America’s so-called “job creators” have fired 2.9 million workers since 2001 – then hired more than 2.4 million workers overseas

Who’s screwed? The American worker. Our economy is infected with joblessness – yet America’s so-called “job creators” – some of the biggest corporations in the country – aren’t putting Americans back to work. Instead, they're putting Chinese and Mexicans to work. According to a new report by the Wall Street Journal – corporate giants: General Electric – Caterpillar – Microsoft – Wal-Mart – Chevron – Cisco – Intel – Stanley Works – Merck – United Technologies – and Oracle…all American corporations – have fired 2.9 million American workers since 2001 – then hired more than 2.4 million workers overseas.
This isn’t a coincidence – these guys actually have an annual conference about how to outsource American jobs more efficiently. Like in 2009 – when American corporations gathered together for the 2009 Strategic Outsourcing Conference – where 57% of executives there bragged that since the Great Bush Recession – they’ve increased the number of American jobs they’re shipping overseas. So here we have so-called American corporations – that are paying hardly any American taxes – and hiring hardly any American workers.
I think there’s a suitable word to describe some of these CEOs who are turning their backs on our country in its time of need…traitors.
Comments


The demise of America is upon you and me.
The collapse of the middle class!

AMERICANS WILL GET WHAT THEY TRULY DESERVE! Let me ask you a question! What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and still suffer the loss of his soul?
Benedict XVI is shaking everyone from their sleep. If a person is insensitive to the presence of God, the person is also insensitive to evil. We can see how true the Pope’s words are rampant in a transparent America.

The poem below by Langston Hughes reveals his feelings and thoughts and his feelings and thoughts are similar to my personal feelings and thoughts.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15609

The Spirit of Evil
Evil or devil has always been core to the covenant and the very existence of the people of God that when the poor become the majority in the land it is because of injustice, callousness, greed, and disobedience to God’s word. The devil (GOP) has won but not forever.
God’s answer to the devil (GOP) is a miracle when human beings love God and their fellow human beings with whole heart and soul. The true sign of this miracle is that there will be no poor among us.
Evil or devil (GOP) is frequently disguised as good. In the end Jesus chooses the only solution to the temptation – prayer, fasting, and knowledge in the scripture. Let you and me remember the real test that there will be no poor among us.
It is my perceptual opinion that the GOP is the devil. If we follow the devil (GOP), we are his disciples who prowl the United States of Mortal Sin seeking the ruin of souls.

Great to see this topic highlighted. This is similar to what I brought up to Thom during my one call-in to the show in Feb. 2011. We need to have a metric so we can measure how much individual and US businesses as a whole are outsourcing. My suggestion was something like an "American Employee Index", call it AEI since people seem to remember 3 letter acronyms better (GDP, AGI, etc.). This gives the public the ability to pressure companies over time so we can see IBM moving from some number like 41% US-based employees and if they improve this to 43% over a couple of years, then great. Furthermore, the president can discuss the combined US company metric as a whole and shift some of the responsiblity to how well "US Companies" are doing. It will also drive home this point to more of the US population that many of these companies aren't really "US companies", they are transnational.
We won't win this in the courts within the next decade or more... it has to be grass roots.

I just call them rapist, but we can add theives, murderers and traitors to the list too. Let's not forget to tag those who help these corporations with the same names, in fact, as far as I'm concerned, they are worse than the corporations themselves.

I worked for a medium sized construction company for many years. The owner (a good boss) built up the company for about 35 years. In the last 10 years he benefited from Bush tax cuts. In 2005/06 there where about 400 employees, today there are about 70 left. Is this because of the tax cuts. No, it's besause the housing bubble broke. The robber barrons (moneychangers) have almost ruined his business and a lot of jobs, to enrich themselves.

