November 21, 2008
PJB: Who Killed Detroit?
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Who killed the U.S. auto industry?
To hear the media tell it, arrogant corporate chiefs failed to foresee the demand for small, fuel-efficient cars and made gas-guzzling road-hog SUVs no one wanted, while the clever, far-sighted Japanese, Germans and Koreans prepared and built for the future.
I dissent. What killed Detroit was Washington, the government of the United States, politicians, journalists and muckrakers who have long harbored a deep animus against the manufacturing class that ran the smokestack industries that won World War II.
As far back as the 1950s, an intellectual elite that produces mostly methane had its knives out for the auto industry of which Ike’s treasury secretary, ex-GM chief Charles Wilson, had boasted, “What’s good for America is good for General Motors, and vice versa.”
“Engine Charlie” was relentlessly mocked, even in Al Capp’s L’il Abner cartoon strip, where a bloviating “General Bullmoose” had as his motto, “What’s good for Bullmoose is good for America!”
How did Big Government do in the U.S. auto industry?
Washington imposed a minimum wage higher than the average wage in war-devastated Germany and Japan. The Feds ordered that U.S. plants be made the healthiest and safest worksites in the world, creating OSHA to see to it. It enacted civil rights laws to ensure the labor force reflected our diversity. Environmental laws came next, to ensure U.S. factories became the most pollution-free on earth.
It then clamped fuel efficiency standards on the entire U.S. car fleet.
Next, Washington imposed a corporate tax rate of 35 percent, raking off another 15 percent of autoworkers’ wages in Social Security payroll taxes
State governments imposed income and sales taxes, and local governments property taxes to subsidize services and schools.
The United Auto Workers struck repeatedly to win the highest wages and most generous benefits on earth — vacations, holidays, work breaks, health care, pensions — for workers and their families, and retirees.
Now there is nothing wrong with making U.S. plants the cleanest and safest on earth or having U.S. autoworkers the highest-paid wage earners.
That is the dream, what we all wanted for America.
And under the 14th Amendment, GM, Ford and Chrysler had to obey the same U.S. laws and pay at the same tax rates. Outside the United States, however, there was and is no equality of standards or taxes.
Thus when America was thrust into the Global Economy, GM and Ford had to compete with cars made overseas in factories in postwar Japan and Germany, then Korea, where health and safety standards were much lower, wages were a fraction of those paid U.S. workers, and taxes were and are often forgiven on exports to the United States.
All three nations built “export-driven” economies.
The Beetle and early Japanese imports were made in factories where wages were far beneath U.S. wages and working conditions would have gotten U.S. auto executives sent to prison.
The competition was manifestly unfair, like forcing Secretariat to carry 100 pounds in his saddlebags in the Derby.
Japan, China and South Korea do not believe in free trade as we understand it. To us, they are our “trading partners.” To them, the relationship is not like that of Evans & Novak or Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It is not even like the Redskins and Cowboys. For the Cowboys only want to defeat the Redskins. They do not want to put their franchise out of business and end the competition — as the Japanese did to our TV industry by dumping Sonys here until they killed it.
While we think the Global Economy is about what is best for the consumer, they think about what is best for the nation.
Like Alexander Hamilton, they understand that manufacturing is the key to national power. And they manipulate currencies, grant tax rebates to their exporters and thieve our technology to win. Last year, as trade expert Bill Hawkins writes, South Korea exported 700,000 cars to us, while importing 5,000 cars from us.
That’s Asia’s idea of free trade.
How has this Global Economy profited or prospered America?
In the 1950s, we made all our own toys, clothes, shoes, bikes, furniture, motorcycles, cars, cameras, telephones, TVs, etc. You name it. We made it.
Are we better off now that these things are made by foreigners? Are we better off now that we have ceased to be self-sufficient? Are we better off now that the real wages of our workers and median income of our families no longer grow as they once did? Are we better off now that manufacturing, for the first time in U.S. history, employs fewer workers than government?
We no longer build commercial ships. We have but one airplane company, and it outsources. China produces our computers. And if GM goes Chapter 11, America will soon be out of the auto business.
Our politicians and pundits may not understand what is going on. Historians will have no problem explaining the decline and fall of the Americans.
Tags: Economy, Globalism, Trade
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FINALLY, after reading countless journalists someone who has a sense of history and knows what he is talking about! Kudos Pat! This is not just a Big 3 problem; it’s an American problem. since the Great Depression we as Americans led the world in bringing UP both our working and living standards to the highest in the world. Sadly, the current generation of Americans are vilifying that policy. Suddenly companies which were exceedingly generous ansd humane are exemplified as examplies of “inefficiency” and even “greed”. So we have to head back down, first to the levels of the foreign transplants who deliberatly located in the historically poorer South to take advantage of economic conditions such that they are overjoyed to work for relative penies on the dollar, after first being subsidized by local corporate welfare. What’s next? Wages/benefits to that of Mexico, Vietnam, India and China? We should be trying to pull everyone UP, not going DOWN. What’s happened to this once-great, proud and powerul country? I agree, we need to even the playing-field. We sent the first man to the moon and we build products second to none when necessary. Washington has shirked it’s obligations to the American people for decades. That’s where the real fault lies.
Mr Pat, I have lived and worked in the time of declining manufacturing. In twenty years, 8 jobs, 6 layoffs, declining wages, slipping benefits, no career. Lou Dobbs put a name to it 2 yrs ago - The War on the Middle Class.The economics that I was taught in college is that the only true wealth is land. Only God can make land. After that is a form of wealth that can be traded - something that is made. People make things. If a country abdicates its ability to make the essentials of human requirement, and money is not one of them, we are a doomed people because we have nothing left to trade but the land. Servicing paper has no intrinsic value. The movement to the service economy is the problem.
The comments of the other guest on Hardball on Thur 11.21 seriously annoyed me. He believed that it is better to have 250 million people shop at Walmart and buy used cars than to have prosperous citizens who can afford the products he can buy. This person is so very much out of touch with the real economy. He is the elitist, a man who would surely walk if he were obliged to fix his own Toyota.
