I am continually blown away by the raw ignorance of the American public. I don't know what is worse, those that have been brainwashed into either rampant israel first neo cons, radical outright marxists, or the ones who have no desire to even attempt to learn anything of importance and just watch american idol or whatever other garbage happens to be on TV.
I spend a lot of time perusing the internet and in so doing come across such ignorance unfortunately on a regular basis. So I am starting a new series of sorts where I post the stupidity here and also my refutation thereof.
I start today with an economics story posted at ANU News. The ABC story in summary was this
"By Ed Smith's math, the CEO of Walmart earns more in an hour than his employees will earn in a year. Alderman: Walmart CEO earns more in 1 hour than workers earn in a year. Smith, an alderman in Chicago, presented posters at a city council meeting showing that Walmart CEO Michael Duke's $35 million salary, when converted to an hourly wage, worked out to $16,826.92. By comparison, at a Walmart store planned for the Windy City's Pullman neighborhood, new employees to be paid $8.75 an hour would gross $13,650 a year."
Now I know I promised never to defend Wal-Mart again once they back Obama's health plan and I'm sticking to it, rather I'm refuting some basic economic misinformation I routinely come across.
So after reading the full marxist propaganda laden story I posted this to the ANU site.
"Wow a hit piece on Wal-Mart by jew run ABC news. How utterly surprising.
Let's see why would the jews hate Wal-Mart, could it be because they are defiantly anti union! So with that in mind why in hell would ANU run this garbage?
Does anyone force people to work at Wal-Mart? Why don't the employees work towards becoming CEO's? Also as far as CEO pay goes Duke is one of the lower paid especially considering the size of his company his annual salary is not 35million as the article claims but rather 1.2 million. After stock options and bonuses his total compensation for 2009 was just under 20 million still far lower than many other CEO's."
http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/officerProfile?symbol=WMT&officerId=248469
So then a brainiac "Scott Banks" chimes in
"ANU ran this "garbage" to show how well treason pays. If Mr. Duke could import 13 cent an hour Chinks as easily as he imports cheap Chinese crap there would be no Americans at all working at Walmart, just like there are no Americans manufacturing anything in America anymore. Thanks in part to traitors like Mike Duke."
So I reply
"I'd love to hear your explanation how Duke has anything to do with driving businesses from our land.
Let's assign blame where blame is due.
First if the jewish run central bank hadn't debased our currency by 95% we would be a far wealthier nation and could afford to buy higher quality goods.
Second, politicians to pay for the massive debts incurred by runaway spending tax the most productive in a society and drive them to more business friendly places.
Third, marxist controlled labor unions have driven up the wages to an unsustainable level that makes American labor not be competitive with the rest of the world. So let's recap, first you have a jewish run central bank who debases the money so that companies must pay their employees far more year over year because inflation is robbing them, second companies must pay their employees more because the government is robbing them, and third marxist labor unions are further exacerbating the problem by driving up the wages. Think about it if you had 0 inflation, no taxes and everything around you fell in price by 40% you could make 20-30k a year and live a comfortable life. But because of the aforementioned things you need to make closer to 100k to live the same lifestyle. You eliminate those problems and you will return to a world where factories can afford to remain here because they can pay US workers a fair price, and the worker in turn isn't robbed through inflation nor taxation.
Which of course is the problem. People look at the symptoms "oh America doesn't produce anything anymore" "this guy is a traitor blah blah blah"yet fail to go any deeper to address the problem. Wake up before posting anymore of this marxist crap."
So Scott Banks responds
"Blinded by Limbaugh neo-con horsecrap you fail to see that the solution is, and always was, protectionism. I'll explain it to you Thomas. America is like a family farm circa 1880. The homesteaders work all year chopping wood, growing crops, canning jam, spinning yarn, making candles and raising animals. When the family's needs for all of the above items have been met for the year the surplus is loaded into wagons and taken into town and sold. The cash is either banked or used to buy things the farmers cannot produce themselves. If the farm does not produce product in adequate quantities to sustain the family, let alone produce a surplus, the family must go into town and borrow money(or spend their savings)to buy the supplies they need to make up the difference for the year. That is how America as a nation is functioning right now. It cannot last. You go ahead and spew all the neocon globalist garbage you want about high wages, bad unions and competing with the Chinese. The fact of the matter is if America doesn't start producing products in quantities sufficient to meet the needs of it's citizens, America is going to go broke. Look at the charts for GDP, corporate debt, national debt, household debt. In 1975 America's GDP produced it's last trade surplus. From 1975 onward America's various debts took off into outer space. That is no coincidence. Like I showed, you either produce or borrow. The end of your foolishness is at hand Thomas. You're almost there and when you cross the finish line you can thank gutter rat traitors like Mike Duke and the Walton family for that."
And here is my latest reply.
"First, I run the website truthinourtime.com and I challenge you to find any shred of evidence to back up your claim that I am a "neo con limbaugh listening globalist"
Second, you don't seem to see the big picture that being WHY are goods cheaper to produce in China? I provided you with 3 of the big reasons why the US is not competitive in the global manufacturing market place.