Benedict Arnold was infamous for his betrayal of the 13 colonies. His name became an icon for treason. I wonder what the founding fathers would do to the new era of Benedict Arnolds ?
How would Teddy Roosevelt have dealt with this kind of treason ? There is no doubt legislature is vulnerable to modern day robber barons. Democracy was much more than a style of government in early America.
It was a covenant with it's citizens for freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Times were simpler then but the rights guaranteed to it's citizens were unalienable by time or interference. When these corporate individuals betray the domestic work force the are betraying democracy and the covenant guaranteed the United States citizens. There was a time when treason was such a serious offense it was punishable by death. Now any prosecution would be considered interference by big government. Some how and at some time this will come to an end. Either by external or internal pressure or both. I would welcome organized ethical reform but my fear is anarchy. It really is getting that bad. A disturbance in entertainment and in distribution of vice and this country could blow up. As the growing number of citizens in this nation are reduced to a pitiful state of existence and safety nets are being abandoned the results may end up as in many dictatorships with civil unrest eclipsing reason for bargaining and debate. This is definitely not the democracy I pledged to in grade school.

They’re on a roll, a bankrolled roll. The money changers define greed as a virtue. Things have been changing in their favor for three decades, but the change has been so slow that it was hardly noticeable. Now we are in three permanent wars and the banksters are selling off everything that was once held in common. Even the fucking wars are privatized with more “contractors” in the field than soldiers. Service guys no longer even have to do KP. Civilians get paid to do it now.
Gas prices are through the roof because of speculators. It has nothing to do with supply and demand. It’s been said that if Wall Streeters had to actually take possession of the commodities that they buy and sell, gas would return to $1.00 over night. They buy millions of barrels of crude, and all kinds of quantities, but only to manipulate the market and sell it again. “Here you go Mr. Greenspan, the trucks of oil are waiting. Where do you want it?” Make the motherfuckers keep what they buy for at least a year. In reality, Wall Street is a casino. I used to play the lounges in Vegas. Maybe I could get a lounge gig at Caesar’s Wall Street Palace. I would be right at home working for the mafia again.
thats a myth 44 Fact is housing bubble was mostly caused by Reagan Bush GOP FED RES deregulation of banks - lenders - making it legal & highly profitable to lend to Unqualified buyers I saw it all as a Realtor Lenders called the loans Liar loans NO docs NO w 2's NO proof of income Zero down ARM loans .Buyers were told values will keep going up so we can do a refi next year NO problem . These junk loans were packaged-and labeled as Triple AAA then sold to Unsuspecting investors world wide people have NO idea the fraud that went on - legally ! Bush tax cuts created no jobs in fact over 10 yrs our wages - benefits went down partly since W gave huge cuts to Co that sent good jobs overseas So much was hidden from public W kept most of his war debt ' off budget ' aka hidden sign me a ' recovered ' GOP voter

I think they are traitors mixed with enemies who are taking us from the inside as foretold. Hundred-year bonds sustain long-range plans and schemes, like Bush III.
Our corporations were All American in 1945, year of chaos. Like Continental Can and American Can, for example, which when not canning food and Pepsi were engaged in canisters used for military combat, or even to hold cyanide. Then, American Generals were made head of the can companies after getting Alfried Krupp out of jail and making sure his property was returned to him. Cans and steel, and steel railway tire patents, (polio vaccine) and cyanimid all under one control?
25 years from 1945 was 1970; new bank charters are made every twenty five years. We, however, dizzy and reeling from the sixties, were finally done in by the timed multi-bank holding legislation of 1970, which coincided with the Penn Central bankruptcy and the creation of Freddie MAC.
This allowed the hidden money and hidden securities swapping across the waters which has allowed power to shift to the present oppressive regime. This is their due.
According to their formulas, we shall be in total financial chaos 45 years from 1970 which will be 2015.
In 2015, 2300016348 HOOSIER OIL, GAS AND OPERATING COMPANY. MCCAFFERTY , OK Effective Date: 3/8/2015
FDIC #16348=Wells Fargo #3011=Wells Fargo #3511
NORTH AMERICAN SECURITIES CORP. 8810 FROST AVENUE ST LOUIS, MO 63134 I formed [09/08/1965]to expire [09/08/2015] (Note, 50-year mortgage bond; 50 year real estate corporation)
The Seaboard Airline Railway mortgage bonds of 1940 will become due; note 1940 changes in Securities Holding Act.
-I may have more on this...
Off topic but urgent FYI Ken Lay wiped out his Enron workers 401 K savings while he sold his stock - made millions Lay froze the sale of his workers stock . Bush chose Ken Lay as energy advisor !! Enrons cozy Tax loophole was made possible by McCain pal & advisor..Former Sen Phil Gramm. Gramm & his lobbyist wife made 900 K off that scam deal / huge loophole . Ken Lay manipulated the energy market in CA causing rolling black outs and making a bundle. with GOP & Bush 's blessing .
Bush made Cheney head of the energy dept ! surprise 2 Big OIL TYCOONS making very sweet deals with BP & his many BIG OIL pals . Screwing us- our planet - our water - our air but hey who cares So many Voters are ignorant / clueless and corp media no longer informs We get sound bites- bits and pieces Then they tell us "You decide ' what BS

