A tale of two economies

Its the Military-Industrial-Government complex vs the Main Street--Taxpayer-Internet association. In one corner we have large corporations who feed off both military and civilian government contracts.  In the other corner we have small Mom and Pop shops that get squeezed out by franchises that have bargaining and pricing advantage and are simultaneously responsible for the homogenization of America and now the world.

They have the guns but we have the numbers. They have the funds but we have the numbers. They have the government but we have the numbers. They own the means of production but we have the numbers. Get the picture?  (I am all in favor of a weaponless society, but not while the people running the show get to keep their guns.  I am all in favor of socialized medicine, but it should not be run by the government or large corporations.)

By taking any country and making it part of globalization they can sell ice to eskimos and then sell derivatives on them.  They take it piece by piece for the bigger countries or all at once for the smaller ones. First start with outsourcing. What happens is that a large corporation will outsource to take advantage of cheap labor. They make more profit and the production overseas is still counted in our GDP, but the labor is not, so our productivity is increased as well. This is another reason why the stock market can go up while we still lose jobs.

The result is we lose jobs and skills as well as tax offsets from local factories. The displaced workers must now find work in unskilled labor jobs at the local super franchise. The large corporation now has more money to buy more lobbying power to further solidify their position. One thing they will buy is legislation to make it harder and harder for smaller companies to compete, thus squeezing them further out of the competition. The countries that supply the labor also lose out because they get paid pennies on the dollar for their labor and become the exploited while they lose local skills and trade them in for learning to speak English, thus making both groups dependent on each other.  Why does a big bank need to outsource a minimum wage call center job to India when the unemployed bank customer in middle America buys produce from South America while there is local farmland that lays fallow?

Control the oil and you'll control the nations; control the food and you'll control the people.' -- Henry Kissinger (1970)

Next Wall St. steps in and takes the company public or sells its' shares so it can raise cheap funds in order to expand further. In the competition for capital, small business again gets shut out. Wall ST. profits and sells the stocks to Main St. while making sure the big players keep most of the profits in the form of bonuses and dividend payments. Take a look at insider trading lately. It has been decidedly to the sell side.

Aside: Have you ever wondered why common shareholders are at the low end of the totem pole in the case of a bankruptcy? The order is employees, creditors, bond holders, preferred shareholders and then last is common shareholders. Common shareholders also get the least dividend payments in exchange for taking this highest risk. So I ask you why you would ever want to buy common stock?

As this is all going on the government makes the taxpayer bail out the big companies and at the same time taxes labor more heavily than it taxes investment income. Not to mention the numerous loopholes for the mega-rich. I recently heard Warren Buffet comment on how his tax rate is lower than his secretary's. Replace the whole tax system with a consumption based tax and you could raise the same money with a fraction of the paperwork. The existing system benefits corporate America by penalizing small business and labor yet again.  Implement this new tax system and middle America would recover almost overnight.

So the taxpayer supports the corporate America imperialism with tax money while they profit handsomely. If you have never read Smedley Butler I suggest you do. Part of those profits flow back into Congress via lobbying and straight-forward bribery. Check out the net worth of your congressman. Chances are it has increased dramatically since they arrived in Washington.

So now we use oil-based energy to transport goods around the world when we can produce them locally. The corporations that do so are aided by global wage differentials, onerous regulations, preferential access to capital and corrupt government in the form of monetary and fiscal policies.

I recently found designs for a gravity based electricity generator. If the energy companies really spent billions on renewable energy research like they say, I doubt very seriously if we would still be using the very same oil-based energy that we do today.

GM should have been turned into a solar-cell and wind generator manufacturer. I am sure the oil lobby had something to say about that. As it stands many parts that go into 'American' cars come from overseas anyway, so even if you buy American you are still buying foreign and it counts towards our GDP.

We need to become independent in the areas of food and energy. Everybody needs to do their part. Big companies will not allow a global initiative beyond the lip service level to get off fossil fuels or foreign produce. During WWII victory gardens accounted for over 40% of produce. I suggest that everyone grows at least some of their own food or if you are unemployed in an area with farmland then learn to be a farmer. I further suggest that we all create some renewable energy on our own from wind or sun. I will let you know how the gravity based generator works out after I build a mock-up and test it for myself. Stop buying common stocks, put your money in a local bank and vote any incumbent out of office that works for corporations over citizens.