Not only that but I provided a solution, kick out the jewish central bankers, kick out the marxist (jewish) programs in washington and kick out the marxist labor unions. Overnight you could lower wages because goods would be cheaper (due to the reasons I provided in the post above)
Now how in the hell does that translate to you as being "globalist" or "neo conservative"?
BTW feel free to email me personally at truthinourtime@gmail.com or stop by the website as I am in the process of turning our exchange into a post. "
Now Scotts is a very common argument (especially the ad hominem attacks when out of ammo) That protectionism, not abolishing the jewish run central banks which has devalued our currency 95% in a century, a marxist run government that through all hidden permits, fees and taxes robs the citizenry to the tune of 40-80% per year, or the labor unions that drive up the costs of goods for everyone.
Surely those things don't matter all we have to do is to put an import tariff on the chinese crap so that we all pay higher prices. Of course protectionists don't say anything about how our expensive goods will help us export any more goods.
As I pointed out to Scott and would like to reiterate. The problem isn't that nothing is made here and our trade deficit is off the charts. That is a symptom. The problem is that we CAN'T produce anything competitively on the global market place. It's like looking at someone and saying "damnit get out and win this marathon, why can't you win you bum?" The problem isn't that they aren't training but rather they have a broken leg and can't run competitively until it is fixed and putting a brace on the leg (protectionism) is a very short term fix at best and still won't make the runner or the economy competitive.
So let's go.
Why? Why is it that our labor costs are so much higher than that of China? Is it because they only pay pennies per day and we can't compete with that? Wrong you looking in the wrong place. Why do we have to pay workers 30k a year when in China they only make 5k?
Imagine you are an employee at a factory and make 20 dollars per hour here in the US. Now of this 20 dollars, the government through withholding SS, Medicare and Medicaid is going to take roughly 40% (employers have to match the 7% for SS so the total is 14% not 7%) So now you are left making in reality 12. Well guess what inflation is running at say a modest 5% annually so that's like making 11.40 an hour instead of 20%.
Well you say $11.40 is still way more than a Chinese factory worker makes and you are correct which is why stuff is made there and not here. Let's look at your money once you get your paycheck.
Assuming you work 80 hours every 2 weeks your paychecks will be around 913. So how do people spend their paychecks. Well everyone has a cellphone and 20% of the bill is just tax, 30% of every gallon of gas is tax, you pay probably 1% of the total value of your home per year in property tax, there are literally countless other minor taxes on everything you use and "own".
Now let's go shopping, and consider the store. Say Wal-Mart, now Wal-Mart has always worked on extremely small margin only a couple percent in many cases. So everything you purchase is subject to 7% sales tax but sadly it doesn't end there. The store itself has to pay it's workers a higher wage than normal to compensate for all the taxes and regulations they have t pay and jump through as well as to retain employees. Can you fathom what the property taxes are on a Wal-Mart? I find it sickening in the highest degree that the government literally makes more money % wise from a store such as Wal-Mart for doing absolutely nothing, even though Wal-Mart does 100% of the work from start to finish. Talk about a parasite.
This is just a very small scale example of the ways in which you are taxed but more importantly are taxed in hidden ways, such as the amount a store has to raise it's price on an item because of the income tax they themselves pay as well as the myriad of taxes and regulations imposed on businesses.
So you see the reason why we can't compete globally is because we are taxed into oblivion, not just directly, but in hidden sinister ways that most people don't even realize. How much cheaper would that computer be if HP didn't have to pay a team of lawyers to interpret different regulations, or pay taxes? According to the Fair Tax book (I am against any form of tax) the embedded tax in goods is 40%. So things would fall in price by roughly 40% if the government got the hell out of the way.
So prices would drop 40% directly, then you would no longer personally be taxed at say 50% of your income, inflation would be 0 and you wouldn't have to pay 7% sales tax. Now don't go and think that 200 dollar grocery tab reduced to say 40 bucks is going to make you richer because you make that much every couple days. Wages will also fall in relation to prices but percentage wise but your standard of living will rise.
For example now you make $11.40 (20) but grocery's cost $200 so after the government dies, over time the bill goes from 200 to 40 but your wages will probably fall from $20 down to say $8 but you only really made 11 bucks anyway and groceries were still $200.
So let's return to your factory now your boss only has to pay you 8 bucks an hour for you to be able to live the same lifestyle your currently enjoy. So they can hire twice the amount of employee's (say bye to double digit unemployment) and or sell their goods at a 60% discount. Now this is beginning to bring it inline with the rest of the world. It's starting to make the American worker competitive again and rebuilding our evaporating manufacturing sector.
Now granted these are just rough examples since it's 11pm and I'm tired mainly, but hopefully I have made you think about why things are the way they are and why in our current situation we CANNOT compete globally in the manufacturing sector.