......quick, tell me......does obama know?

An Alternative to Capitalism (which we need here in the USA) Several decades ago, Margaret Thatcher claimed: "There is no alternative". She was referring to capitalism. Today, this negative attitude still persists.
I would like to offer an alternative to capitalism for the American people to consider.
Please click on the following link. It will take you to an essay titled: "Home of the Brave?" which was published by the Athenaeum Library of Philosophy:
http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/steinsvold.htm
John Steinsvold
Perhaps in time the so-called dark ages will be thought of as including our own.
--Georg C. Lichtenberg

I have said they are "unAmerican" but traitor works for me

Protectionism is phony populism-Karl Marx didn't say beat up on foreigners, he said "Workers of the world unite!"I think we as consumers should also not be barred from scouring the globe for the cheapest products tariff free like the Indian Nano car for $2,500 new.Don't give me the BS that it won't meet crash standards here-it will if everyone has one.Siento muy agradecido que el gobierno de Mexico me lo doy permisso para trabajar y vivir ahi por 2.5 anos.I am also grateful to the govts of China and Germany for letting me live and work there.The US doesn't want a Cdn. grunt so fine I guess I will never know why the US seems to think it's so great.Being unarmed I wouldn't want to be there longer than winters anyways.

SHOULDN'T people who protest illegal immgrants taking AMERICAN jobs also be protesting corporate headquaters for outsourcing AMERICAN jobs out ot the country??
THERE really is not much difference between losing your job to an immigrant coming north illegally - or - corporations legally moving AMERICAN jobs out of the country.
CORPORATIONS have one purpose and one purpose only - to maximize profits for shareholders. NOT patriotism, the enviroment, workplace safety - and for health care corporations not the premium paying patients!!!

A significant number of baby boomers are like docile sheep easily lead to slaughter. The complete opposite of their WWII depression era parents.
We always blame the GOP and the neocons for being greedy money cruppers but even worse many of them would also consider themselves Christians. I feel that it must be known that the majority of the Tea Baggers would probably call themselves Christians. When I talk with Christians they see absolutely nothing wrong with taking away medicare, social security, jobs and not paying their fair share in taxes. My question to them is "what would Jesus say and do? They then quote bible and verse evidence that Jesus came to let them do whatever they wanted as long as they can ask for forgiveness. Disgusting and disingenuous to say the least. I believe that progressive talk shows should point out more often the fact that these greedy and selfish people also dare to call themselves Christians.

If any man lacks enough conscience to be able to commit a string of evils such as, throwing his neighbor out of work, create a off-shore tax haven, participate in foreign slave markets, self enrichment beyond all human scale, and then bragg about it , he deserves the title " sociopathic traitor". However in closed company I would not be so kind! This is the same personality that dresses up as an old lady in order to steal the last seat on a women and children only life-boat.
Thom, great blog, it's precisely the kind of fact filled information we all need to spread, even if it requires connecting the political dots for those who can not.

