The US is in a downward spiral. The corporatocracy which has been gutting the country for the last 30 years, is finally approaching the endgame. As they have continued to play US states against each other in their perpetual race to the bottom, they have now fully switched to the strategy of playing nation states against each other. The crazy ride accelerates with a press release by an "American Company".
Remember that technology thing which America was so good at ? We used to make tech goods, like chips, and the electronics which used chips. Just try and find a (non-defense) electronic manufacturer these days that doesn't build that sh*t in China. And when I say, that sh*t, I mean everything from the voice chips for greeting cards to serious high tech chips with billions of transistors, not too mention circuit boards and everything on them.
I seem to remember a time when our technological prowess was going to be the key to a healthy US economy. The US is in a lot of trouble, we are told by the bubble dwellers, because our idiot kids aren't good at science and math, at any rate, not as good as the Chinese or the Chinese and Russians
Those solar cells which are going to be part of the US recovery are going to manufactured in China. Believe it or not, that's not the bad news. The really bad news is that the research is going to be done there as well.
We’re obviously not giving up on the U.S.," Mr. Pinto said. "China needs more electricity. It’s as simple as that.
As simple as that. So long suckers. Meanwhile they'll continue to threaten to move those jobs overseas to obtain favors and incentives from the states, and then they'll move the jobs anyway.
Chip companies like Texas Instruments, Intel and many others are moving their design and development engineering to China and India as fast as they can. Part of this is perfectly understandable, that size of both markets is a siren song to them, but the ultimate goal is to have an American CEO, and a foreign company. New fabs will not be built here. New design centers will not be based here. New college graduates will not find work here.
Well so much for the hardware, but that's OK, there's still software, right ? It's the knowledge economy, you know, the 2000 bubble. Well as anybody who isn't living under a rock knows, that's gone to India. As someone who knows many people who are probably never going to work in software again, you had better believe that companies like IBM will continue to get contracts from the US government, favors from the US government and incentives from the US government to continue to move jobs overseas. Chances are good that IBM's headcount in India is now larger than it's headcount in the US, or soon will be.
Meanwhile the shrill call for Science and Mathematics education continues to be made because, you know, that's the key to America's future. Notice the prominent mention of defense companies having to "compete" with the private sector - not for long - if they even are. How exactly is a college graduate in engineering, mathematics, computer science or any other technical discipline going to get a job in the US of Wall Street, I mean other than by coming up with make believe mathematics ? Well I'm not really clear on that, but I'm sure the magical free market fairies will solve that problem. Imaginary numbers, meet the imaginary economy.
Just to add insult to injury, we rise to the education challenge with the lunatic changes to Texas textbooks, brought to you by the Theocracy. Math is a tool of Satan. Science teaches us that the earth wasn't created 6000 years ago.
Meanwhile the science and engineering graduates who find work in defense will design better and better ways to kill people instead of better and better ways to make this a better world. Interestingly they are going to have to do that with chips made in China. Has the defense dept. has thought of that ? Sure they have. There will always be a semi-permanent technology sector, all defense related, propped up by subsidies. Except when it's for the defense department, it's not a subsidy.
Sorry, but this employment dearth is a positive feedback loop. With a failing economy, how exactly are we going to be able to pay the taxes to keep government union employees employed. California is dismantling their state, do you really think it's going to stop there ? Who exactly is going to hire plumbers and electricians to work on their houses which are worth less than the mortgage ?
The bank bailout, the war on drugs, the subsidy of the dishonest and ethically bankrupt financial sector, the war on brown people. Massive expenditures of our future to preserve the American way of life. The race to the bottom continues. The winner is going to hit a brick wall of poverty.
Our "representatives" aide and abet the corporate powers, passing terrible laws because even if they get voted out of office they can go and work for their true employers. We continue to elect people who actively work against our self interest.
Hundreds of billions of dollars to "save" the economy, but nothing to promote it. Hundreds of billions of dollars to kill people but we argue about a few billion for healthcare. And really, I don't think the President gets it. He does not begrudge their success or wealth. Except you and I are guaranteeing their success and wealth through our tax dollars, just like some idiot localities subsidize stadiums for billionaire team owners. I mean I could have run GM into the ground, and I would have done it for 1/2 of what was paid to the former CEO. Meanwhile CEO's, objects of our envy, run companies into the ground and then walk away with 10s of millions of dollars. The zombies then return to run for governor so that they can inflict their capitalist idealogy on the rest of us.
Does the president really think that sinking $200 billion more dollars into Afghanistan is going to help us ? Really ?
The scaffolding is rusting, eroding the base we need to maintain our standard of living. Corporate citizens, enjoying all the rights and privileges of real citizens, accelerate the downward spiral, ensuring that those with too much acquire ever more.
We have stolen from the future and we will have nothing to show for it...