vitaculture, auto repair, retail sales, etc., and in California I can tell you this work is sourced to illegal aliens. The only difference between the people overseas who do these jobs is they are taken care of by their local communities whereas the illegal workers here are taken care of by the citizens and legal immigrants from whom they've taken the jobs.
Of course the fault lies with the businesses who want to hire people on the cheap and the governments, in thrall to business, who allow it. CA statistics state that we have 12% unemployment and at least 10% of those now employed are illegal. It's believed the figure is much greater, but because they are shielded by their employers it is impossible to have accurate figures.
Why do we discuss only the former cause for job loss and not the latter? Because through funding by the US Chamber of Commerce and the general business communities, the issue of illegal aliens has been turned into an emotional whine about race or ethnicity rather a rational championing of our very reasonable immigration law.
#13
Since the GOP and some Democrats (including Obama) are slaves to the corporatocracy, the government is locked up. We can hope for a Theodore Roosevelt, but even that is not enough. What we have to do is hone in on one theme, and that may transcend political parties to a certain extent: That theme is separation of business and state.
This theme has to become a national obsession. The way this might take place would be to have a kind of populist congress of the people pulled together by social networking and any other means. We have to discuss the means by which this is to be accomplished once the people get the attention of Washington and explain the issue we have with the government we own and pay for. The means would be things like: establishing power over monopolies, going to an entirely public-funded campaign finance system, seeking to end all means by which elections are manipulated, ending bribery through lobbying, going to a system of complete transparency in government and finance, seriously limiting or eliminating derivatives trading and massive leveraging, and ending the Citizens United ruling (for starters).
This has to be a demand by the majority of Americans -- the middle class. Time for a new kind of town hall across America. We have to pull our act together.
#14
You are entirely correct. And how could this be accomplished?
#15
How? Massive Democratic take-over of all Three houses - get a 90% majority in Congress and the Senate and a Democratic president (And please no Obama hate mail!). And then pass laws and Amendments to the Constitution that would PROTECT the Working Middle Class in this country. Can't be done? Baloney! We, The People, once defeated the mighty British, didn't we? Created a new Government and wrote a new Constitution, all on our own. We can do it again - just project fascist corporations as if they are the modern day British enemy! Only now we'd do it with the Ballot box instead of bullets!
That is how it can be done!
#16
I sure hope that I'm not the only Thom Hartmann listener who sees the Class War of the mega-wealthy against the poor and so-called middle class in this ongoing situation.
If you take the opportunity to catch Jamie Johnson's film (most easily seen on YouTube when you Google, "Jamie Johnson, 'the one percent'" in 8 easy and seamless installments) you see an interesting portrait of life among the aristocratically wealthy. One clear message is that the heirs of great wealth live in fear of losing it and teach their children to believe that they must keep getting more and living with fear of losing it all. It's a little nutty when you think that these are the folks who earn millions yearly and have no understanding of what it really costs to live - that the vast majority of us make it on less than $50,000 a year. The alienation is huge, and politically and economically the impact on the rest of us is the threatened destruction of our economy.
The tax code may need to look more like it did in the 1930's. And "made in America" needs to be seen and heard louder and clearer with the Flag superimposed over lead-in and closing photos and the celebratory songs of Americans the capable underlying the message, over and over and over.
The language of our campaign has to stop sounding like our workers are klutzes waiting for somebody to make up a job to give them a paycheck. The work our blessed nation needs to be done is the work of replacing the leaky water pipes, cleaning and repairing the aged sewers, modernizing the rail bed and replacing and upgrading the tracks, lay tracks and buying the land they need to be placed over, ordering train cars, large and small, and paying to design highly efficient and solar-powered engines.
If the capital-holding top 5 % of wealth-holders and income-earners are too scared to take the risks of investing in the country they rely on for military and police protection then they shouldn't get the benefit of the payoffs of various kinds. Remember rural electrification? Well, our parents and grandparents did. How about national alternative-electrification? How about Uncle Sam makes the home loans and collects the interest? How about the U.S. Treasury (or a subsidiary) creates the credit card that is universally available, at an interest rate of 8%? It's competition with the private bank-owned cards that either forces their rates and penalties down or moves them out of the playing field back into the business of risk-taking where capitalists belong.
But all of that would require our leaders to be clear where they stand in the class war that has been being waged against everybody-but-themselves since R. Reagan was elected. Actually, in this era, that mad novelist, Ayn Rand, picked up the gospel of Calvin and made it almost seem real.
