America: An Economic Exodus

[Halo]

With the posting of Viewpoint #8, it has become quite clear that as a country we have some serious self-analysis to do.
Agriculture has been fleeing the country for South America for the last 15 years. It is estimated now that more than half our produce will be imported by the year 2015.

Auto Manufacturers are building more cars outside our borders than in,and that includes FORD, GM and CHRYSLER.

The Steel industry is all but dead, because of cheap foreign steel.

Apparel and Clothing has been gone for years, moving into cheap digs in Southeast Asia and China.

Virtually all electronics come from overseas and now appliance manufacturers are migrating south to save a buck or two.

And now, those once hallowed intellectual industries that put America so far out in front of everyone else are disappearing too. IS, IT and software staff are finding themselves displaced by their cheaper brethren from India and other third-world nations. Where will it all end?

America consumes more and spends more than almost all third-world nations combined. That will not be sustainable if the American consumer can't afford to buy thos things. With the migration of high-paying jobs, what's left? I am sure we will find solutions, but not after some hard times. Are we all to work for $8 an hour?

I am not saying all is lost or that there aren't tech jobs around.
I would just like to direct your attention to a trend taking place, and come to your own opinion.

[ruri]

Yes, welcome to the New World Order, where money and profits reigned supreme.

What really scares me is how our elected leaders are now bought and paid-for by corporate interests. The DMCA should scare everybody. And the RIAA/MPAA now wants regulations that would allow them to hack and sabotage with impunity P2P networks. In another word, they want laws to allow them to commit acts that would otherwise be described as terrorism.

Right now, America is focused on this wag-the-dog war against Iraq. I said it before, and I'll say it again, my job and mortgage payment is MORE important than Saddam will ever be.

If Bush would focus as much effort on the domestic issues as he does foreign, America would be better off. But alas, Bush Ver.2.beta is using his Dad's playbook, and we all know what happened when Bush Sr. went up for re-election.

[Ioman]

You want to know what really gets under my skin? It was the GM commercial right after the Sept 11th attacks last year that said keep America rolling, buy GM.

Doesn't GM manufacture their cars in Mexico now due to NAFTA? If this is the case, I would recommend buying Mitsubishi cars, the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry as they are all made right here is the US. Support the plant workers which number the thousands. Don't support corporate GM and their small number of overly paid executives.

On another note, does anyone think that maybe its a GOOD thing that our economy is the way it is? Maybe its a wake up call, a sign that we need to "fix" the country. For many years the economy was great. People were buying multiple computers every year, buying new cars and wasting money. Sure that sounds good, but look how in debt we are as consumers. The average consumer has something like $10K is credit card debt. A 16 years old can get a credit card for gods sake now. Maybe its time to be frugal, watch our money and build our country back up based on real strength and smart spending. Home sales are still going strong, car sales are going strong due to low interest rates.

The economy is and will always be cyclical, there will be good and bad time. You can only build a mountain up so high before it crumbles. Its the companies that build the foundation of the mountain that will always be there. My advice would be to buy product manufactured here in the US. Do your research before you make purchases. Dell computers for example are made in Mexico, Falcon Northwest are made here in the US. I am not sure where Gateway computers are made though.

[ruri]

Doesn't GM manufacture their cars in Mexico now due to NAFTA?

Funny you mentioned that, because several years ago, I had an argument with a friend of mine who got a Ford and I had a Nissan. He said I should have bought a Ford cause it's an American company. I reminded him that his car was made in Mexico while my car was made in Smyrna Tenneessee.

The reality is, with a global economy, it's harder to figure out where a product is made.

But back on-topic: Hyper-capitalism is, IMHO, not good for America, despite all the rhetoric from the business community. The descrepancies between the rich and poor is now greater than it has ever been in America.

With all the corporate sheenanigans that occurred, one would think elected leaders would pay more attention to that problem, which has cost Americans far, FAR more than any damage of 9/11. I read somewhere that within the last 12 months, Americans have lost over $1 trillion in the market. That's retirement money folks.

[ECA]

Our country needs to decide...

a story:
The man that created the FIRST LCD screen, TRIED to get any american company to buy the rights to his product. NO takers. He Finally sold it to Taiwan.

We need to KILL the Stock market, and do a RE-evaluation of wages. The stock market is GREAT for the starting business as a LOAN to pay back those invested. Big companies USED to do there OWN R&D for new products, NOW they look for investors to supply Money for it, and when the product HITS the market, they have to TRIPLE+ the price to pay the investors back. If they had Little or fewer Stocks, they could take there money and invest it into the Product themselves.

Failure of the RAILROAD is from the investors, TAKING there mony OUT of the railroads insted of RE-investing back into them for a BETTER rail system. So the Rich got Rich, but didnt get RICHER.

Top wages for MANY people is outragious. And it DRIVES the cost of living in areas to go thru the ROOF also. Say 10 people MOVE to Harlam, and lived in the same BLOCKs. they would update the buildings, and the Value of the houses would go up. But, then the COST of taxes go up, and the area merchants raise there Prices, and on and on. I consider a person makeing over $1mill a year, and NOT having money at the end of the year to be a SAP. I have seen RICH people pay 10-100x's MORe for the SAME product a POOR person buys. Just because its in a RICH store. I have seen a RICH person pay $100,000 for cabnets to be installed in there kitchen, whan It could have been done for $5000, and LOOK just as nice.
ALOT of rich people do NOT know the Value of money, or the Idea that "THERE IS CHEAPER" and the quality is just as good.