I like the methane joke. But seriously Pat, your point is that the U.S. needs to protect its industries, which is the opposite of free trade, right? If we do what you suggest while the rest of the world trades freely, won’t we soon become just a mediocre nation? Before we elected Barack Obama, it appeared that the United States had positioned itself to be the admin department of the world, where all products for all nations would be produced by countries that could do it in the least expensive and most efficient way. Along with that plan, our military was set up to maintain order for this worldwide economic system. English was becoming entrenched as the international language. Judeo-Christian values were promoted as the moral authority for the world community. Unfortunately, we over-extended ourselves with a foreign war by underestimating the willingness of the opposing political party to take down the Republican administration at whatever cost. The truth is that democracy itself, which we successfully relied upon to help us win the Cold War, is an inadequate system of government. It’s failings make us weak and unable to maintain the resolve that we need in dealing with the current crises of Islamic expansion and domestic greed.
Relative to the rest of the world, we’re no weaker than any other nation. Look at the problems and limitations of the other nations. If W and HW had the gonads to do it, they would find a way to keep control of the reins of power, and not let our culture evaporate, which is what it’s about to do.
Thomas Friedman was onto something when he mentioned in his article Steve Jobs as a possible “car czar” for US auto industry. I’m a fan of Mr.Buchanan but I have to respectfully disagree with the premise of his argument. I live in Korea and as an average consumer, I can tell you with sincerity that Americans do NOT make cars that Koreans want; that’s a fact. Maybe American cars are of the same or higher quality compared to German/Japanese counterparts. Maybe it’s the image problem. But one thing is clear. The Korean government’s tax or trade policy is NOT stopping Korean consumers from buying foreign cars; if you don’t believe me, just come to Seoul and see for yourself. You will find plenty of Mercedez, BMW, Lexus, Accord, Infinity, etc. but no so many American brands on the streets of Seoul. The foreign car business is only growing despite the fact that foreign cars are more expensive than Korean-made cars and Koreans’ appetite for foreign cars is only increasing. Owning a foreign car used to be a priviledge for the very rich but not any more as the price has become quite competitive.
Going back to Steve Job’s success, do you think the success of Apple’s iPod and iTunes is largely due to the high technological barrier? Generic MP3 players have been a dime a dozen for the last few years but Apple has managed to become the most popular, de facto standard in digital music business with an innovative and imaginative approach. Apple does not have special technology that makes their products one of a kind in the entire world. It’s their brand image and fresh approach to the already saturated market. Blaming Big Government or unfair free trade rules is a big cop-out and nothing but a sad excuse for the demise of US auto industry. Instead of fighting the stricter fuel efficiency regulations, Big 3s should have embraced them and made cars that well exceed the standards. Fuel efficiency rules are there for a good reason; because it makes sense to make efficient cars!! The ugly truth is that it’s the complacency of the Big 3s that has effetively killed the US auto industry.
Mr. Buchanan is correct in this indepth analysis of problems facing the Domestic Auto Industry. I would like to add a few observations as well:
The US Consumer and US Government ignore, and turn a cold shoulder, to GM at their own peril. No other company in the history of the United States has provided more substantial, concrete job opportunities and Automotive Innovations to American citizens, than GM. It was the collective bargaining between the UAW and the US Auto companies that raised the standard of living for our entire Country and firmly established a solid Middle-Class where non-upper-class children could gain a college education and enjoy career opportunities unknown by their parents. So much, from Automotive Suppliers, Steel Mills, Retailers, Restaurants, Healthcare, Real Estate, and even Homeland Security are riding on the coat tails of General Motors.
It is unconscionable the American consumers would harden their hearts and turn their backs on those who raised the American “standard of living”. It seems that many rich folks would prefer that the rest of us are forced to live as wage slaves on a substandard, minimum wage income. Maybe we can all work for Hollywood? (Note: You can’t eat Entertainment). Those in the Whitehouse and some in Congress would deal a Deathblow to what is left of a hobbling US Manufacturing base, while propping up the same Financial Institutions largely responsible for our current economic debacle. We will all suffer if that happens. I guess that is okay to some, maybe China or India will fill the void, with 16 hour work days for a Buck…
How to become rich.
Find out what people want and are willing buy.
Produce/manufacture it using the cheapest labour and cost anywhere.
Sell it to anyone anywhere for the greatest profit.
Avoid paying tax.
Forget, Country, race, religion, flag, these will slow you down.
With your wealth you will gain influence, and people will look up to you.
You are now free to enjoy your life.
The truly amazing thing about this commentary is that it is SO OBVIOUS, yet the people’s government is so blind to it… “There is none more blinder that he who will not see.”
In addition to what Pat states, let us not forget that the wicked and greedy oil brokers artificially bid up their pricing of barrels of oil to almost $145.00 per barrel. They used every excuse under the sun , i.e. the prospect of damaging hurricanes in the gulf, oversupplies, undersupplies, pipeline possible fires, etc. This was a test of the market to see where the breaking point was. It broke at about $3.75 per gallon of gasoline and helped propel this recession and severely curtailed sales of our U.S. vehicles. They helped to break the back of the middle class. Where was government intervention years ago when a lot of us were waiting on line for hours in the gas lines of the late 70’s. They thought oil was forever going to remain at $20. Per barrel? They asked for more fuel efficient cars but allowed years for experimentation to raise the fuel mileage. They even allowed misleading fuel efficiently numbers to be a part of the sticker information on the vehicles until recently.
The American public has been duped (to put it mildly) into believing that most manufacturing would be better off overseas to produce lower prices for consumers. This was a ploy to keep salaries down for the middle class. After all, if they could buy cheap then modest raises would be all that would be necessary.
They didn’t figure or care, about replacement jobs for the masses. All those poor “slobs” who used their muscles instead of brains to propel this country could simply get retrained (at any age). They could work in customer service for less than half the wages, restaurants for tips, housecleaners and the like if they weren’t willing or had the means to go back to college, vocational schools or get specific degrees for advancement. The fact that they would get a job was all that was important to the government and the corporations that abandoned them regardless of their incomes. The unemployment rates was all that mattered not the ability to earn similar wages that were lost or the quality of life they would leave behind.
There should have been some other way to craft the changeovers with new jobs being introduced and ready for the displaced to enter, free training for displaced workers to acquire equal wages for the future and to prosper. If they had to have a global economy why weren’t they ready for it for our workers?
There are many other factors which we all know about causing our current financial problems. No one is denying that Now, even the best economic majors and financial guru’s all over the world are scratching their heads.
