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Thread: Selling Of America

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    Selling Of America

    Home | Newswire | About Us | Donate | Sign-Up | Archives Tuesday, November 28, 2006
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    Published on Monday, February 27, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
    When Americans No Longer Own America
    by Thom Hartmann

    The Dubai Ports World deal is waking Americans up to a painful reality: So-called "conservatives" and "flat world" globalists have bankrupted our nation for their own bag of silver, and in the process are selling off America.

    Through a combination of the "Fast Track" authority pushed for by Reagan and GHW Bush, sweetheart trade deals involving "most favored nation status" for dictatorships like China, and Clinton pushing us into NAFTA and the WTO (via GATT), we've abandoned the principles of tariff-based trade that built American industry and kept us strong for over 200 years.

    The old concept was that if there was a dollar's worth of labor in a pair of shoes made in the USA, and somebody wanted to import shoes from China where there may only be ten cents worth of labor in those shoes, we'd level the playing field for labor by putting a 90-cent import tariff on each pair of shoes. Companies could choose to make their products here or overseas, but the ultimate cost of labor would be the same.

    Then came the flat-worlders, led by misguided true believers and promoted by multinational corporations. Do away with those tariffs, they said, because they "restrain trade." Let everything in, and tax nothing. The result has been an explosion of cheap goods coming into our nation, and the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs and thousands of manufacturing companies. Entire industry sectors have been wiped out.

    These policies have kneecapped the American middle class. Our nation's largest employer has gone from being the unionized General Motors to the poverty-wages Wal-Mart. Americans have gone from having a net savings rate around 10 percent in the 1970s to a minus .5 percent in 2005 - meaning that they're going into debt or selling off their assets just to maintain their lifestyle.

    At the same time, federal policy has been to do the same thing at a national level. Because our so-called "free trade" policies have left us with an over $700 billion annual trade deficit, other countries are sitting on huge piles of the dollars we gave them to buy their stuff (via Wal-Mart and other "low cost" retailers). But we no longer manufacture anything they want to buy with those dollars.

    So instead of buying our manufactured goods, they are doing what we used to do with Third World nations - they are buying us, the USA, chunk by chunk. In particular, they want to buy things in America that will continue to produce profits, and then to take those profits overseas where they're invested to make other nations strong. The "things" they're buying are, by and large, corporations, utilities, and natural resources.

    Back in the pre-Reagan days, American companies made profits that were distributed among Americans. They used their profits to build more factories, or diversify into other businesses. The profits stayed in America.

    Today, foreigners awash with our consumer dollars are on a two-decades-long buying spree. The UK's BP bought Amoco for $48 billion - now Amoco's profits go to England. Deutsche Telekom bought VoiceStream Wireless, so their profits go to Germany, which is where most of the profits from Random House, Allied Signal, Chrysler, Doubleday, Cyprus Amax's US Coal Mining Operations, GTE/Sylvania, and Westinghouse's Power Generation profits go as well. Ralston Purina's profits go to Switzerland, along with Gerber's; TransAmerica's profits go to The Netherlands, while John Hancock Insurance's profits go to Canada. Even American Bankers Insurance Group is owned now by Fortis AG in Belgium.

    Foreign companies are buying up our water systems, our power generating systems, our mines, and our few remaining factories. All because "flat world" so-called "free trade" policies have turned us from a nation of wealthy producers into a nation of indebted consumers, leaving the world awash in dollars that are most easily used to buy off big chunks of America. As www.economyincrisis.com notes, US Government statistics indicate the following percentages of foreign ownership of American industry:

    · Sound recording industries - 97%
    · Commodity contracts dealing and brokerage - 79%
    · Motion picture and sound recording industries - 75%
    · Metal ore mining - 65%
    · Motion picture and video industries - 64%
    · Wineries and distilleries - 64%
    · Database, directory, and other publishers - 63%
    · Book publishers - 63%
    · Cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum product - 62%
    · Engine, turbine and power transmission equipment - 57%
    · Rubber product - 53%
    · Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing - 53%
    · Plastics and rubber products manufacturing - 52%
    · Plastics product - 51%
    · Other insurance related activities - 51%
    · Boiler, tank, and shipping container - 50%
    · Glass and glass product - 48%
    · Coal mining - 48%
    · Sugar and confectionery product - 48%
    · Nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying - 47%
    · Advertising and related services - 41%
    · Pharmaceutical and medicine - 40%
    · Clay, refractory, and other nonmetallic mineral products - 40%
    · Securities brokerage - 38%
    · Other general purpose machinery - 37%
    · Audio and video equipment mfg and reproducing magnetic and optical media - 36%
    · Support activities for mining - 36%
    · Soap, cleaning compound, and toilet preparation - 32%
    · Chemical manufacturing - 30%
    · Industrial machinery - 30%
    · Securities, commodity contracts, and other financial investments and related activities - 30%
    · Other food - 29%
    · Motor vehicles and parts - 29%
    · Machinery manufacturing - 28%
    · Other electrical equipment and component - 28%
    · Securities and commodity exchanges and other financial investment activities - 27%
    · Architectural, engineering, and related services - 26%
    · Credit card issuing and other consumer credit - 26%
    · Petroleum refineries (including integrated) - 25%
    · Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments - 25%
    · Petroleum and coal products manufacturing - 25%
    · Transportation equipment manufacturing - 25%
    · Commercial and service industry machinery - 25%
    · Basic chemical - 24%
    · Investment banking and securities dealing - 24%
    · Semiconductor and other electronic component - 23%
    · Paint, coating, and adhesive - 22%
    · Printing and related support activities - 21%
    · Chemical product and preparation - 20%
    · Iron, steel mills, and steel products - 20%
    · Agriculture, construction, and mining machinery - 20%
    · Publishing industries - 20%
    · Medical equipment and supplies - 20%
    Thus it shouldn't surprise us that the cons have sold off our ports as well, and will defend it to the bitter end. They truly believe that a "New World Order" with multinational corporations in charge instead of sovereign governments will be the answer to the problem of world instability. And therefore they must do away with quaint things like unions, a healthy middle class, and, ultimately, democracy.

    The "security" implications of turning our ports over to the UAE are just the latest nail in what the cons hope will be the coffin of American democracy and the American middle class. Today's conservatives believe in rule by inherited wealth and an internationalist corporate elite, and things like a politically aroused citizenry and a healthy democracy are pesky distractions.

    Everything today is driven by profits for multinationals, supported by the lawmaking power of the WTO. Thus, parts for our missiles are now made in China, a country that last year threatened us with nuclear weapons. Our oil comes from a country that birthed a Wahabist movement that ultimately led to 14 Saudi citizens flying jetliners into the World Trade buildings and the Pentagon. Germans now own the Chrysler auto assembly lines that turned out tanks to use against Germany in WWII. And the price of labor in America is being held down by over ten million illegal workers, a situation that was impossible twenty-five years ago when unions were the first bulwark against dilution of the American labor force.

    When Thomas Jefferson wrote of King George III in the Declaration of Independence, "He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation…" he just as easily could have been writing of the World Trade Organization, which now has the legal authority to force the United States to overturn laws passed at both local, state, and federal levels with dictates devised by tribunals made up of representatives of multinational corporations. If Dubai loses in the American Congress, their next stop will almost certainly be the WTO.

    As Simon Romero and Heather Timmons noted in The New York Times on 24 February 2006, "the international shipping business has evolved in recent years to include many more containers with consumer goods, in addition to old-fashioned bulk commodities, and that has helped lift profit margins to 30 percent, from the single digits. These smartly managed foreign operators now manage about 80 percent of port terminals in the United States."

    And those 30 percent profits from American port operations now going to Great Britain will probably soon go to the United Arab Emirates, a nation with tight interconnections to both the Bush administration and the Bush family.

    Ultimately, it's not about security -- it's about money. In the multinational corporatocracy's "flat world," money trumps the national good, community concerns, labor interests, and the environment. NAFTA, CAFTA, and WTO tribunals can - and regularly do - strike down local and national laws. Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" are replaced by Antonin Scalia's "Rights of Corporate Persons."

    Profits even trump the desire for good enough port security to avoid disasters that may lead to war. After all, as Judith Miller wrote in The New York Times on January 30, 1991, quoting a local in Saudi Arabia: "War is good for business."

