What is Wrong With Our Economy???

From a blog on CarTalk: "Here they are asking for this enormous amount of money from US the taxpayers...telling congress that GM is burning through cash...AND they had the audacity to fly to this hearing in the Corporate $36m private jets. One congressman asked them..."Couldn't you downsized to at least First Class?" GM has at least 1 corporate jet. Ford maintains 8 corporate jets.

So instead of cutting their own PERSONAL EXPENSES...they lay off workers...Close plants."

Yet, the sad part is that this attitude isn't confined to just the auto industry, it is pervasive throughout corporate America. Even my company who still had 7% growth has laid off people, cut office parties, and stopped unnecessary travel. Of course, AIG may have finally got it with their recent news that the top seven execs are foregoing bonuses and the CEO will only be taking $1 pay for the next two years. Well, it took all that negative publicity after they got their handout and went out and partied, and then the auto industry execs getting their hand slapped for coming to Washington in their private jets. The main thrust of many companies is return for investors. The product becomes secondary. We'll get to the product in a moment as it turns out that much is not even made in this country. It is all about profit and return to investors. So anytime there is concern about profitability where are the cuts made? Exec bonuses? Exec perks? Nope, first knee jerk response is layoffs. Cut the work force, putting more of a burden on those left. Of course, those that are left won't squawk because the unspoken feeling is that if you complain, you could join your coworkers on the breadlines. Look at the news these days and we hear the layoff word over and over and over. Yet, execs are still getting huge salaries, perks, and golden parachutes.

Hopefully, the mentality is changing, but the best job in America is a Corporate CEO. Where else can you take on a company, run it into the ground, and when let go, get millions in compensation? And while you are at the top, you get a car, maybe even a jet, unlimited expense accounts, and so many other perks. The only other people in a company who can do a shit job and still get perks is the sales teams. I don't know how many times I have worked for companies that have cut the production/manufacturing force while hiring more sales. The sales teams go off site for team building at Las Vegas or the Bahamas. I have raised this question before, if the sales team are not doing their job, why do they get to travel and have their numbers added to while manufacturing/production has to cut?

It is just a paradigm that I have seen time and time again. Whenever profits slip, we lay off the work force, close plants, put more and more out of work. Yet, these are not the only issues, the other is outsourcing. Go into a store or a market and just try to buy American made or grown goods. Go on, try it. Mother Jones just did an article on this. O Say Can U Buy? www.motherjones.com/commenta...-buy.html The author tried to buy just American for one week and found that if you could find it, it was expensive. Another article from Mother Jones, When All-American...Isn't , www.motherjones.com/commenta...ican.html shows that even the vaunted Budweiser is no longer American. Of course, it still is brewed in the US, but it is no longer an American owned company. Two interesting points were brought up. Target and Gap keep the "Made in USA" label alive by making garments in offshore US territories like Saipan. Saipan? Do US Territories have to abide by US regulations for labor? This one floored me, APPLE JUICE 75% of it is imported; half of that comes from China. China???? Whatever happened to as American as Mom's Apple Pie? Um, does the pie come from China too? Of course, we won't go there about quality in China. It used to be a running gag that Made in China meant cheap, but lately the news from China is that it is deadly too. Yet, we will continue to import clothes, toys, and even food from China. Why haven't we stopped imports from China even though we have found food tainted with Melamine, toys with lead paint, and so many other issues. It just seems that everything these days is made in China. I bought a belt at a western wear store in Sedona. Nothing says American like western wear right? Wrong, got it home and as I was putting it on, I noticed the little stamp, made in China! Why is China so cheap to buy from? Well maybe slave labor might a major part of it. As my friend Will reminds us, Falong Gong practitioners are rounded up and thrown into prison or retraining camps where they are forced to work while being reindoctrinated. For more info, check out, www.faluninfo.net/