In the meantime, we are being brought to slaughter by those who held our trust and the balance of our economy and way of life in the small of their hands. God Bless Their Hearts!!!!!
The level of regulation on American small, medium, and large business has grown to heights that simply suffocate the ability to do business and make a reasonable profit from it.
Startups especially are overwhelmed trying to figure out how to meet the tombs of regulations necessary to simply begin operating while large business is placed at a competitive disadvantage with foreign competitors literally forcing many of them to act against the national interest and the interest of the American worker but in the interest of their shareholders by offshoring, outsourcing, and insourcing.
Yet these same government organs that engage in overregulating small, medium, and large retail and manufacturing business ventures in this country, based on dubious assertions and an almost maternal desire for zero risk at any cost, have no problem mismanaging the economy and allowing paper finance bubbles to form to prop up an economy that’s failing, in part, due to the overregulation in the other arenas.
A lot of changes need to be made but don’t expect the right changes to be made anytime soon. That would be asking too much of duly elected representatives that are politicians by trade not business people and really have no idea how to fix them.
Pat,
Your column is spot on. However, looking back at the 1950’s for German-made cars and the 1960’s for Japanese-built autos, they were pieces of junk compared to Detroit’s products. But the exporters learned quickly and began building cars above American standards. It was the same with the toys you mentioned. Japanese toys in the 1950’s, when I was a lad, were junk made from recycled tin cans. Again, there came a quick improvement.
As you said, however, the main problem that faced the U.S. auto industry was Uncle Sam. Even the UAW was doing its best to help its union brothers and sisters, but that didn’t mean the U.S. motor vehicle companies had to give in to its every demand. Uncle Sugar, on the other hand, could enforce its demands in the courts.
Remember-
Eisenhower administration disbursed production around the country, no matter the cost, to protect against a nuclear strike on Detroit.
Michigan has been a net tax outflow state forever. Roads throughout the country have been built with 90% federal funds = Michigan and other manufacturing state Taxes. At the same time many in congress brag about how they have been able to bring home more than is sent.
Pat is right. Waiting to hear his practical suggestions on next steps.
We should allow tariff-free access to our markets only on products from countries that buy enough American goods and services to balance trade. To do that we need a trade-balancing tariff on imports from any country with which we have a trade deficit. The trade-balancing tariff on imports from a specific country would be proportional to our trade deficit with that country. That will provide an incentive for foreign countries to buy more American products in order to gain tariff-free access to our consumers.
Revenue collected from the trade-balancing tariff should be offset by a reduction in personal income tax to give Americans more purchasing power.
I have been pushing this idea for many years, but it has fallen on deaf ears. Now may be the time for it to find favor with a Congress that desperately needs a way to save our economy.
Free trade agreements work fine with countries like Germany, England, japan and Canada which have close to the same standard of living. They do not work with third world and communist countries. As the traiter Dubya leaves office he is pushing another trade agreement with Columbia. I believe he should be tried and convicted of treason and shot!!! We must also look at what welfare and disability entitlements have done to our manufacturing base with the great number of people that would rather sit on their arse and collect a check then make a differance on whether or not this country survives and prospers in the future. How many times have I seen this in the supermarket checkout as I struggle to pay for my peanut butter, jelly and bread with cash. I see a morbidly obese person paying for their steaks and deli cakes with a food stamp card. This is the fruits of the Great society that LBJ invisioned and forced down this countries throat. If we all pull our own weight the load we have to pull is small, but if the working person has to pull the weight of a bunch of dead beats the burdon is too great and the whole system will crash like is happening now!!!!
Americans across this country are keenly aware of the destructive power of globalism. It is tearing this nation to shreds and disemboweling us of our sovereignty; we, the patient have been agonizing for over ten years now in an ‘emergency’ ward devoid of physicians.
The Congress is deliberately deaf when it comes to shutting down globalism. The globalists grease their palms and their mission is to continue the status quo. Meanwhile the MSM activates their mind numbing mantra of, “globalism is here to stay, it cannot be stopped..”
Strangely, more than 80% of all Americans do not want it — WHY is it that we cannot remove these deadbeats from Congress and elect a body that is truly representative of The People?
“Stated bluntly, the Aztlan Strategy entails the end of the United States as a sovereign, self-sufficient, independent republic, the passing away of the American nation. They are coming to conquer us.
– State of Emergency”
It is part of the purpose and plan of the Kahal.
From THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION by Vladimir Moss
http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/downloads/74_THE_RUSSIAN_REVOLUTION_1.pdf
Ignatiev’s reference to the kahal organization was especially emphasized
by religious leaders, such as Archbishop Nicanor of Odessa and Kherson,
who said in 1890: “Religion is the basis of the powerful Jewish spirit. The
more or less secret-open religious organisation of the kahal is that mighty,
many-cylindered machine which moves the millions of Jews to secretly
planned ends. Only a blind man could not see how terrible and threatening is
this power! It is striving for nothing less than the enslavement of the world!…
In the last century it has had horrific successes by relying on European
liberalism, on equality before the law, etc. It is mixing up people of other
faiths more and more closely, while it rules its own people like a machine. All
the Jews are in essence like one man. We reason in a liberal way whether it is
useful or harmful to ban bazaars on feast-days. But the secret Jewish power
says to its own people: ‘Don’t you dare! Honour the Sabbath! Honour the law
of your fathers! The law gives life and power to Jewry!’ And look: not a single
Jew dares to go out on Saturday from Nikolaev to Kherson or Odessa. The
railway trains are empty, while the steamer services between these great cities
stop completely. It is strange and offensive for the Christian people and such
a great Kingdom as ours! But what a foreign power! And how bold and
decisive it is. This is a religious power coming from the religious organisation
of the kahal.”22
22 Archbishop Nicanor, in Fomin and Fomina, op. cit., vol. I, p. 351.
Page 17
________________________________________________
It hasn’t gone away.
Maurice Pinay Blog: Rubashkins Required “Noahide Law” Training for Workers they Abused and Defrauded
http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2008/11/rubashkin-shysters-required-noahide-law.html
“Codfish” is too busy counting his pennies since Europe is in recession. I wonder if they will have bread lines in the UK?
Frankenstein,
yes we are entering a recession, thanks to greedy, criminal, corporate, grab what you can Uncle Sam, now hated by just about everybody.