:sponge

[Halo]

The long accepted notion of Greed is good, in truth, on a long-term scale is not good for the masses. If you took an application of ethics and applied it when conducting business
or mergers, or outsourcing or whatever takes place in the business day and asked yourself, "What will create the greatest good for the greatest number of people," that should be one's creed. We have grown up in a bubble. For the majority of us out there, unless you were born at the turn of the century, ae still alive and know how to use a computer, don't know true hardship. The Great Depression was the result of another crazy frenetic, economic and societal bubble that burst.
Granted, there are safety measures that have been put into place to help prevent it from happening again, but they aren't 100%
I am not saying we are looking at another Great Depression.
However, 2 million people lost their jobs in 2001 and about 1.5 million and counting have lost their jobs in 2002. Plus, it is estimated that roughly $4 (not 1) trillion has gone up in smoke.
A good portion of that was slated for people's retirements.
Those people are back to drawing board on living out their retirement relaxing.
Instead of building empires and bilking money, we need to care about one another. Yes world markets, disappearing borders and world economies and all that rhetoric, but we have lost sight of being a cohesive unit. Everyone is out for themselves. Make the big sale, and cash out

I recently read an article about the merger of Willamette Industries with Weyerhauser. Workers of Willamette and the towns where Willamette had operations were concerned about the company selling out and Weyerhauser taking an axe to the operations in the future. Well, no sooner is the deal done and Weyerhauser takes claim to all things Willamette, Weyerhauser announces things are not so good, and it begins to shut plants and facilities that constituted duplicates in its pipeline of products. Thousands of people many in Oregon's countryside are now out of work, and more to come. Downtown Portland lost yet another corporation headquartered in its metropolitan area. About a quarter of the people from Willamette were offered jobs at Weyerhauser's operations up in the Tacoma area. Willamette was Portland's largest charitable donor, and Weyerhauser has agreed to continue those donations for 3 years, but then it's off. SIgns already show that Weyerhauser is giving less because of the economy.
The deal was great for shareholders. They made something like $55 a share on their investment. However, when you look at who had the majority of the shares it was not the working man. What did he get out of the deal besides an uncertain future and questions about when he would be able to retire?
Sometimes that big payout does more damage than we see.
We need to start taking an interest in our fellow man.
America got where it is because we worked together.
Perhaps this market bust is a gut check for all of us.

[ECA]

Some things to consider...

What is the COST to manufactour a product..
for those that are old enough, and those in the business.
The COST of making a product hasnt risen, for over 40 years.

Look at the candy bar. When I was younger, they were twice the size, and cost 15-35 cents. NOW, they are around 50 cents and are smaller.
There was supposed to be a Chocolate(cocoa bean) desvastation, that should have ended in the last 20+ years. And the Price of sugar, shouldnt cause that much of a problem, and NEW technology, making more candy for less. Should keep the price about the same as when I was younger..

Cars.
Cars are lighter, made with less materials, SMALLER. But why is the cost of a car 3x's from when I was 16(43 now). The cars when I was younger were made of STEEL, HEAVY, Thicker panels for protection, high torc engines. Push on the Gas and away you went, passing gears, for hitting 90mph in a flash. The current COST to make a car is about $5000-7000..REALLY. And what do you get. A car with a carry capacity of 800 lbs, no passing gears, 1/2-1/4 the weight, Less protection then STEEL, higher Insurrance rates(damage to current cars for a 5mph hit, avg is $1000).. ALL you are getting is better gas mileage, and less money in your pocket.

So you are going to mention that we MAKE more money NOW then in the past. But, technology has taken the place of about 1/2 the people to make the jobs faster and or more efficent, which should LOWER the price. Im also against rasing the Min wage. It only raises the level for which the POOR are at. Has anyone made a living(not with family or sharing a house) on min wage?? NO! Its a waste, a false hope.. As it forces the lower paying jobs to raise there wages, and the WORTH of there products.
Check the Top wage and the lowest wage for companies.. The difference is LESS now then in the past. In the past at $ min wage 2.80 and top wage of $8, compare to $6 and $9-12.
How about Top wages for upper management. Used to be a percentage of sales + a wage. NOW its millions$$ and shares from the company.
But WHO is hurting MORE.
do you know that there are only 3 MAJOR companies that supply most of the food in this country. Under many names. Potatoe chips, 2 companies make the major brands. Cerial, 2-3 companies OWN all of them.
What does a farmer get paid for 100 lbs of potatoes? about $3. You are paying about 50 cents a pound for Raw potatoes. About $1 per pound for french fries(prepared potatoes).
The subsidies to farmers, is a SHAM, as 60-80% are picked up by the 3 major companies that OWN the farms.

If this country is going to be run by Business. We should RUN it by those rules applied to BUSINESS. We should foster compitition. Make it easy to get a small business runing.

(to much ranting, sorry)

What fosters Companies NOT competeing?? PEOPLE that DONt shop around for a better price. NOT understanding that IF you dont buy a product from a store, that the Price will DROP in less then 3 months. That if you can STOP/change 20% of the peoples mind about buying a product at a Certain store, they can HURT the store in 1 month. Which can force the store to DROP prices, or even go out of business.
Making the best purchase, at the best price, and GETTING what you want, is what MAKES companies compete. So, what you have to visit more the 1 place. If you want price to come DOWN, and things to WORK right, you HAVE to buy the BEST product at a FAIR price.

How manny of you like those Neet mexican blanket, leather goods, and trinkets. Do you know how much they cost in Mexico??? Blankets are about $3-7, Leather bag, back packs, $5-10, the rest, anything from $1 to 10... AND you PAID how much???