Politics and more

Interesting that Fridays seem to be the days that I tend to post rants, some day I'll have to figure out why that is.

As for now, we had another round of job cuts at my office today, it's getting ridiculous at this point and the sad thing is, it's far from over. I know I'm not alone in this, lots of people are having jobs cut and layoffs and the like, with companies blaming it on the economy.

What I'd like to know is in the past, oh, dozen or more years of booming economy here in the US, where did all the money that the consumers threw into that economy go? Because it certainly didn't go back into our pockets, real wages haven't risen in years. Sure we were using credit to buy things (we being the collective whole, I'm not going into any arguments at this point about whether that was smart) but it still ended up being money into the pockets of companies. So what happened to all that?

It seems to me that all that money went overseas as they continually pushed our jobs out of the country to 'reduce overhead' and the like. So, our money goes into the pockets of foreigners and those who are already rich.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not the type of person who's a "true blue American" and hate anything made overseas or anyone who buys that stuff. However, I think that our corporations and big companies have not only brought this on themselves, but that they're practically being rewarded for doing so. Beyond the general feelings that are out there today that are voiced everywhere I feel that it was and remains incredibly short-sighted of American companies to 'offshore' jobs to save money. You're cutting US jobs because the economy is bad and people can't afford to buy your stuff. But by cutting jobs you're making the economy worse and taking money AWAY from the very people you are going to rely on to buy your stuff. It seems like the opposite of good business sense when you look at things from a long term perspective.

But I guess that's the problem isn't it? Companies DON'T think long term, and why should they? No one in charge of a company is invested in the company's actual success anymore. There's no reason to be, when you can make enough money in a year at the head of a company to live comfortably (though maybe not quite what you're used to) for a decade or more then you have no reason to worry about what happens the next year. You cut jobs, cut expenses, cut, cut, cut to make it LOOK like the company is making money, then when it becomes obvious it will all bottom out you pick up your cash (and your golden parachute) and walk away. And it's not just the CEOs that walk away, all board members and top-level management make enough money to essentially do the same. So the only people bearing the brunt of the collapse are the workers, or those few that are left after they've offshored everyone anyway.

So, while I believe in free market to a degree, I think this country has gotten to a point where government needs to step in to a level that perhaps has never been done before. It is my opinion that US based corporations need to have restrictions placed on how many jobs they can offshore (I.E. if you're a US based corporation and 25% of your company's income comes from purchases in the US you need to have a minimum of 20% of your workforce in the US). Or that we should give them a real incentive to keep jobs in the US, for every US based job that a company sends overseas they are then fined (or taxed somehow) the equivalent of the income taxes that the city, state, and federal government had been receiving from that employee before the job went overseas, on a yearly basis until the job is returned or completely eliminated (yes this would be hard to track). Even this method only replaces a small portion of what that job actually meant to the American economy, however it's a start to limiting the incentive companies have to ship jobs overseas.

I also think that we should restore a good portion of the tariffs that used to protect our country from this type of job loss. Free Trade is a very good idea, if it is fair and appropriate, however most trade now is not and if we institute even minor tariffs on goods and services coming into the US from overseas it will limit the incentive for companies to offshore our jobs. Or even forget about the tariffs for all and fine all goods and services incoming to the US from companies that cannot document a fair wage for their overseas employees, at least make competition between companies reasonable, not near slavery.

As scary as the thought is, I personally feel we'd be better off NOT stepping in and helping any of the companies that are failing. I do agree with helping homeowners refinance their mortgages, but send the aid directly to homeowners, not to the companies. As we saw with the banks that did fail, others will step in and either buy or replace. The same goes for 99% of companies that would fail, and if no one steps into the gap then probably it wasn't a truly essential service to begin with. Yes the stock market would crash, but the big investors in the stock market knew they were 'betting' when they put the money into the stock market. Yes people would lose retirement savings, etc. because our 'savings' systems in this country are so screwed up that they actually ENCOURAGE you to bet with your retirement money. In fact it's the only way to get help from your employer in most cases, "I'll only help you if you bet the money", sounds stupid doesn't it? So instead of spending $700,000,000,000 to bail out companies, put that money into expanding and fixing Social Security, Federal Health Care plans, and Federal Assistance. Oh, and while you're at it, pass legislation limiting US based companies from paying their CEOs and board members more than 50 times the average employee's wage at their company.

With the resilience of the American people and our ingenuity we can overcome nearly anything, entrepreneurs would step in to fill the gaps left by failing companies. You may get 10 to 100 smaller companies for every one large one that failed, and in my book that's a good thing as usually you end up with more jobs as a result. Life as we know it now would be over, but isn't that the case already? Can anyone honestly tell me that as a country we'll be living financially in 2009 the same way we did in 2006 or early 2007. Our recent way of living is already over. The real question is, what do we want to replace it with?