Economic Serfdom
November 12, 2008 by Bill Kumpe
Filed under News and Opinion
America is facing a 1929 style depression and it did not happen simply because the stock market crashed, the grossly inflated real estate market imploded and financial industry fell into the credit market black hole it had created for itself. The signs had been there for a long time. Every American airline of any size was operating in or just out of bankruptcy. American manufacturing jobs were streaming out of the country leaving no blue collar wage base to support the economy. American auto manufacturers were operating at or near bankruptcy before this all happened. And, America’s energy needs and energy policy simply could not be balanced without shipping much of the accumulated wealth of generations to foreign powers.
A few years ago, I taught a Bible study for Christian CEO’s. I used Larry Burkett’s Business by the Book as my textbook. I tried to teach them, among other things, that you have to pay your employees a living wage, not only because the Bible says so, but also because your employees and your fellow businessmen’s employees are the primary market for your own goods and services. If they can’t afford them then you have no market to sell to.
But, I could not disabuse these otherwise very smart executives of some very shortsighted attitudes toward their employees. Blinded by the short term numbers, many simply could not see that the GOP international free trade scheme could not work in the long run because there are other countries in the system that will not play by the rules. They will use slave or near slave labor to create cheap products to sell into your market while protecting their own. And, if you let them, they will even outsource your best service jobs and ship their unemployment problems to you to compete for the few remaining domestic jobs in your country.
Henry Ford was a controversial character. Sometimes on some issues he was just dead wrong. But, he understood the power and magic of the American economy better than any many living or dead to date. When his company was faced with a union problem and hot competition he took an unusual step. In a day when the average wage was less than three dollars per day he raised that of his workers to five. In a day when the average worker worked twelve hours per day he cut his workers workday to eight and ran three shifts around the clock to make up the difference. And, instead of continually raising prices on his product he continually strove to improve quality while lower price. The result was the American economic miracle that gave us the golden age of industrialism.
Henry Ford’s strategy worked because it was Biblically sound. He did not muzzle his ox and he treated his workers with economic respect. The result was that he created his own domestic market for his products and started the nation down a path toward the highest average standard of living on earth.
The American economy is a pyramid. The base of the pyramid is industrial workers. We no longer have that base. America imports its products now instead of making them. So, instead of investing in ourselves and our neighbors, we are supporting the base of other nation’s economies. Until American capital learns that the guy at the bottom of the pyramid is also the foundation of it, we are going to continue to enrich other nations while squandering decades of accumulated national wealth abroad.
The current American economic system is recipe for tyranny. As American jobs continue to be shipped abroad, chasing the lowest wages, the entire market for American and everyone else’s goods shrinks in America. We have been able to finance this imbalance until recently by spending the accumulated wealth of generations. But, that source of funds is now dry and the American lifestyle within one generation will look a lot like that of the nations we have shipped our jobs to. A few people will have become fabulously wealthy and the rest of the population will have become economic serfs.
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The Obama Campaign needs to be aplauded for taking the program of Dean and developing it into a huge machine. Forget that many people weren’t voting FOR Mr. Obama, rather they were voting AGAINST Mr. Bush. The fact remains that there are a great number of people energized in a way not seen since Bobby Kennedy preached a doctrine of tucking your tail between your legs and running away.
Obama has asked the question heard nearly 50 years ago, “Ask what you can do for your country.” Many people are lining up to do just that.
Of course history is filled with other examples of the exact same thing from Stalin to the Sandanistas. Hey, the Sandanistas taught people to read and write, they weren’t all bad. The STASI only asked you to inform the government if you knew someone who was doing bad things – they certainly couldn’t be bad either.
My point is this: The economy is in the toilet and no President can possibly spend enough money to satisfy those who are suffering. There is a large group of people who want to do something and see their man successful. It is a win-win situation for Mr. Obama.
We need to advertise, in a positive manner, solutions. We need to politely urge Mr. Obama’s programs be improved and point out “potential” pitfalls (to honest people that is called the TRUTH). We can’t rant about being conservatives as that shuts the door to conversation. We only need to show the foolish that we are right (in every sense of the term). In this manner intelligent people will listen to the arguments. Then and only then will the groundwork be laid for the next election cycle when people can suddenly realize that it is not a bad thing to vote to restrain (and later replace) Mr. Obama and his socialist supporters.
I’ve just uncovered the greatest oxymoron in the history of the internet.
“Biblically sound”
In the whole history of the internet, huh, GodSpeaking?! Wow!
Just FYI – those of us who actually remember what the world was like before the internet existed can assure you that the concept of “Biblically sound” has been around much longer than the internet – since even before it became chic to be an “atheist.”
The Great Depression was a 4-part whammy against the US. It started with the Stock Market falling (it was on the road to recovery when FDR became President), then the banks failed (regulations changed that and need to be reinforced), followed by the loss of jobs (hundreds of small and medium businesses failed due to lack of available funds) and finally the last whammy was the Dust Bowl, 100’s of farms failed and were destroyed.
I don’t see us heading into another Great Depression, the one that will come from Obama’s poor economic policies will be bad enough.
So many people are myopic, wearing blinders, have no recollection of history or law, and want to just watch ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN; and then go to the voting booth.
Jimmy Carter,with his Democrat ruled House and Senate created a law which basically told mortgage companies that they had to start lending to people who can’t afford the payments.
BillClinton with Democrat majority in both houses expanded that law to the effect that a person no longer had to qualify for the loan, make a down payment or pay closing costs.
A borrower could just sign, move in, not make any payments and the taxpayers had to bail out the lenders or they would have had to go into bankruptcy (and maybe just go out of business).
The same Democrats in both houses who prevented President Bush’s 17 attempts to fix the problem (before it could arrive at the breaking point that it eventually reached) are now trying their best to not allow mortgage companies to force the deadbeats to pay their agreed upon payments and not allow the lenders to foreclose so they can sell to people who will make payments.
This is why Wall Street suffered so badly.
Now, the Democrats want us to think the problem was golden parachutes and high executive pay. If one does the math, the result will be found that these amount to three tenths of one percent of the problem. 99.7% of the problem was brought about by the aforementioned Democrat Party Law(s).
People, pay attention to what your government is doing and remember history so we aren’t doomed to repeat mistakes.
Let’s not ever again elect a party to fix a problem that was caused by that very party.
Sorry this was so long, but it’s clear that most people have to find the truth in other places than from the dominant media culture. I hope this will help everyone.
To nikatas3.com
Just read your blog here. It would be great if everyone would read it with an open mind. I think some are not willing to accept truth, hence many might disagree with you. However, I’m glad you so eloquently wrote the plain commonsense truth in layman’s language about how reality works in terms of economics.
And I’m glad also that you alluded to the fact that our Constitution was written primarily to limit the size and scope of the federal government, and to protect us from the tyranny of the majority.
If only everybody would read the U.S. Constitution at least once a year. I would like to point out that it was written in plain English so that everyone can understand it. So squint your eye at anybody who utters the phrase “Constitutional scholar”.
I was surprised at all the folks coming out in support of AIG and their expensive trips to spas and resorts. What? They can’t go down to the local hotel and use the meeting room? Nooooo, got to spend all that taxpayer money that’s burning a hole in their pockets so they can ask for more.