So the American worker is under siege. From Corporate Execs reaping outrageous salaries and bonuses, outsourcing, cutbacks, layoffs, its a wonder anyone is working anymore. As if that is not enough, the upward spiraling of health care costs is driving more and more to the poor house, but in the meantime not getting the care they need because though their health care costs are rising, the services are being reduced. Of course, there is a large PAC between the insurance companies and the health industry to prevent people from signing onto socialized medicine. One of their biggest arguments is that if you let the government run health care your taxes will go up and the government wouldn't provide the service. Um, let me see, what is the single most rising chunk out of my paycheck? Taxes? Nope. That would be health care deductions. Maybe it wouldn't rise so fast if the government ran it. Their other argument about cutting services is so lame as not to be mentioned when they continue to deny service to many. Of course, fuel costs have also hit the American people hard in the wallet. I find it interesting that as Bush's term comes to a close, the price of a gallon of gas is returning to those 2004 levels. So maybe Exxon/Mobil won't reap another billion dollar quarter profit. Hey, it was a nice ride, while it lasted. With Obama as a proponent of a Windfall Profit Tax, I think they saw the handwriting on the wall. So maybe just a little relief there, but other costs are just whacking consumers left and right.

Now that is the key word here, consumers. Let's think about all that has been said here about the American worker. Many have lost their jobs or their job is in peril at this time. Let me tell you, unemployment doesn't cut it. I was laid off after 9/11 in a terrible economy and spent six months on unemployment. I had to tap my 401k just to make the rent. Of course, the government doesn't care why you are taking the money out, so I got whacked with the taxes and 10% penalty so that further depleted my funds. I couldn't afford much, so I bought food when my kids were coming over on the weekend and survived on what was left over for the rest of the week. Even now, I am not happy with my job, but can't even think about leaving it. And even though I get a decent wage, it is dig in time because you don't know what is going to happen and my wife is being outsourced.

So we hear in the reports that consumer confidence is down, retail sales are down, and the retail industry feels that the outlook is going to be very bleak for Christmas. Well, duh! I am working and I have not been in a mall probably since last Christmas. I haven't bought new clothes for myself in years. I usually get a new shirt or pants for my birthday or Christmas. My car is over 177,000 miles and due for brakes and shocks. (It is a 2004, but I have a long commute which kills my back and my kids live fourty minutes away and I have to go get them twice a week.) Now, I have all ready told my kids that Christmas will be lean this year. Yet, I am in a good place. I have a job, my wife is still working until the end of the year. So the question is, who is going to buy all the goods that these corporations are bringing in from other countries? They have pushed the American worker out so that they could have slave labor in other countries manufacture their goods for pennies and then wonder why no one here is buying their stuff? The unfortunate part of it is that we are just as complicit because we flood the likes of Walmart and its ilk to get cheap items. In tough economies like this, we are drawn to the discounters for the cheap items made in places like China because we can't afford anything else. So we exacerbate the problem as we buy less and less American goods and causing American companies to either have to layoff workers or close their doors.

The real question is how to turn things around. Well for starters how about tying execs fates to the fates of the company like in the old days. If the company is failing, they don't get bonuses. If they fail to turn the company around, they don't get a golden parachute out the door. And they don't get automatic bonuses even in a failing economy. Get rid of the perks such as private jets and such. Tie their fate to the fate of the workers, then maybe they won't be so quick to lay people off. I believe it was a Boston radio talk show host said that you can't limit executive perks because then the only people you would draw would be college professors. My response is that maybe that is exactly what we need since many of these execs are more interested in their big houses, fancy cars, and private jets than in whether the company makes it. Of course, it isn't just the execs, but on the other end too, we the consumers. Maybe if we started taking an interest in buying American, manufacturers might just get it and then they might start hiring people. Hmm, novel concept, hire people, put them to work and give them a decent wage so they can, wait for it, oh, I think you guessed all ready, yep, buy something. Some company has to get the ball rolling. They have to say enough, hire back people, get them working and putting money back in the economy. We as consumers also can start taking measures by trying to find those few remaining American goods and buy them. Failing that, don't support slave labor in third world countries or forced labor camps in China. Look for things like Fair Trade products where companies get certified for giving a fair price to the locals for products grown or made in other countries. It may cost a little bit more, but remember the reason for the cheap price most times is because someone else is being forced to make that product for little or no pay.

For a starting point on buying American, google Made in the USA or go to sites like www.madeinusa.org/

As long as we continue to buy these cheap goods from China and third world countries, we are only contributing to the demise of the American Worker.