    Thom Hartmann is a Project Censored Award-winning best-selling author of over a dozen books and the host of a nationally syndicated noon-3pm ET daily progressive talk show syndicated by Air America Radio. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are "What Would Jefferson Do?" and Ultimate Sacrifice.

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    Riven37
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    All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. Thomas Jefferson

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    Member Crisco Kid's Avatar
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    Can hardly wait . . .


    to hear from all the 'Free Trade' and anti-union types.
    "God's grace and mercy have brought you through. Quit acting as if you made it on your own." ~ T. D. Jakes

    "Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a dilusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end." ~ Unknown

    The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. ~ Walt Disney

    12/21/2012

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    So sorry . . .


    just saw the date of your post. I guess those 'Free Trade' and anti-union types weren't around then.
    "God's grace and mercy have brought you through. Quit acting as if you made it on your own." ~ T. D. Jakes

    "Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a dilusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end." ~ Unknown

    The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. ~ Walt Disney

    12/21/2012

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    Member Crisco Kid's Avatar
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    Oops . . .


    that's a new post. Have to get my glasses fixed.
    "God's grace and mercy have brought you through. Quit acting as if you made it on your own." ~ T. D. Jakes

    "Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a dilusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end." ~ Unknown

    The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. ~ Walt Disney

    12/21/2012

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    Thanks Riven, I have been talking about the evils of Free Trade in many posts

    Thanks Riven, I have been talking about the evils of Free Trade in many posts and those traitorous globalists...like Tom Freidman and Milton Friedman, etc. Few seem to understand just what a threat to our sovereignty and our republic this is...the US as now as much controlled by foreign powers as petty banana republics once were in Africa and South America.

    And unions are a different issue completely because the only strong unions are government unions. Its easy to be beligerant when your employer cant go bankrupt and can use its legislative powers to pass costs on to the taxpayer without regard to a municipalities ability to pay. Additionally many of the reasons for union membership have been incorporated into government agencies like OSHA or workmens comp/disability, etc.

    Personally I support unions if there were concessions....like considerations for the ability to pay of management versus workers, ability to finance new product (R&D) and market share, etc. If arbitrators were allowed to consider ancillary things in their decision...I could easily support them.

    One can be against free trade but have an entirely different perspective on unions....its a completely different issue.

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    Member colossus27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thom Hartmann
    Our nation's largest employer has gone from being the unionized General Motors to the poverty-wages Wal-Mart.

    Germans now own the Chrysler auto assembly lines that turned out tanks to use against Germany in WWII.
    Anybody else here see a contradiction? Unions are good, except when the non-unionized corporation kicks the unionized corporation's @ss. Gee, Mr Economy, how did that happen? The comment about the tanks used against Germany is nothing more than deflection, and it magnificently delineates a substance-free "point".

    Quote Originally Posted by Thom Hartmann
    Pharmaceutical and medicine - 40%
    Funny- no mention of Hillary and Willy screwing the US vaccine industry nearly out of existence. Those damn conservatives strike again.

    Quote Originally Posted by Thom Hartmann
    Back in the pre-Reagan days, American companies made profits that were distributed among Americans. They used their profits to build more factories, or diversify into other businesses. The profits stayed in America.
    So did the taxes. Let's look at the marketplace, as controlled by the US government.

    http://www.accf.org/publications/rep...mptaxes95.html

    Corporate capital gains rates in the United States are higher than in most other countries surveyed.

    In addition, Belgium, Sweden, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan have lower (or no) taxes on individual capital gains than does the United States. All of the above countries tax corporate capital gains at a lower rate than the United States (with the exception of The Netherlands and Indonesia).

    Many analysts conclude that our relatively low rate of business investment is directly related to high U.S. taxes on new investment. Although the correlation between manufacturing productivity growth and low tax rates on new investment among the G-7 countries is not always perfect (e.g., Germany has lower taxes on investment than does the United States, yet has somewhat slower manufacturing productivity growth [1.9 versus 2.4 for the United States over the 1979-1993 period]), for the remainder of the G-7 the relationship holds.