But your fall will be greater and harder, than ours, I promise you.
Your auto industry is finished, and many more financial institutions are going under.
Every day thousands loose their jobs and homes and health care.
Millions face the soup lines, “brother can you spare a dime” And fortress America is in decline, socially and financially .
Do not gloat about “GREATER EUROPA”, we know how to survive, without you.
US global dominance ’set to wane’
The US will face more competition at the top of a multi-polar global system
US economic, military and political dominance is likely to decline over the next two decades, according to a new US intelligence report on global trends.
The National Intelligence Council (NIC) predicts China, India and Russia will increasingly challenge US influence.
It also says the dollar may no longer be the world’s major currency, and food and water shortages will fuel conflict
Keep printing dollars, the ones with the pyramid and eye, and you can use them for tissues later.
You have caused global turmoil and you will pay, dearly.
It sure looks like someone cooked the goose who laid the golden egg.
Now GM can join the rest of America in the unemployment line. Hmmm isn’t globalization great in it’s fanatical race to the bottom!
Maybe sometime soon we’ll all be driving mules? Let’s see that solves the energy problem, pollution, global warming, etc. but if the smell don’t kill ya maybe the mule jams will?
Let me get this right. Asians are the Hamiltonians today whereas Americans have become the Gladstone-ians.
The issues are very complex. It’s as though US traded economics for politics with nations like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, etc. They had to be political geishas or shoeshine boys to America in return for access to American markets. From the Asian perspective, US has gotten a pretty good deal. Yes, Asians made good money but have had to forsake political independence and true national sovereignty. Politically and military, they’ve been America’s vassal states–though it must be said US has been a generous master. So, Asians think that since they’ve kowtowed to the political demands of Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam must give them some goodies–access to US markets.
Also, it must be said that US was, for much of the postwar era, in the position to be generous whereas Asian economies were not. Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are wholly dependent on foreign trade, being severely limited when it comes to land, resources, and increasingly, demographics.
China is a special case. China, since the communist takeover, has never been a political vassal or junior partner of the US. US has had NO obligation to do favors for China. South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan had to swallow their national pride and vote with US 90% at the UN; politically and militarily, they’ve been America’s bitches. Japan and South Korea still have US troops stationed there–and Japan has to foot the bill for this foreign occupation in Okinawa. Taiwan knows it’s vulnerable without US support.
But, China is politically and militarily 100% independent and assertive. Until the rise of Deng, China has been an enemy or, at most, a suspcious partner–after Nixon met with Mao. So, what was the reasoning behind promoting close economic ties with China? Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan had to politically kiss Uncle Sam’s ass in order to win economic benefits. China never kissed Uncle Sam’s ass. During most of the Mao era, China had tried to kick Uncle Sam’s ass. China stopped US in the Korean War, and Chinese aid was crucial in helping North Vietnamese oust Americans out of South Vietnam and in helping Khmer Rouge to drive out US backed Lon Nol government in Cambodia.
There is no simple reason for America’s China Policy. There is the missionary ideal of America–perhaps best dramatized in John Hersey’s great novel “The Call”. Many Americans–even or especially secular Americans–still have this missionary zeal of converting the whole world to the American way of life–and what a prize China is(and the contrasts seem wonderful on the surface: US the young nation, China the ancient nation. US, vibrant and enterprising, and China, wise and civilized, etc, etc. Reality, of course, is quite something else!) Many Americans have had an overtly romantic view of China. Such folks have pretty much dominated China studies in the top universities. During the Mao era, they apologized for communism. During the Deng era, they championed the reforms. And today, many still remain positive… though a good number have turned against China due its embrace of ultra-capitalism, anathema to the Left who comprise most China experts.
There is also the economic factor, the idea of China as a vast new market for US goods. But, due to a combination of Chinese government policy and Chinese consumer preference/affordability, most Chinese are buying homemade products.
And, there is also the politico-economic factor arguing that China will become tamer as its economy becomes more integrated with that of the First World. US may lose manufacturing jobs to China, but China’s dependence on the US market forces it to be far more amenable to international standards–supposedly dominated by the US.
It could be argued that the only thing that’s maintaining the current leadership in power in China is economic performance. If the economy goes, the government will fall. So, if the Chinese economy depends heavily on US markets, the Chinese government will be far less likely to do something reckless or antagonistic to American interests.
There is some truth to this, but not enough. For one, there really is no unified International Order. Despite the wishes of some Western elites to create a transnational order, there is much bickering between US and Europe, Europe and Russia, Russia and America, North America and Latin America, etc, etc. Even America’s allies are not always with America. Just consider Canada’s relations with Cuba! So, China knows it can play nation against nation, etc. China has also mastered using free trade abroad while maintaining mercantilism at home. In Africa, Middle East, and Latin America, Chinese come as free traders. But, their home market is mercantilist.
And, we mustn’t discount the Jewish factor. Jews love free trade because it’s a great boon to Jewish power and wealth. Jewish wealth is less ROOTEd than the wealth of other people. Japanese elite feels a close connection to the Japanese land and people. German elite feels a close connection to German land and people. Chinese elite feels a close connection to Chinese land and peole. French elite feels a close connection to the French land and people. Within such national economic models, Jews feel like strangers. Every people feel more comfortable being led by an elite made up of their own kind. Since Jews are minorities in all nations except Israel, it’s not in their interest to promote the idea of a national economy. This is why American Jews are both for free trade and against Asian power. They are for free trade because it allows them to trade all over the world and accumulate great wealth. But, they against Asian nations because Asian nations represent homogeneity, unity of elite and people within fixed borders, strong bonds of race and heritage. American Jews are for free trade with Japan and China, but opposed to political/cultural aspects of both nations.
No sector is as free roaming as the finance, hightech, and communications–at which Jews excel–, and free trade has been a great boon to the Jews–and to Asian Indians whose elite share a similar mindset with the Jews. India, due to its diversity and the British-influenced cosmopolitanism of its elite, is neither like the US nor like other Asian nations. If nations like China and Japan have unity/homogeneity between the leaders and the led, the Indian elite have traditionally felt contempt or disdain of its lower castes. For this reason, many of the Indian elite feel closer with their ‘brahmin’ counterparts in other nations–urban elites of Europe and US–than with their own people. This may be why New Republic loves India–or the Indian elite–while feels hatred for China(even while calling for more free trade with China).
