American Realistan

Financial blog columnist Michael Panzner wrote on Feb 20th, 2007: “Coincidentally or not, growing political discord between Democrats and Republicans, emblematic of a darkening social mood, seems to be shadowing the ongoing deterioration in the economy.”

That deterioration is only affecting a certain portion of the population, however - the statistical middle class, the workers of The United States of America.

(more…)

“There is no real sense of job security,” says Duke University Professor Gary Gereffi. “I think that’s a kind of anxiety we’re unfortunately starting to live with. The longer [a factory has] been in existence, the more vulnerable your job probably is,” Gereffi says.

The working class are called the statistical middle class due to their position on the income spectrum. Economic class models used by researchers like Dennis Gilbert or Thompson and Hickey estimate that roughly 53% of Americans are members of the working or lower classes. The majority of the statistical middle class enjoy relatively low job security, often needing two incomes to meet their needs. This makes such folks vulnerable to Middle class squeeze due to downsizing, competition from lower-paid foreign workers and contractors, and the elimination of unions. Does this sound like your situation? Not sure? Steve Daniels of WTVD, Raleigh NC, offers some important tips that’ll help you recognize if your job could be in jeopardy.

The situation is beginning to be noticed in the Congress, the last place problems seem to attract attention.

“Greed, in my humble opinion, will destroy America,” says Walter Jones, the Republican North Carolina Congressman who’s tired of hearing from his constituents who are losing their jobs, even those making those french fries he renamed freedom fries. At least those fast food jobs aren’t going to end up in Mexico.

In Reynosa, Mexico, there are 200 American factories employing nearly one hundred thousand people - ten Reynosinos for the price of one Tar Heel. Rochelle Richardson is losing her job at the Eaton factory in Johnston County to a factory in Reynosa. She says she understands why her factory is closing. “If I had to make a business decision like that and let 10 people do what one person does, why not?” Rochelle says.

The stock response to this is to return to school and get educated. Computer classes are a very popular course, but as a person who is involved with computers as a profession in the real world for thirty years, I can attest that things aren’t very rosy for us old timers. Dozens of us are Microsoft MCSE’s, yet we keep our current employment because the pay as an MCSE doesn’t match what we make now as industrial controller systems techs.

William Bedford of the Canada Free Press puts it thusly:

History teaches us that progress in the work place, while eliminating thousands of jobs, creates thousands of new ones. And human workers still will be needed to build, program and maintain those millions of robots that are heading our way. The term, artificial intelligence however would be better used to describe the eggheads who believe that they can teach computers to think for themselves.

The fact is, a computer, no matter how amazing it appears to be,
is still only a machine that any fool can render useless
simply by cutting off its power supply.

But that doesn’t stop workers from seeing more education as the way out as this sadder-but-wiser would-be computer programmer can attest. She ran up $22,157 in student loans for a certificate she has not been able to use, discovering that her computer skills weren’t good enough, even after obtaining extra schooling, to get an office job.

We’re going to be joined on the other side of the page break by readers from Blogcritics, so leave room for swelled heads and inflated egos. (more…)

The world is warning George W. Bush to ‘BACK OFF IRAN!!!’ before he gets hurt waging his increasingly expensive “International War On Terror” while neglecting the signs that he’s sowing the seeds of a much different kind of war with his domestic policies.This week, the Senate voted 94-3 to approve the increase in the minimum wage after Democrats and Republicans agreed to extend tax breaks for small businesses that would bear the cost of the higher wages. The cost to the U.S. Treasury of that and other tax benefits in the Senate measure would be $8.3 billion over 10 years, according to estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation.

And yet, these tax breaks aren’t necessary! Three out of four small business owners polled by Gallup in March 2006 believe a higher minimum wage would have no effect on them. In fact, 46% would favor an increase in the minimum wage, believing that a higher minimum wage would attract and retain better workers, improve the employment situation in their area, and is “the right thing to do” for their employees.

The partisan hype against the minimum-wage increase goes against a whole raft of US government data. For example, the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the majority of workers who would see their wages rise under the Democratic proposal are not part-time workers earning the current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour.

(more…)

I have been an opponent up to now to the idea that George W. Bush should face impeachment, but not for the reasons one might think. I happen to believe he and his administration deserve impeachment. But for impeachment to be a viable option, one has to have clear evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors in order for such an effort to be successful. It would take clear evidence to get Republicans off their positions of blind support for a man who is attempting to destroy America in order to save it from competition from other nations.

I’m old enough to remember Watergate. I remember how long it took to accumulate enough evidence of Richard Nixon’s violations of the Constitution so that even his most loyal defenders could no longer ignore them. I remember reading the Chicago Tribune editorial which convinced Nixon that he had lost his battle to retain power. It took well over a year, and when that time came, there was no doubt that Nixon would have been impeached - and convicted. At least Nixon chose to submit to the inevitable and resign.

