Reply With QuoteYou're exactly right. we need to strike down some of these trade agreements that are incentivizing slavery abroad and destroying the lives of a majority of american workers.
Astraea
JPP Staff
Corporatism
Selling American workers and the nation out to the Chinese? No, the correct word for what we are up against is corporatism. A handful of corporatists claiming to be 'Christian conservatives' have hijacked and looted the nation. We will not be putting food on our tables if we don't take our stand.
The time for talk is done. The time for reading on the 'net or writing on it is done. It is time to stand against free trade. Spread the word. And let's defend our nation together.
What can you do? You may not expect there to be an answer, but there is.
If two-thirds of the economy is consumer spending, then what we choose to buy controls two-thirds of it. And so:
1) Stop shopping at Big Box stores. Not just Walmart, but also Home Depot. Applebees. Blockbuster. Support private, local businesses. Why? Because each of those support individual families, keeps the money local instead of having it all sent off to one corporate headquarters, and because smaller merchants pay fairer prices to distributors, who can pay fairer prices to manufacturers, who can pay fairer prices to suppliers, all of whom can then pay fairer wages to their employees. Big Box stores squeeze all of these to get your discount. One purchase at Target, and you have destroyed dozens of jobs and put under dozens of local businesses. A Home Depot, for example, eliminates paint stores, hardware stores, lighting stores, appliance stores, nurseries, lumber yards, and a whole host of businesses for several towns - as well as damages all of those who supply such stores.
Also, local merchants can choose to do what we all must do:
2) Buy local. As in stop buying, "Made in China." We have felt powerless maybe since we don't have say over what is on the shelves, but we do if we go to local merchants. Wal-Mart will tell you to f-yourself and your nation. A local merchant can order as the customers want. And honestly, there is choice if you put in some time.
We have become incredibly selfish, each of us just caring about saving a few bucks and some time, and we have sold each other out. We must stand together united, as one nation.
There is a label solution that will really help fix things further. But to start, you see that there is a lot you can do. Each time you spend a dollar you cast a vote. Every time you go to the self-check line at the supermarket, you cost someone their job. When you use an ATM instead of a teller. Which leads to:
3) Pay with cash or check - not credit or ATM card. Why? If you pay with credit card, the merchant pays a fee to the bank - a percentage usually of the purchase, up to 3% often. By paying with cash, you are directly increasing profit for the local merchant you shop at, instead of just handing it to the big banks that just looted us and that hand their CEO's multi-million dollar bonuses. 1-3% may not seem like a lot, but do the math. Say you go to a local suit store instead of the Big Box Men's Wearhouse. Instead of saving a few dollars but undermining dozens of suit makers', small store owners', and fabric suppliers' ability to make a living, you buy a suit from the little local guy. The suit is $200. 3% of that is $6. That might not seem like much, but that is pure extra profit. Instead of giving the bank $6 for no good reason, this local owner keeps an extra $6 per purchase. Guess what? Suddenly paying his clerks an extra dollar an hour becomes possible, and the owner has more money to spend locally - rather than, if you shopped at Men's Wearhouse, the clerk not making enough to live on, and the only owner making a living is the one guy you see on TV - who hands the cash that hundreds of local store owners would have been living on to TV stations, so they then can give it to sports teams and film studios so actors and athletes can make $20 million a year while we don't have any money to pay our bills.
See how this all works?
Shop small and local, buy locally made products, and pay with cash. You won't have to take my word for the fact you are making a difference. You will instantly know it. You can do the math each time you pay cash. You will experience the difference each time you buy locally. If we call our Congresspeople and Senators and change our shopping habits - and spread the word for others to do the same - we will, at last, begin to sew the first seeds of actual recovery.
If we don't, the collapse will be complete and the conservatives who caused it will blame liberal spending and step back into power and finish off our democracy once and for all.
This is no joke. This is our lives and livelihoods on the line. Let's stand together and get our nation back on track.
http://www.moderateindependent.com/v...rvCollapse.htm
Verified User
You're exactly right. we need to strike down some of these trade agreements that are incentivizing slavery abroad and destroying the lives of a majority of american workers.
Banned
:lol:
Gee, where do you think your computer is made? How about that fucking energy saving piece of shit light bulb in your room? Both made in China
Unions have chased most of the manufacturing jobs out of the country, the others they have put them to the brink of bankruptcy, just look at the auto industry.
Victory Shall Be Mine
The only way to get are jobs back from China is to force are government to put economic sanctions on china.
Verified User
HAHA. The appropriate trade policies will fix all this. Trade agreements are done in a top down fashion for a reason, individuals do not have the information or time to consider the long term ramifications and impact of their purchasing decision. Plus, large corporations are oftentimes controlled by those hostile to the nation, so they may purposefully make corporate purchases which fulfill their anti-american design.Originally Posted by webbway
Protectionism will save america. That's why so much money and classroom time is spent villifying the idea. Nothing angers the talking heads on tv more than someone seriously discussing protectionism. Their main job is villifying the concept.
Loyal to the end
I think you're about half right. Protectionism is good against cartels and unfair trade practices. But I have no doubt that with an even playing field US entrepreneurial companies and workers can make just about anything better faster cheaper. They just need the government to stop taxing and regulating them to death.
Verified User
Dude. It's about cheap labor as much as if not moreso than it's about taxation.
Things cost less in those countries. Multinationals have been gouging americans for years to subsidize other markets.
Please get over your neocon stupidity. It's about labor costs. How we can compete with people who make 20 cents an hour?
Things cost less in those countries. Multinationals have been gouging americans for years to subsidize other markets.
Please get over your neocon/libertarian stupidity. Just let it go.
The plan to destroy americans has been going on for a long time now, simplistic neocon bromides are not helpful.
Loyal to the end
Dude, who cares if cheap labor takes over mindless, labor-intensive jobs. Americans excel at jobs that require thinking.
Verified User
Dude. It's not just mindless jobs. It's scientists, computer programmers, it's everything. That whole, "skills will save you" line is just a lie. They keep a certain amount of americans employed just to keep up appearances.
Loyal to the end
Dude, the one thing that the rest of the world lacks is an ingrained entrepreneurial spirit. Only folks with intestinal fortitude dropped everything and emigrated to America, and for the most part, Americans are their offspring. Sure, the last generation or two became complacent, but those elite genes are still there. They just need to be challenged a little, and the competition from overseas, again, on a level playing field, will bring that.
Victory Shall Be Mine
Stop calling the Chinese slaves they are not. The chinese are happy that they produce everything it gives them jobs. Yes they get paid very little but since everything is made in China then can by things a lot heapier then Americans can. Things made in China are sold way way cheaper in China then in the U.S. They can live the same life style as an America making a lot less money. Chinese goods are a lot cheaper in China which means they are doing quit well. They may make less then a dollar and hour but a dollar in China buys a ton more then in the U.S.
Verified User
It totally unlevel. The cost of living is so less there. How can we compete? it's not about rising to a challenge. You're still somewhat smoking neocon/libertarian crack.
The entire deck is stacked against americans, by design, precisely to put us all out of work and escort us into fema camps for extermination.
Loyal to the end
The cost of living is so high here because our government is too big and had usurped its constitutionally mandated powers.
Verified User
No. Multinational corporations have been gouging us to subsidize overseas markets.
you're foolish to think it's all government. That's really foolish.
Loyal to the end
I'm a Reagan Conservative. Government is the problem.
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