Harsh but True Words
I have come down hard on the GOP as Satan’s disciples. I won’t give you a litany of reasons for them being Satan’s disciples. I will give you names and you must remember and study their policies and practices. Here are some names – Limbaugh, Bush, Cheney, Beck, O’Reilly, Hannity, Cantor McConnell, Boehner, Ryan, the Koch Brothers, Snyder, Walker, Scott, Kasich, the governors of Maine, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Arizona. There are many more names but why belabor naming all the fascist-Nazis in the United States of Mortal Sin. You know them by their actions, behaviors, and evil deeds and they are also rotten to the bone.

The Beatitudes
I have shared with you SHALOM as an important part of moving our world to justice and peace. Here is another part that is important from Matthew 5:1-12. The Bible is God’s love letter to you and me. The Bible is not about a punishing and a vengeful God. The Bible is about love, mercy, and forgiveness.
You may or may not know that when I examine my conscience I go through the Ten Commandments and the Seven Capital Sins (pride, greed, gluttony, lust, sloth, envy, and anger). I will also go through the Beatitudes and give an example to examine in my conscience. Have I refused to follow Jesus’ Eleventh Commandment (love on another as I have loved you) and have I failed to practice the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would want them to do unto you)?
The Beatitudes
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Do I share my gifts, talents, time, and treasure to help build the kingdom of God here on earth?
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Do I, in turn, try to assist those who are suffering?
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Do I ever look down on others because they may not look or act like me?
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be fulfilled. When I see or hear stories of people suffering injustice, what is my response?
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. When I am wronged, am I willing to forgive?
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God. Do I respect the gift of my body, created in God’s image?
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Do I work for peace in my country and throughout the world?
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Am I willing to take a stand that is unpopular, but is based on gospel values?
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. Is my life on this earth focused on the life to come?
Hopefully, born again Christians may want to read the Bible more carefully.
Fundamentalism is the root of all evil - any fundamentalism! When a fundamentalist believes something, it's their way or the highway.
And so anyone else who does not believe in the strict beliefs of a fundamentalist, they are "Other", someone who needs to be converted or destroyed or ignored.
This is what permeates the religious consciousness of most Americans today. And there are many fundamentalists and there are many hates. This type of mentality is ripe for exploitation from those who have a Machiavellian view of the world - and this is exactly what has been exploited by the neo-cons and the fascist corporate elites. Fear and Hate. And look where we are today. Half of America spewing out hate and rage against the other half. 90% are probably all Christian! They all have bibles and they all spew Christian values while simultaneously practicing the exact opposite!
I don’t need God to drive my ethics or morals. I don’t need the bible to tell me how to act toward my fellow man. I don’t God to teach me empathy. It’s in me already.
Religion is the root cause for most that is good in the world and also the root cause for most all that is evil. Nothing like fundamentalism can mobilize a people to create unimaginable atrocities and genocides, where one fundamentalist group wipes out another: A Million Armenian Christians by the Turks, 6-7 million Jews and Gypsies by the Nazis, 2-3 million Cambodians by the Kmer Rouge, Millions of witches, heretics and Protestants by the Catholic Church during the middle ages - on and on! All committed in the name of some fundamentalist god or belief or other. Millions and millions slaughtered because one fundamentalist group thought they were the one and only chosen ones and thought they had the right to annihilate the other.
And we all still live with this fundamentalist disease! The Christian against the Islamist. The white American against the Mexican and the Afro American. The Communist against the Capitalist. The rampant racism built into any fundamentalism is endemic in that fundamentalism. And no one is immune from it. The GROUP shapes ones view of the world, and when one group believes it is the one and only chosen one, every other group is logically of “The Other”, and therefore expendable and disposable.
The fundamentalist logic is concise: My belief is TRUE. If you believe otherwise, than you are not one of US. Until you become one of us, you are Other. Since you have beliefs that are completely opposite of ours, you must of necessity be against us because if it were otherwise my beliefs would not be true. So I must oppose your beliefs which threaten mine. Since our group is the chosen one, I have every right to oppose you, even if I have to destroy you if I have to. And since we are the chosen group, we have the moral right to so destroy you without any moral or ethical or moral repercussions.
That is how those who commit genocides on their fellow human beings justify their evils – they are the chosen ones and certainly their GOD finds it right in his eye that you who believe in him would logically follow his edicts and demands – thou shalt not worship any OTHER Gods but ME!
No, God is not the answer. Fundamentalism is not the answer. These are at most the engines that wreak havoc on the world. Any religion or belief works just fine, until “Another’ competes with it. Then all hells break lose. It is no accident that there is a separation of State and Church in our Constitution – we would as a Nation have disappeared long ago without it!
And now the evils of Fundamentalism are again banging on the doors of our Nation! Fundamentalism is again trying to insert itself into our government. Again fundamentalism is trying to eliminate the separation of state and church. And Fundamentalism is again rearing its ugly and hateful rhetoric against the other in this nation, any other!
I beg to differ on needing God. I beg to differ that He is the Answer. I beg to differ He will somehow solve all our problems! He IS the problem. And the problem we all have to solve as a people is how are we ALL going to solve that problem before it destroys us ALL!