As for who killed Detroit, there are too many culprits. Part of the problem is Detroit is… well, Detroit. Not just the auto industry but just about every industry failed in that city. Why? For the same reason that Zimbabwe and Haiti are basketcases.
But, it’s also true that too many American workers grew lax in the postwar era. Buchanan is right that American workers never had it so good as in the late 40s, 50s, and early 60s. But, this led to a resting-on-laurels mentality. Yes, there was growing problem of foreign competition, but too many Americans began to take things for granted. We need only to look at American education. What happened? We have the infrastructure and faculties but look at the achievements–or lack thereof–of native born students when compared to the achievements of immigrants(at least from certain nations).
There are many hardworking and smart people in the US but also a growng number of idiots and boors weaned on hedonism, permissiveness, laziness, dependence, and decadence.
I don’t doubt that Buchanan met many decent hardworking blue collar people who lost jobs, but we all know many Americans who have poor work skills and bad attitudes. The reason why there is so little economic investment in the inner city is because of the moral character of the people there. It’s not good.
As serious as union, management, and trade problems are, I don’t think they are fatal. What is fatal is the dissolution of values that made this country great. Values that prized freedom but also dignity and responsibility.
I just don’t see much that is dignified or responsible about blue collar culture in the US. And, problems begin early. Work ethic doesn’t begin with work. It begins with families trying to make marriage work, it begins with kids being pushed to study seriously. Taking school seriously is the bedrock of work ethic essentials. But, youth culture has been promoted since the 50s as an hedonistic, wilder and growing-wilder, fountain of youth–though more like cesspool of degeneracy. Being a punk, a bitch, a moron, a jerk, etc. is supposed to be hip and cool. Kids who grow up under this kind of trash–without even stable family environments–don’t take school seriously; as such, they don’t absorb the qualities necessary to excel–diligence, seriousness, devotion, commitment, etc. Out of school, they have no work ethic. When hired, they often do a poor job. Meanwhile, they know all about their Rights and, increasingly, Entitlements.
At the other scale, we have the ultra-successful yuppie professionals who practice conservative values of seriousness and diligence but espouse and preach hip and trendy notions of value-free tolerance, glibness, and decadence; they don’t want to come across as square, stiff middle class role models. When families are in trouble, the successful liberal elite’s idea of social progress is ‘gay marriage’!
Anyway, it’s a very complex issue. But, the only FATAL problem for any civilization is moral degeneration. America in the 1930s was an economic mess, but the people still have core pride and core values. I’m not sure that’s true any more.
You are right Pat, I’m also in agreement with the comment that said the U.S, Auto industry is largely responsible for the creation of the middle class.
However we have a hatred of the American blue color worker and labor in general “that costs too much.” Dishonest, degenerate values are in the criticisms of American cars.We have traitorous Elitists who degrade everything American and broadcast their tastes for the fine foreign cars that can go into a curve at 90 miles an hour. Did you know that the U.S. is the least expensive place in the World in which to buy a car. WE need the U.S. made cars to keep the Asian and European cars competitive in price.
The present circumstances are not the Auto Industries fault. The American consumers’ credit is exhausted. The American now lives like the coal miner of the 19th century. He can’t live on his wages and has acquired a bit of credit card debt along with keeping up his standard of living. He owes his life to the Wall St now. Americans would be buying cars now if they could afford them. With wages going down and with a general job decline Americans are being told not to spend, which just happens to be our economy.
Pat, I like to see the leadership of our nation tell us that the Nations’ and the Worlds’ financial system is collapsed and the U.S. will now put the Fed in bankruptcy/receivership proceedings, create the United States Bank designed by Alexander Hamilton, repudiate the debts of Wall St. and its’ “allies” and move the country forward again. All Americans must be united in confronting this irregular warfare being conducted against the American Republic and the populations of the World.
Mr. Buchanan nothing is ever so clear as when you explain it, that’s for certain. The death of the Big Three is to be blamed on progressive government. However the buck will not stop there, but bounces back; and this is because our democratic government functioned correctly. If government is the culprit, why did the people not elect better leaders? Why was nothing done while prayer was banned from public education? If we can really blame our representatives for the failure of industry why did we repeatedly elect socialists and progressive liberals to Congress? I wish I could blame the socialists with more vigor, but alas, socialists will always exist and will always vie for office. If we elect them, we are more at fault. The media cannot be blamed for not properly informing us, either. The data is out there. Perhaps we’ve simply grown to comfortable? In that case, I expect a healthy, Divine shake-up.
And thus I fear not the failure of the auto industry.
In light of the recent report that the US is going to send four inspectors to over see the food safety of thousand of food processing plants in China, goes to show you that you can’t trust the government to ensure the safety of imported food and prescription drugs. Most Americans don’t realize how much imported food they are consuming because there is no law requiring the country of the food’s origin to be put on its package. What are they hiding? This would not cost the companies any more money to do so. Americans should be able to use their own discretion to decide if the food from a certain foreign country is safe. I bet you George W Bush and the Washington politicians don’t buy their food at Walmart. Please help get the word out.
Here’s a great story:
I went to Japan for the first time in 1998. I noticed three things: A.) The Japanese drive on the left side of the road, like the British, B.) there were a lot of German cars on the road, and C.) there were very few American cars. The problem was that the U.S. auto companies took forever to sell cars that were suitable for the Japanese market (i.e., with the steering wheel on the right side). This, along with their horrible quality problems, doomed them in the Japanese market.
Brain dead management killed Detroit.
A bit off-topic, but I wonder has anybody commented on this, which seems a very stunning new fact adding to the Buchanan theory that US involvement in WWII was unnecessary. If this is true, WWII could have been avoided completely even as late as 1939:
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080069304
We both know the liberal media are going to keep getting it wrong, so conservative writers like you are just going to have to keep getting it right, and moreover to get those smug voters who profess to be independents to listen. Many independents, I suspect, are undecided not because they are so impeccably tolerant and reasonable, but because they are ignorant and thus uncommitted to any rational principle that would put them in one camp or the other.
Liberals may be wrong, but at least they are something. They may make bad choices but at least they choose. I have little regard for the political judgment of liberals, but I have even less for those independents who don’t even seem to know what elections are about.
