Why do we do what we do?

You guys must know by now that the whole economics mess has been brought on by.....wait for it.....our selves...at least by our government, our corporations, and worst of all by our own greed.

30 years ago we started importing Japanese cars in mass. As time went on, other corporations said,"Hey, we can get stuff made in foreign countries cheaper than here...sooooo let's close our factory and (while keeping our corporate offices here) move manufacturing to (where ever) ,

Taiwan, Thailand, and of course China.

This worked pretty well for a while. Ever factory that closed said to it's laid off workers, "Just go down the street, and you'll find another factory job..." and at first this worked. (More on this later)

Also we started talking about "Free Trade" which sounded really good to most of us...since the very definition says that we can sell our products without barriers just as other countries can sell things here (without barriers). Only most other countries didn't want a two way street. They wanted to sell here, but not compete with our products in their economy.

Many countries got really creative in finding obscure ways to block our products. Japan is one of the most resourceful at finding ways to block our products, especially ag products.

Our country (for the most part) has been very lame in forcing "free trade" issues.

For example, the V.A.T. tax (value added tax) has been around forever. Basically it says that imported products must compete with our products and therefore we'll make them more expensive so our products are cheaper.

So basically we (U.S.) being the consumer nation, allowed trade even though it wasn't free or fair for our products. AND in addition the corporations discovered that not only did they save huge amounts of money in lower labor costs, but also most of these "third world" countries had little or no environmental protection and their manufacturing practices went on nearly forever dumping toxic waste into the ground, rivers and of course the ocean like there was no tomorrow...and pretty much there is "no tomorrow" in many cases because people are getting sick and the food (like fish) are contaminated. Great! Right? But what do we care? It's not going to affect OUR fish...our food... or is it? (More on this later)

Now back to the laid off workers. At first, most workers either took early retirement or....they found nice factory jobs with fair pay and some benefits elsewhere. But gradually, nevy gradually, those "nice" fair paying jobs with benefits got scarcer and scarcer.

All the while, our government kept saying we need to retrain workers to compete. Only as we trained workers in electronics, those jobs were soon shipped over seas too. Some were able to go into I.T. jobs, and some institutions began teaching and training "software engineers" who aren't really engineers. Most wouldn't be able to do simple calculus or work with physics like a traditional engineer actually does. And of course there were lots of design engineering jobs still around....so the real engineers found very good jobs...with very good benefits.

As an Engineer myself, I am NOT slamming engineers (or ever "Microsoft Engineers" who maintain our computers and software) There is a place for all of those....and I'm very glad that THEY at least are mostly employed and doing well.

Then when jobs started getting really tight, the "talking heads" came out with the old (mostly bull-s--t) slogans like "Those jobs are gone forever." and "American don't really want to work."

Oh, my...That really P.O.ed a lot of honest hard working Americans off. But what are you going to do. Suck it up and keep looking for work.

This situation really benefited one group of people above all others. It benefited the really small businesses. They got the pick of the litter for employees. Hungry people desperately looking for work, often willing to work for little or nothing....with NO BENEFITS, often part time and/or temporary labor. The more people who were laid off the easier it has been for these businesses to find super over-qualified workers to man their businesses. Probably the worst offenders are the "Gas and Shop" type stores that want to pay just above minimum wage (and NO Benefits) to their workers, while they themselves (the owners usually of more than one store) get rich from their profits. Oh, and by the way, they are the first to squawk when the government "intrudes" in stuff like environmental issues...

So now here we are, years later, and we have reached the tipping point about five years ago, where there are too few jobs and too many workers. And we are still hearing Americans don't want to work....

BUT WAIT! BMW, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and Kia all have factories here in our country. They are hiring (shock, shock) Americans to build approximately 50% of the cars sold here by these countries. Of course they aren't paying UAW wages, but they do seem to be paying fair wages and some benefits. Imagine that! And they are apparently making a profit.

AND, and this is going to really slay all of you, these foreign corporations are doing business with all OUR REGULATIONS that all the American companies keep saying they can't do business because of.

Well, I'll be damned!!! Maybe Americans really do want to work, and maybe all those jobs that were NEVER COMING BACK are actually coming back.

Now here is the funny part. There are literally hundreds (no, more like thousands ) of talking heads (by the way they are all making handsome salaries) that haven't a clue about how to get our economy going again. I have waited and waited and it's like the 800 pound gorilla in the room...no one wants to touch this "third rail" . But there are a couple of very good ideas that are out here that would work, once we stop saying this crap about Americans don't want to work and jobs that are never coming back.

If you believe these you are brainwashed, plain and simple.

Americans do want to work but in order to exist in this country (if you don't want to live in cardboard boxes and flattened beer cans for houses) then you must have a sufficient income to pay for the mortgages, food, energy so that your family can live reasonably well...save for a future retirement and college for your kids, etc. etc.

The Mayor of New York has already told us what might happen if the United States were to breakdown into anarchy and chaos. Hungry Americans on a rampage wouldn't be a pretty sight.

We really really don't want to go there.

Now later.