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Made in America needs to come back to achieve true economic dominance

Submitted by Chad on Thu, 05/01/2008 - 7:25am.

Today is May Day, when we celebrate the workers movement. So it's an appropriate time to ask about whether we are getting bandages for our economy or a complete overhaul of our economy?

One area where the Democrats can excel and rule for, let's say, another 20 years is the economy. I don't mean this in the sense of Bill Clinton in 1992, which admittedly is the only time where we had major job growth in the last 30 years.

Even with another run like his, the economy still won't be where it was, in many ways, from the times of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and to a smaller extent, Indiana can be win on being the right choice on economic issues. The Democratic candidate who can deliver real change to this area can guarantee a FDR-Truman like run in the White House.

But it has to be real change.

The good news is that the bad news is so bad, and that John McCain is the Republican candidate. The sound bite Democrats need to repeat almost as much as "100 years in Iraq" is McCain's economic "wisdom" in Michigan: "Some of the jobs that have left the state of Michigan are not coming back," McCain said. "They are not. And I am sorry to tell you that."

Those who have struggled in looking for jobs look at 2008 the same way others looked at 1932. And even if the naysayers point out that it's not quite that bad, in some ways, it's worse. In 1932, there was a Great Depression, but respect for the government and what it could do was much higher. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Newt Gingrich, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney, along with a cast of thousands, have destroyed the impressions that government can help.

This can't be a race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the next four years -- it has to be about who is the first president to lead us in a completely new direction.

Real change means a mix of Bill Clinton in 1992, FDR in 1932, and the innovation and mindset of the 21st Century. Since the realm of media and society are so dominated by the corporate/right-wing structure, a few Clintonian morsels will have to be tossed their way. Think of it like raw meat to lions to distract them while the real work gets done.

We have a crumbling infrastructure, so we need similar programs to FDR's work programs in the 1930s. Newt Gingrich and 12 years of Republican rule in Congress did a lot to damage what makes this country great.

But we also need someone who understands that the new "job program" is about taking advantage of the fact that the average consumer is more concerned about the environment and will accept alternative energies. The new president has to be able to work with Al Gore to implement true change. And those workers in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana also need one more thing: they need to make something tangible.

Miss this one step and you don't get the complete picture. Making a new road or creating solar energy are wonderful, but the workers of the Midwest need to point to something and say, "I made that."

The American manufacturing spirit reached its peak when it could point to the clothes on their backs, and the cars they drove with pride. This new direction could easily be electric cars (not hydrogen). It doesn't have to be huge in numbers, but Americans want to buy tangible elements that they made. Bring that back and the Democratic Party can rule for a long time, and make real lasting change.

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Americas industry is in the pits and does barely exists.

Submitted by gmathol on Thu, 05/08/2008 - 12:11am.
Intelligent people have stopped coming to the US, so there is a lack of knowledge and a even a brain drain towards abroad. I was brought up in Europe and I my experience with US workers is not the best. They have a mental problem! They think they can repair a car by changing the oil! I have never face in my whole life such inabilities like in the US. Another example: They claim in they US you get faster cancer treatment like in any other country! You want to know why? Chemical treatment is the most expensive and it is give even to none cancer patients. I had an American friend murdered by US great doctors (jewish - uuh I know this could be understand as anti-semetic). Time to get a reality check and go back to 1967. Why? That is when America was able to do thinks not just bombing the crap out of unarmed civilians. So, you see how the culture of death is harming you in the same, also different way as you harm others.
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It's not all that they say

Submitted by bettysdad on Thu, 05/01/2008 - 5:33pm.
Included in the export numbers are huge dollar amounts for lawyers, accountants, banking and a myriad of other financial services, engineering architecture and many other white-collar jobs that provide an extremely limited number of support jobs in the US. What counts are products shipped. And it's tiny. I live in Long Beach, CA. home of the biggest port in America. The containers leaving here are filled with either scrap metal or used paper.
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Trading away our comparative advantage

Submitted by ardie on Thu, 05/01/2008 - 12:33pm.

Paul A. Samuelson, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor emeritus at MIT has reassessed the advantages of free-trade. He concluded that is simplistic to assume, as many economists do, that free-trade is win-win. He suggested that at some point real losses from free-trade policies could exceed the benefits affecting, not just local industries but doing serious damage to the nation as a whole.

I agree with him. The assumptions about free-trade have been wrong. One troubling part of free-trade is the theory of "comparative advantage" which, by the way, is the foundation stone of free-trade. it basically says that two nations with certain advantages such as abundant labor, agriculture, etc., can trade with each other and will generally trade to their advantage which, in a word, is "fair-trade".

But what most Americans couldn't imagine is this: that U.S. free-traders would pack up and ship our nation's "advantage" to Latin America, Asia and the rest of the world. At present, our advantage is being, piece by piece, packed up and shipped offshore. This is dangerous for America because we are losing our comparative advantage.

We need fair-trade not free-trade. More importantly, we need to rebuild America though a system of tariffs that would pay for the greening of America thus creating a substantial manufacturing base that will make us energy independent and environmentally sound.

We also must scale back military spending--or raise taxes substantially on the wealthy since it is they who are the direct beneficiaries of the military (remember the WTC? we would not have gone to war if a terrorist blew up some worker's house on Main Street).

Right now the problem is the policy of free-trade. It isn't fair-trade because it ships off our comparative advantage to other countries, and forces the average American to survive on credit. By using feasible tariffs, we can rebuild America. The eminent economic historian, Paul Bairoch, said that free-trade policies leads to depressions whereas protectionism leads to recoveries.

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Good Contribution

Submitted by Coolasice on Thu, 05/01/2008 - 10:15am.
I believe this is the type of thinking that we need a lot more of. Thank you for the contribution. It is time to realize that historic US economic strength has come from a strong middle class with money to spend on global products. The brave new world must include green initiatives that put Americans to work doing profitable and important work. The new era must include government incentives through tax breaks and bold government spending to set up the infrastructure to support our electric car fleets, and make our buildings and homes energy efficient. Sounds expensive? It will be a fraction of the cost of the Iraq war - lets get it going and put our proud masses to work!
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Democratic Party is not the pro-labor party it was under FDR.

Submitted by anagitator on Thu, 05/01/2008 - 10:30pm.
Somewhere along the line the Democratic Party that used to un-apologetically represent the economic well being and welfare of the American worker changed. Instead of making that plank a Party priority it turned it into an almost unmentioned sideline. Perhaps the decline and loss of political power of organized labor was the core reason for the lack of interest of the politicians. That was too bad for America.

The new Democratic Party found more important issues to advance such as affirmative action, pro-choice, amnesty for illegals, crawling into bed with Wall St. and business interests, free trade, gun control, welfare for the non-working poor, etc.

It's no wonder that American labor has suffered as they no longer had an advocate. Even the Democratic Party President, Bill Clinton, promoted NAFTA. Both the Republican and Democratic Parties promote temp and permanent immigrant workers, with minimal border and interior enforcement of illegal labor, all in an effort to screw US labor out of fair compensation.

In the end it was no surprise that American labor left the Party and meandered politically looking for a Party that gave them what they needed and wanted. Things like gun rights and abortion and religion became more important to many just as Obama said. But Obama needs to understand that screwing Americans out of jobs and pay by encouraging more skilled and unskilled immigrants is inconsistent with a pro-labor stance.

If the Party ever develops a consistent stance that favors the workers of America, I believe that it will once again become the dominant political Party. But even Democratic politicians such as DLC still see labor as disposable and capitalists as their real clients. That's too bad for America and the Democratic Party, as true political balance is needed between capital and labor.

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