Liberals are surely wrong when they feel that inequality of outcome is proof of inequality of opportunity, which would be the only explanation for why they feel that government is justified in taking wealth from those who have acquired it by creating value in order to give it to those who haven‘t. Independents however don’t know any answers because they don‘t even know what the questions are. The problem will be to get them to reason rather than to wallow in whatever emotions are troubling them, because they are the key to winning elections.
That’s a tall order and I don‘t want even to suggest you haven‘t been handling it well because of course you have. I do have some ideas, though, that are based on the observation that human endeavors succeed when the players can arrange for reason to prevail over emotion, and fail when they cannot.
The Enlightenment and its Age of Reason, the Renaissance, the Magna Charta, the Industrial Revolution and the founding of the American states succeeded because in all cases reason overcame emotional distractions; but the Dark Ages, the Holocaust, communism, fascism, and countless other crimes against humanity have brought misery and despair when destructive emotions were powerful enough to overwhelm reason.
The correlation is unmistakable and surely instructive, but a socialistic mentality will nevertheless always be an effective political force to seduce those who believe their plight is someone else‘s fault. That someone else is usually government of course so when Democrats promise to tax the rich and spread the wealth around, a lot of voters are bound to approve. That argument has a lot of emotional appeal even though it is demonstrably unsound.
Those are some ideas from Reason, Emotion, and Human Error, a book I wrote recently. Now I fully appreciate the demands your work imposes on your time, but I would like to send you a copy nevertheless. I understand and agree that you would be under absolutely no obligation. I would be pleased merely for you to have it at hand in the unlikely event that you just might someday have some discretionary time to read it. All I would need is your permission and an address.
William P. Best, Ph.D.
Retired chemical engineer-educational psychologist-writer
New Whiteland, Indiana
What you say Pat, is true to an extent, but I think the auto industry is different
than other industries in the respect that price is not the primary
factor that determines which product consumers will purchase. If that
were the case, the Prius would not be selling like hotcakes. Think
about how many people take out relatively large loans to buy cars, and
to buy big cars or fast cars, or whatever their desire may be.
But when people go to buy other consumables, such as a computer or a
cell phone, the first thing they may look at is price. Many people
assume that most computers (or cell phones) are basically going to do
the same things for them, and the purchase becomes a question of who
can give it to them the cheapest price.
However with cars, I think there are a lot more factors that one
considers. How a car looks and feels, the reliability of the brand,
and whether or not it fits one’s personal needs. Fuel efficiency has
now become a primary consideration to the American car buyer, and
American car companies are late to game on the green revolution. If
they were more competitive on this playing field, they may have been
able to fare much better with not only with foreign competition, but
throughout this economic downturn.
“Burn, Baby, Burn!”:
Yes, of course it was the regulations, the unions, the taxes, the entitlements, the industrial espionage and the other leeches that latched onto the American auto industry to suck its blood dry…
Then there were Henry Ford, Father Couglin and the Dearborn Independent. And, as Paul Harvey would say….”now you know the rest of the story…”
When Henry Ford died in 1948 and the Ford Motor Company, as the world’s largest 100% owned-family company, was sold, where did all that money go? …to Detroit?!?
Don’t make us laugh. The cash was hauled off to New York City. It became one of the largest sources of radical-left funding in the world. Now, the New York based Ford Foundation presently bankrolls ideologies that Henry Ford fought his entire life.
Recall the verse from the Sixties that went: “Gypsy Davy with a Blow-Torch, …he Burns out their Camps…”
Well that refrain is a bit esoteric. So, in memory of the 1967 Detroit Riots, connect the dots and google “Burn, Baby, Burn!”
PJB QUOTE: As far back as the 1950s, an intellectual elite that produces mostly methane had its knives out for the auto industry of which Ike’s treasury secretary, ex-GM chief Charles Wilson, had boasted, “What’s good for America is good for General Motors, and vice versa.”
It’s wprse than you imagine. What kept the Big 3 from producing higher mpg models in the US? The UAW. In their labor contracts, the UAW had the power to prevent these low margin models from
American production lines. The union realized that these liines would not support their extravagant wages ($100,000/year in wages +$50,000/yr in benefits). They demanded production of higher margin vehicles (SUVS and trucks primarily). GM di produce the low marging fuel efficient vehicles in plants in foreign countries, but were prevented - by the UAW and their friends in DC from bringing these foreign-produced models to the US to sell.
steveinvista, AndreaFreiboden, and fairhaven…I love you guys…keep up the good fight against global tyranny, and… beware the protocols.
PS. Hey Linda when do we get the forum back??
regards,
therock
Pat is wrong on so many levels. Think about it: we should bail out and save the US auto industry b/c it will affect the American worker and their families.
Not sounding too harsh, but who cares?
The core problem is that the Auto industries have been ripping off the US consumer since the late 1950s.
Ever hear the phrase “built to last?” that phrase went out the window with planned obsolence.
If the US industry truly wanted to compete, they should make cars that are not junk. The reason why consumers purchase foreign cars is for their notorious reliability. That matters most.
Had the industry truly listened and cared, they could have copied the Japanese engine–their is no copyright on it.
But no–so long as profits were there- outsource to Mexico, layoffs, etc., no one cared at all.
The Japanese did not steal our market. I don’t like this economic nationalistic thread Buchanan hangs his argument on (for every issue).
WE, the consumers, left an inferior product with our dollars. And even IF the quality gap was lessened–we harbor ill feelings about how they raked us for YEARS. Every few weeks we were back in the shop, needing repairs.
The clueless auto industry makes cars no one wants–that is why we cannot export many of the cars overseas. Their reputation is forever tarnished.
The perception is that American cars are garbage–a very well-earned perspection, in my opinion. Read Halberstam’s 1950s and find out exactly how they did this to us.
Exporting those cars overseas? Forget it: they are too large to fit on tiny EuroAsian streets & have poor gas mileage. It’s a double-whammy. Is the auto industry aware of how much gas costs outside of the US?
Pat, like we all learned in grade school, you will eventually come to the correct answer when you ask the right question: WHY does the US consumer not purchase American cars over Foreign cars?
Answer: like our lovely, global corporations, who have no sense of loyalty–we are simply returning the favor.
Watch John McCain fumble his explanation over his daughter’s purchase of a Prius: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0QRapvB9xc
Or read about how Mike Moore–in Roger and Me–made the movie while driving a foreign import–all the while blaming GM.