    This article would have some merit if it discussed how corporate taxes are screwing over the economy.
    Last edited by colossus27; November 28th, 2006 at 10:50 PM.
    "At a minimum, a head of state should have a head."- Vladimir Putin

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    Member colossus27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timmy
    And unions are a different issue completely because the only strong unions are government unions.
    What about the longshoremen or the teamsters?

    Next time you try to pass a tandem on the 290, ask yourself why the cargo wasn't shipped by train.
    "At a minimum, a head of state should have a head."- Vladimir Putin

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    I wouldnt compare the Teamsters to the Teachers Union

    I wouldnt compare the Teamsters to the Teachers Union or the Police Union.

    Look at what the Teachers Union did to School Vouchers, School Choice, Charter Schools and other school reforms. They used their money to elect union members to school boards and their lobbies to pack the state assembly and the state senate, then they get their demands legislated upon the taxpayer. The taxpayer and municipality are pretty much powerless to battle the arbitrator based on how the rules are written.

    The Teamsters are powerful and so are the auto unions...but companies can go bankrupt or move offshore or outsource while governments cannot.

    I dont have a problem with unions...Id like to see some way to increase their numbers especially at places like Walmart....but have unions negotiating power decreased a bit by forcing consideration of other factors. Im tired of unions being blamed for bad management decisions and that needs to be removed from the equation entirely.

    If a company chooses not to increase market share, not to invest in new technology and products like hybrids (in auto industry),or choose to have the highest paid mgmt in the industry...I dont want unions blamed for sucking away all the money for them to remain competitive or viable.

    Just as government unions should have their power decreased too with limitations like the ability of a government or municipality to pay and other factors.

    Private sector unions cant compare their power to government unions when the ability to legislate demands are factored in.

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    Member colossus27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timmy
    If a company chooses not to increase market share, not to invest in new technology and products like hybrids (in auto industry),or choose to have the highest paid mgmt in the industry...I dont want unions blamed for sucking away all the money for them to remain competitive or viable.
    Please. Where did the money go w/the UAW, Timmy? Just curious. Did Benz just swoop in or was Chrysler hurting for valuation?
    "At a minimum, a head of state should have a head."- Vladimir Putin

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    No you make a valid point but what makes union and corporate lobbying so bad

    No you make a valid point but what makes union and corporate lobbying so bad is that with foreign ownership both the company and the unions who are lobbying to keep their jobs and get better wages/benefits is that they are in effect lobbying for foreign governments.

    Fair Trade
    Free Trade
    Government Unions
    Private Sector Unions
    Is there anyone patriotic to this country anymore?!!!

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    Member colossus27's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timmy
    No you make a valid point but what makes union and corporate lobbying so bad is that with foreign ownership both the company and the unions who are lobbying to keep their jobs and get better wages/benefits is that they are in effect lobbying for foreign governments.
    Damn straight! And our federal Government has done nothing to change this.
    "At a minimum, a head of state should have a head."- Vladimir Putin

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    We need Fair Trade and Free Trade. Look on the back of anything plastic you have right now. Bet it says made in china. The only thing I have near my desk that say made in america is the can of pop I have that clearly states "made, here in W.N.Y.". Now if we start tariffing ever imported good how much do you think you will have left in your pocket at the end of the day? And even with the little exports this country still have how long do you think it will be before the countrys that we have tariffed will tariff our goods?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Riven37


    the Germans now own the Chrysler auto assembly lines that turned out tanks to use against Germany in WWII.
    Know anybody that drives a car with a Mitsubishi engine? Ever wonder why they veer toward the Little Rock when going over the Sky Way?
    They built the planes the komakazies dove into our ships in WWII.
    "If you want to know what God thinks of money just look at the people he gave it to."

    By the way, what happened to biker? I miss the old coot.

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    Quote Originally Posted by citymouse
    Know anybody that drives a car with a Mitsubishi engine? Ever wonder why they veer toward the Little Rock when going over the Sky Way?
    They built the planes the komakazies dove into our ships in WWII.

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    Please...

    Quote Originally Posted by colossus27
    This article would have some merit if it discussed how corporate taxes are screwing over the economy.
    Please explain....
    Do you mean how little corporations pay as compared to the past?
    "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis (1935)

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