Please Thom, the words below made me cry when I read them & I implore you to find the audio and play it for us all in his own voice...So many of our greatest Leaders have been taken from us, and we MUST NOT let them win!!!!! Now that I know what the end game is all about with the debt ceiling, I am even more insensed. The higher interest rates that will appear, if we are held hostage over raising it, and we do not give in, will only put more money into the pockets of the banksters and the hedge fund managers. And YES, YES, YES, those that are behind the end game and those that support the GOP, even though it is NOT in their best interests, are ABSOLUTELY TRAITORS in the most egregious persona
Robert Kennedy at the University of Kansas in March of 1968
"Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."
in which he talked about how we measured the quality of American life by only one standard:


Did you know that Benedict XVI (aka "Ratzinger") was a nazi? It's true! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI
I doubt he is the moral authority who I'd be looking to for guidance. As for "Americans getting what they deserve" comment, I also doubt there is a correlation between our "American sins" and the calamities that are befallen us today. "God rains on the just and unjust alike"... divine retribution is not for us to know (if indeed there is such a thing at all). So please stop repeating the rants of the religious leaders who profit from our collective ignorance.


Most of the GOP is just greedy, concerned about getting elected, unconcerned about the consequences of the laws they write, indifferent to the suffering they impose upon others less fortunate. They embody many of the traits we associate with "evil", but we have to be careful not to villify them the way they villify some minority group in this country (whether the villified be "progressives", "gays", or "immigrants"). The GOP are good followers, not leaders. They walk lock-step with the agenda pushed by their billionaire backers, parroting all they hear, mindlessly, without thought, without conscience. What we need are many leaders, many citizens, who will stand up against the new ruling elite, fealessly, courageously. We need to retire the GOP.

Thom should start a list of companies that have exported a high percentage of their jobs. The only way we can put such firms on notice there is a price to pay which is that we encourage everyone to boycott buying their products. I can think of no better way to get the message across.
On the Traitor bit. Here is a question everyone should consider.
If there is an Economic depression in the near future, and China is the Leading economic force in the world, who would the super rich and the leading Fascist Corporations side with? America or China?
Think about it for a while. I know what the answer is - do you?
I think we need to start using the term "economic patriotism". Republicans love to wave the flag and get us into expensive wars which profit the big defense corporations. They turn a blind eye to economic traitors who are selling this country out to foreign interests, out-sourcing our jobs and getting us into debt to foreign countries!
We need to change the laws and get our tariffs back! We need to start calling out the economic traitors!