We need to get back to basics, and absolutely need to stop pretending that we can have a global economic system apart from each of the geopolitical sovereign nation states. The “free market” system of economics is predicated on the ability of the market place to bring an equilibrium of supply and demand, and thereby set a fair price for goods, services, and wages. Monopolies impede this free market process on the business ownership side; and labor unions impede the process on the labor side. The U.S. Constitution provides for government to regulate trade and commerce, but only to the extent that an equal playing field in the “free market” is maintained. Because the government can be effective only in its sovereign political boundaries, the free market place can only be effective within those same sovereign boundaries.
The first monopoly that must be destroyed is the money monopoly. The creation of money must be taken out of the hands of private banks. Alexander Hamilton hijacked the Constitution by getting the government to borrow money from shareholders in the First Bank of the U.S.; instead of having government create interest free money to spend directly into the economy.
Until a social credit system of interest free government money is created, and the Federal Reserve system of private banks creating money is destroyed, we will be on an economic roller coaster at the beck and call of the private bankers. This is the money monopoly power that exploits the entire society in favor of a few privileged individuals, in which politics is at the service of clans called parties, and economics is at the service of few financiers or a few ambitious, unscrupulous entrepreneurs.
We cannot fix the auto industry until we break the monopoly money power and break the power of the transnational corporations. This is not isolationism. It is protectionism: that which it is the responsibility of government to provide. This is a social credit system, NOT socialism, in which politics is at the service of each and every one of its citizens, and economics is at the service of each and every one of its consumers.
meameame, you’re largely correct. Buchanan’s heart is in the right place, but he oversimplifies in his usual Manichean way. I recall that in the 80s, nearly all the people I knew–who had American cars–switched to Japanese or German because the latter were much better. Same with my parents. Americans had too many problems.
But, we can’t simply blame markets alone. Many Chinese made goods are far from topnotch but they sell because they’re cheap. And, early Korean cars were junk but sold because of their low price.
On this issue, we must really move beyond finger-pointing. There’s more than enough blame to go around. I agree with Buchanan that we should use protectionism to the extent that it may protect American jobs making good products; but, we should not save Americans jobs making junk; we must entertain the notion that certain foreign products are indeed better, and free trade should pick the real winners.
Buchanan has written about how relatively low-paying manufacturing jobs may not be much for well-educated people but they still offer opportunities and hope for highschool dropouts. What he fails to mention is that highschool dropouts today are different from those of yesteryear. In the past, many kids had no choice but to drop out of school and join the workforce to help out the family–especially during the Great Depression. Also, there were far fewer educational opportunities. Also, there was the cultural mindset that you should take care of yourself, have moral values, and put away childish things.
This is no longer the case. Kids drop out of highschool today simply because they’re lazy, unmotivated, troublesome, or deranged. They don’t drop out of school because they have to work and contribute to the family but because they’d rather stay in bed, sell drugs, hang out with bums, or worse. Our entitlement society has told kids that society/state will take care of their basic needs even if they totally flunk out. Obama offers up even more of this in spades.
Also, under-educated people in the past had family values. And, these values were reinforced by the middle class role model among the educated; even liberals back then were ‘priggish’ by today’s standards. Today, the educated class promotes and pushes decadent and even degrading lifestyles and gay marriage while under-educated class are often the products of single parent homes, watch trash on TV, listen to awful hate music, and doesn’t have an iota of proper respect for honest work.
There are many decent hardworking blue collar people but there are also many underclass folks whose problems are largely self-afflicted–and made worse by the custodians of our popular culture–people who tend to be liberal or leftwing.
“The competition was manifestly unfair, like forcing Secretariat to carry 100 pounds in his saddlebags in the Derby.”
That is about as good a summation on GATT-NAFTA unfair trade as I have heard.
Pat is right as rain. The economic global transnationalist crunch bleeding this country dry should be stopped by our government returning to Constitutional safegaurds for our borders in the economic sense and every other.
___________________________________________
The Kahal is at the bottom of this assault on the U.S. and every other nation.
The evil and threat of destruction of all that is Christian by the Judaic Kahal of the Pharisees is the most present and real Diabolic abomination on earth today.
For an historical and theological explanation of the Judaic-Soviet Antichrist see:
Welcome to the website of Vladimir Moss, an Orthodox Christian writer on Orthodox theology and Church history.
http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/
For my comments on the abomination of the Kahal of the Judaic Antichrist see:
Real time political dialectic based opposition to God
http://euphrosynoscafe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8695
Also see Mearsheimer-Walt
http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011/File/rwp_06_011_walt.pdf
Have I got this right?
US President George W Bush has urged Asia-Pacific leaders to rely on “the power of free markets” to solve the current global financial crisis.
He told an Apec summit in Peru that countries should resist the temptation to retreat into protectionism.
He also strongly criticised the US Congress for going into recess without approving free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea.
It was Mr Bush’s last scheduled foreign trip as US president.
He told the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Lima that he would “push hard” in his last two months in office to secure a deal to help complete the stalled Doha round of World Trade Organisation talks.
Have I got this right?
Two workers, one in country “A” gets a guaranteed minimum wage of say $7 or a fixed wage of $10 per hour.
Workers in country “B” get what ever is on offer, say $2 per hour.
They both produce the same object.
Where would you build your factory or import from?
Free trade puts people on the scrap heap (the higher paid ones in country “A”)
Free trade means the rich feed off the poor.
When my grandfather went to work for Ford in 1915, the workmen were farmers, or in my grandfather’s case rural blacksmiths with incredible rural work ethic. He was disgusted by the changes when he retired in 1955. My brother in law Ford engineer died of cocaine heart disease. You won’t believe the alcohol, cocaine and heroin use in the executive offices and Rouge plant. It starts at the top, with a DUI by the deuce, just an example. Hereditary leadership is a lousy idea, a demonstrated failure in about all the monarchies.
What has killed the American Auto industry is the insatiable desire for higher share prices, for which executives get bonuses if they meet. In the 1980-s I owned a Chev S10 truck, the engine was made by Isuzu, the glass was made in Mexico, and the clutch according to my mechanic who had to replace it every 20,000 miles was designed for a small street car… but the executives made their bonuses.