#17
."..that mad novelist, Ayn Rand, picked up the gospel of Calvin and made it almost seem real. "
The "Novel" part is what is completely lost on the ayn rand fanatics! Just like Mickey Mouse, it's all Made Up!
#18
THP is in the toilet. This is what your show used to be like. Now, you have few good guests, and aren't telling me anything I don't already know. I think you are starting to miss "the big picture." Listen to this very informative hour from truthdig.com and remember how good your show used to be.
http://www.truthdig.com/podcast/audio/truthdig_radio_osama_bin_laden_and_nuclear_meltdown_20110316/
#19
1st, we need to take money out of politics. i envision an election cycle like england has...1 month. also, all candidates get the same amount of money/media time... free!
2nd, make it illegal for a corporation to own any media, and enforce the anti-trust laws we have now to break up all the murdochs and clear channels.
3rd, raise taxes of people making 1 mil/yr to 40%, 2 mil...50%, 5 mil...60%, 10 mil...70%, top bracket...80%. those in this top bracket can claim a 10% tax cut from the eisenhower years.
4th, dissolve wall street and jail the offenders, nationalize energy, health, housing, jobs for starters.
5th, no more computer voting machines because they undermine 1 person, 1 vote. we need open elections with reciepts.
6th, jail the enemies of the people/war crimminals like the bush administration, ALL of them, clinton, boehner, grassley, kissinger, the koch bros, the BP brass, beck, rush, hannity, oreilly...etc etc.
7th, if ANY candidate for ANY office promises something during an election campaign, and doesn't come thru, for whatever reason, they go to jail.
just for starters.
#20
Unfortunately, the Dems are almost as bad as the "Repugs", in many areas. Nothing short of a complete takeover of the Democratic Party, or creating a new powerful third Party will do. The problem is getting enough power together in one place, so that the vote is not diluted.
However, I think the main issues are common to a large majority of Americans, even Tea-Party-ites, and our first effort, already begun by Hartmann and others, is to combat the huge amount of propaganda spewing out from right-wing outlets and candidates, whose main and overriding purpose is to keep us divided.
I can tell you from personal experience, "divide and conquer" is a favored tactic of the "corporotocracy". We need the American public to become more and more aware of how truth is being distorte for pure financial ends.
The ultimate goal is to remove as much as possible financial influence from governance, and to show people how this is harmful. Financial influence is the sole cause of government's irrational actions. "Big government" is not the problem. It is financially corrupted government.
#21
Corporate taxes are down also which increase profits. We the blue collar are beening
held accountable by the blunders and greed with big banks, lending companys and wall
street. We need a radical change in our tax structure. "A Flat Tax" for every individual
collecting a pay check, hourly or salary, no loop holes. Vacation pays, bonuses, gifts,
company paid items, welfare checks, social security payments, and disabled peoples
restitutions. This "FT" would come on off the top before any exclusions. Probably 1%
nation wide would resolve our national budget. Roy Boy...
#22
Shunning might work. Everyone send back their Royal Invitation with regrets!
XXXXX
#23
Thom recently interviewed a journalist or economist named "Michael Hudson". There is another, older "Michael Hudson", an economist and historian who is a Professor at the University of Missouri, and director of the Institute for the Study of Long Term Economic Trends, and one that Thom would find much more exciting than the younger "Michael Hudson".
You should listen to Dr. Michael Hudson's latest interview (March 16, 2011), "the View From Europe" on
on the "Guns and Butter" show.
It'll make your hair curl. His views on the global economy should be taken as seriously as global warming and nuclear armageddon.
Dr. Hudson's website is
#24
D-Dawg (and Thom) -- see my comment below re: Michael Hudson.
#25
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Find a person that is engineering (chemical, electrical, software, etc) that have lost their employment since mid-2001. You will find that 80% or more have not become re-employed. They can earn money by taking a 3-month contract (and if they are lucky all the contracts taken will be W2 rather than 1099 so they can get some employment from time to time). The contracts they are low paying and even when it a a W2 have no benifits. Try to retire in even 10 years from now when you can not contribute (without a company match) to a 401K plan as the personal IRA is limited to only $5000/year when not employeed for the past 9 to 9.5 years. I have seen this requardless of carreeer path (even capenders and mechanics) for 10 years when a person over 39 losses their employment they are doomed.