Reading the Strategic Outsourcing Conference summery of the 2009 meeting is like being awakened from a deep sleep with a douse of ice cold water. It is clear from reading this that there is no intention of ever rebuilding the manufacturing base in this country, ever!!
The question I have about all of this is....with all the jobs being outsourced, who is going to be buying the products that are being produced in these outsouced plants/operations??? You can only have so many burger flipers and Wal-Mart greeters before this model begins to collapse on it's self...I can only guess that their plan is to suck the rest of the emerging world economy's dry as they have done here and then move on to the next phase....new worlds of distant star systems to destroy!

Amen on this...this is the thought process that make's the Tea Baggers choke and puke but it is the heart of this great nation. Thanks for this post.

This will hardly be a ripple in the pond or an echo never heard. It is one thing to offset domestic jobs and industry and move it offshore. This cry that goes out to rectify this with tariffs is foolish,,Feulish, we cannot single out one trading partner, or any trading partners with tariffs. Higher gas prices will do the trick. Some jobs and some commodities will not be worth shipping.
Comment on jobs with the offset between domestic and foreign investment 2.9 million jobs are a sizable wave that will leave behind consequences. Right here right now in the United States of America British Petroleum created jobs, the entire Gulf region needs to be monitored for residual oil deposits on or near shorelines and marshes. We need to give British Petroleum credit for creating these job openings, and we need to make sure they fill them.

We love puppies . I inject a small but significant factor in your argument. British Petroleum has created thousands of jobs dealing with the toxic waste in the golf region. These jobs are being ignored. Nobody is doing them. British Petroleum is leaving it up to a underfunded EPA and a strapped federal budget under attack by the rich insurgents of our political arena. We need to as Americans push government to hold British Petroleum responsible for ongoing residual affects in the gulf. They need a couple of teams cleaning up constantly, until this stuff quits, ashore.
Every dog has his day. Let us make sure British Petroleum savers It.

And what do we DO with thieves, rapists, murderers? I know what my ancestors did. Fought them, and not with words either. They tried that first, and it didn't work. We've tried with words for years now ,and they just keep plowing us under, like we were just the fertilizer of their selfishly sown crops of cash. What DO we do? Think hard. Think quickly. What did our ancestors do? Think! ACT!

WELL SAID! KUDOS!

Tragic is one way to describe this. I go an extra mile to buy goods as much as possible that are manufactured in the United States. Some you can buy and some you can't. These CEO's that have outsourced jobs to cheaper parts of the world really could care less about poor or middle class people losing their jobs here. It is up to us to keep up the fight and support goods made here.