We are in that phase today concerning the many crimes of George W. Bush. All one has to do is look at how he attempts to rule as if he were all three Constitutionally-defined branches of the government rolled into one.

(more…)

A reader didn’t like my taking Jerry Ford to task for pardoning Richard Nixon before Watergate could be properly investigated:

The sad truth is that both political parties have been bought and paid for many times over. Get a quick start on what you obviously never learned in school about the government of your native land and how it came to be. Read: “The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America” by Prof. Gary B. Nash of UCLA. Consider the exercise due pennance [sic] for being gullible enough to believe the morons who taught you history, civics, etc., and not do some of your own reading and fact finding.

Wake up and smell the coffee…

Red Barron, Vienna, VA

There is only one correct response to offer. To quote a well-known social philosopher of the late 1970’s:

“EX-CUUUUUUUUUUUUUSE ME!”

(more…)

There are plenty of Americans who have way too many dollars and far too little sense.

There has been a great deal of enthusiasm generated lately by folks like these, supporters of personally-lucrative Bush economic policies, due to the current high stock index prices. But even these folks can’t hide from the looming problems under what good economic news there is.

Take this article from The Business Ledger of Naperville, Illinois:

The U.S. economic outlook for 2007 is solid, despite the myriad challenges presented by rising energy and health care costs, expensive foreign wars and a lackluster housing market, said a panel of experts. Employment costs will go up as well.

But foreign analysis of the US economy isn’t so rosy as the Happy Talkers want us to think:

Economic growth in the US, the world’s largest energy consumer, may slow next year because of lower consumer spending and rising unemployment, said Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s largest bank.

So which report is correct?

(more…)

Recent business news has been loudly touting the rising stock indices as proof that the American economy is really fine and doing swell. And yet, if one chooses to look beyond the headlines, there are signs that everything isn’t as it seems on first glance.

The dollar is dropping relative to most of the world’s currencies, and Bush adminstration officials are over in China hoping to relieve some of that downward pressure. Unfortunately, the Bush administration isn’t the irresistable force they like to believe they are. They have run full steam into the Chinese immovable object.

But as it is the beginning of the real holiday season at the end of this week, the parties have already begun - and some have much to celebrate. They are so busy doing so that they are blind to the bigger picture, which is that where we are headed is going to put us outside the boundaries of polite concern on the part of other societies.

This is a long post, so refill your holiday drink of choice and venture onward.

“It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
- Henry Ford

(more…)

The body of Augusto Pinochet is barely cool, and the recounting of his debatable life is just heating up.

John O’Sullivan, a Hudson Institute senior fellow, praises Pinochet, proclaiming that “if successful economic transformation could justify political mass murder … then Pinochet should be celebrated without reserve as the savior of his country”.

There is celebration in Chile, but it isn’t over being “saved” by Pinochet! Dave Zirin of the LA Times reports that a Chilean friend emailed him shortly after the dictator’s demise, saying, “In Chile, we have always known the truth about this evil man. It does my heart well that jail was his immediate future, and that he knew it.”

Greg Palast provides the details of Pinochet’s damage to the country he was “saving”:

The claim that General Pinochet begat an economic powerhouse was one of those utterances whose truth rested entirely on its repetition.

Like the common Republican claims of the rash acts of Reagan and Dubya being so good for the American nation!

(more…)

A comment posted by reader Dennis Francis on my blog entry Descending Broke Buck Mountain serves as the skeleton for this post. His comments are in italics. Article excerpts are blockquotes.

The falling dollar is great for some.

[T]he big money, the “juice” as street people used to say, comes from squeezing the orange of American society for more work, more production and tax money.

Show me the Republican or Democratic leader who says … “My corporate campaign contributions come from people whose every action is directed at extracting two things from you, my dear voter: Your money and the cheapest possible labor you can be driven to provide. The absolute cheapest possible payment to you for the hours of your life consumed by work, which, depending upon the degree of your delusion, is called either a job or an exciting career.”

The excitement comes from being Just Over Broke all the time.

(more…)

For all of the past bragging the Bush Administration of its economic policies over the last six years, one would think those boasts alone would be a sign of prosperity. And yet, if one bothers to look about, there is no evidence to support their specious claims.

For instance, housing construction is way down, as measured by both construction starts and building permit applications. Even with lower sales prices and interest rates being offered, there remain near-record sales cancellations, exacerbating an already-high unsold housing inventory.

In addition, rising foreclosures are inhibiting any corrections the industry might exercise to limit their exposure to the buffeting economic winds. The worst example of this is Ohio, where one in ten high-risk mortgages are in default, and Cleveland alone has a two-year supply of unsold homes.

This surfeit of American Dream castles in Ohio is attributed to the large number of high-wage manufacturing jobs lost there. Similar conditions exist in the 37 other states reporting housing slumps.

Is it any wonder that retailers are already expressing worries of a poor holiday sales season by slashing prices - and profits?

Some prosperity!

(more…)