As Robert Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, states (see http://foreconomicjustice.org/3767/the-problem-isnt-outsourcing-its-that...) : "The problem isn’t outsourcing. It’s that the prosperity of big business has become disconnected from the well-being of most Americans.
What Romney and Obama both fail to address is the exponential concentration of ownership among a minority, while at the same time destroy American jobs or degrading them and outsourcing jobs in other countries. While new jobs can be created by new technology applications, by the year 2050 most products and services will be provided by digital computerized superautomated machines, and non-human intelligent-based operations. Thus far, economic growth in past decades has disguised the destruction of jobs and degradation of jobs that have occurred as a result of technological innovation and invention. As such technological advancements push forward, this will present a serious problem for the masses who remain solely dependent on a job for income.
Both Romney and Obama and their advisors fail to acknowledge that full employment is not an objective of businesses. Companies strive to keep labor input and other costs at a minimum. Private sector job creation in numbers that match the pool of people willing and able to work is constantly being eroded by physical productive capital’s ever increasing role.
The non-human factor of production is the product of tectonic shifts in the technologies of production. Human-level artificial intelligent machines and digital computerized operations are and will continue to destroy jobs or degrade job opportunities because increasingly machines are providing skills and abilities previously unique to human workers. The advent of truly intelligent systems of production is effectively increasing the size of the work force beyond that provided by human workers. Thus, the idea of job creation for humans is a dead-end proposition and calls for big jobs programs such as WPA-type projects to rebuild America's infrastructure are worthwhile but the resulting jobs, financed by borrowing or tax redistribution, are temporary and disappear once the project work has been completed. Corporations embracing technological innovation and invention in the form of the non-human factor of production understand that their profitability increases because machines work for nothing more than the cost of their manufacture and maintenance. When "cheap" labor becomes scarce, then corporations will pursue aggressively employing "machines" to replace human labor and the impact will be catastrophic for ordinary people dependent on jobs alone. As the cost of computer-controlled machines become less than the cost of human workers, and the job sills and productivity of the machines exceed those of human workers, intelligent "machines" will rapidly replace human workers. The increase will be exponential, and each generation of intelligent machines will be more powerful and less expansive than the one before.
It is the full utilization and application of technological innovation and invention in the form of intelligent machines that is the future and the economic engine that can result in growth of 15-plus percent of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). But unless we restructure the mechanisms by which people acquire ownership in these "machines" the resulting levels of productivity growth via technology would be devastating to human workers whose income from wages and salaries would no longer exist or be limited, except for a minority of top-echelon educated individuals necessary to the design, engineering, and operation of the machines. As for the masses, the middle-class and poor, the current job-focused economic model relies on the sale of their labor as their primary source of income.
Ronney and Obama, as well as conventional wisdom thinking economists and public policy experts do not address the fact that the economic value of labor is being constrained by the rapidly increasing capabilities and falling cost of advanced digital computerized automation. Simply stated: if what labor can earn is based on supply and demand, and the supply of workers is rising due to growing world population, while the demand for workers if falling because of improved productivity, the market value of labor can only go down. Compound this with the exponential growth of job-destroying and degrading technology and the result will be the disastrous collapse of middle-class income.
What is needed is a modern-day Homestead Act, which I and others refer to as the Capital Homestead Act (see http://cesj.org/homestead/index.htm).
The policies and programs recommended (also see my article "Democratic Capitalism And Binary Economics: Solutions For A Troubled Nation and Economy" at http://foreconomicjustice.com/11/economic-justice/ or follow me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/For-Economic-Justice/347893098576250 and http://www.facebook.com/editorgary) provide mechanisms for achieving rapid economic growth and widespread private, individual ownership of future productive capital investment in the form of intelligent machine technologies, robotics and superautomation in a manner such that everyone benefits and no one loses. Under this platform, those who are ambitious, hardworking, and successful wold continue to be rewarded for their achievements, with rapid growth providing opportunities for prosperity and affluence. Jobs, at least in the short term would be plentiful and due to rapid and sizable economic growth deficits would shrink. Financing for small businesses and opportunities for entrepreneurship would abound. And owner-consumers would have plenty of money for consumption so that market demand for the products and services produced would be strong and steady.
Our present scenario relies on jobs ONLY for the 99 percent. No jobs equals no income and thus no consumer demand. As businesses minimize labor costs, a further shortage of consumer-customers result. And with fewer customers, businesses need fewer workers, which leads to fewer jobs. The result is a downward spiral that can only be fixed by a upward spiral reversal of economic growth simultaneously with broadened private, individual ownership in future productive capital investment. By stimulating economic growth in this manner, in the short term, increased investment would create demand for labor workers to build new machines, factories, plants, and infrastructure to facilitate commerce. Thus, jobs would be created that generate income and market demand increases, and such investment would cause business corporations to hire and invest even more. As investment spending pays for itself, once paid for it creates income for investors from dividends, interest, or rent. Thus, ordinary Americans would benefit from dividends through investments made through Capital Homesteading, which would be used to buy the new products and services that their investments produce. Dividend income to every man, woman and child leads to more customers, which creates more profits, which creates more dividends, which creates more customers. The result is an upward spiral of economic growth putting ALL Americans on a path to prosperity, opportunity, and economic justice.
Lavish pay is back in style!!!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110420/ts_yblog_thelookout/labor-lavish-ceo-pay-still-rising