What the US needs to do is ignore Wall Street, put caps on executive salaries and get away from Free Trade Fundamentalism. Pat knows a lot of history, he also knows that Liberal Laissez Faire Free Markets in Britain led to abuses of child labor, social unrest and serious political problems. The fact is unregulated Free Trade Laissez Faire Capitalism DOES NOT WORK… what works is quality, competitiveness and a fair days pay for an honest days work.
Time the financial guys, the Captains of Industry got paid proportionally to these criteria, instead of those decided by Wall Street
Very good Rodfish, you’ve figured it out. Now what’s so lame about Mr. Buchanan’s ideas since you are now in agreement about Free the Rich to Destroy the Worker Trade?
Why you slimy protectionist. LOL!
omygodnotagain: you are right. Unregulated Free Trade laissez faire capitalism does not work, especially across sovereign political boundaries.
There are a few executives that make more in one year than most workers make in their entire lifetime.
If that kind of capitalism is supposed to be the American Dream, then they can take it out with the trash.
Unlike most political pundits, Pat Buchanan is offering ideas to SAVE the U.S.A. He is warning us to save our culture, religion and way of life. Most Americans are too stupid or (now after the election) too “guilt” ridden to realize this.
No one else has his courage (because they are too pretentious or liberal) to admit there are problems in our country. PJB tried to warn us in 1992 (in his “Soul for America” speech. We didn’t listen and got 8 years of Wet Willie Clinton. I cried during that speech and after realizing PJB was a former Nixonite, I became a disciple.
Now he is warning us that our government isn’t backing our American products overseas. WE SHOULD LISTEN AND BUY AMERICAN. The big three are building exactly what Americans want - big luxurious eight cylinder SUVs and Trucks. Americans don’t want GREEN shit. Hybrids? Save that crap for the stupid generation Zers and Al Gore. Besides, who taught the Japanese and Koreans how to build cars - we did, ofcourse.
PJB does not seem to be trying to impress anyone with sarcasm or witty hyperbole or opinions as some offered above. He gets straight to the point and he’s right (from the beginning) about everything.
If you are driving a Hyundai or Kia; you are a cheap bastard who shouldn’t be driving on a US highway. Period.
I was told three stories of accidents recently in which; a Toyota was totalled after hitting a Dodge Caravan (the Caravan was undamaged), the front end of a Honda Civic was left in the road after hitting a Dodge Dakota (driver of the Honda literally picked up the front of his car and sped off as he caused the accident), and another Honda owner (my niece’s boyfriend) also had the front nose of his car fall off after hitting a Ford product. And so it goes for what Consumer (Commie) Reports calls superior Japanese quality and American “junk”, right?
The superiority of foriegn automobiles over the domestics is a falsehood that ranks with other recent lame distortions of the truth such as Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction (Condi Rice) and Al Gore’s “Global Warming” or Clinton’s MonicaGate, “I never had sex with that woman”.
My proposals:
First, we need to find out who the “free trading” supporters in Congress are run them out of the country, bodily. I’d enlist in this war. We could start with the Bush family, Cheney and the Clintons. This would enable us to go back to being a manufacturing nation again.
Second, we need to expose who all the damn NEOCONS are and run them out of the country.
Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon helped rid us of communists in our government forty plus years ago, and now it’s time for another “Spring” cleaning.
Third, we need to dismantle the leftist pinko bastard ACLU.
Fourth, we need to declare English our official language.
Fifth, shoot any former Goldman Sachs employees in our government.
Sixth, we need to expel - from our country - all dissidents from our college campuses and religious pulpits. We should start in Chicago and continue to California. A reincarnation of J Edgar would be helpful here. Again, I’d enlist in this battle.
Seventh, we should bulldose the Federal Reseve
System along with its twelve branches and return to a precious metal standard.
Eighth, we should re-institude the draft and give some of our dumbest college students a REALISTIC second alternative to college.
thanks,
Michael D’Antonio - New Jersey
omygodnotagain,
My S-10 is a 1995. I don’t know what the original clutch in it was but we relaced it with a Borg Warner that has now been in it for 8 years trouble free. You get what you pay for.
Well lets see. I fear Obama has the making of a man named in the Book of Revelations in relation to one who will promote peace and create wonders and signs and miracles on the world stage and will survive a deadly wound….
You folks who comment on Pat’s latest are doing little else than scratching your initials on a monument. I had to press the key for 15 seconds to get to where I could make a comment. No one , least of all Pat, is going to read all this garbage. The internet is our latest addiction. My advice is to view C-SPAN’s visit to his workplace and see what it takes to be a commentator who commands national attention. Then go thou and do likewise. In other words, do your own work, and do it well and stop thinking that anything you post will command the least attention. Even this. But I am 86+ and retired and can afford a few lost moments.
What Pat listed are definitely contributing factors, but most likely the largest causation for failure is the Big 3’s inability to make quality vehicles. They have terrible reputations because too many people have had bad experiences with American made vehicles. American made vehicles are engineered and built vastly inferior to German and Japanese made automobiles.
The only reason why the Big 3 have even lasted this long in a global market is due to American patriotism. Many older Americans used to hold true to the motto of buying American, and they would purchase American made vehicles even though they knew that Japanese vehicles were a much better product. Unfortunately for the Big 3, not many Americans hold true to that motto anymore.
Also, another extremely large contributing factor is the Big 3 decided to keep producing uneconomical vehicles. The recent shock to oil prices completely destroyed demand for large, fuel-inefficient automobiles. Just look at the statistics of which cars are selling right now. The Big 3 failed to keep their finger on the pulse of the market, and they suffered a terrible loss.
To ignore those 2 large factors is naive. Though I agree that they aren’t the only 2 factors in the problem.
Ans: 1-Initially too many saw the car as a gravy train. 2-Death blow - Lobbyist driven deficit trade policies.
Its a well known fact that if you are not on television you are dead, unknown and of little use to anyone.
Television is where the worlds events are reported on and decided on, live.
The Internet is for light entertainment.
Buchanan talks of US and(or vs) Asia, but much of the problems Americans face are also faced by Japanese and South Koreans. Cheaper Chinese labor and goods have weakened their labor markets as well. In the 60s, Japan used to make toys and little trinkets but gave that up to the ‘Asian tigers’ in favor of cars and hightech goods. But, other Asian nations also went into cars and hightech. Japan kept its edge by producing ever more advanced goods. Then came China, which greatly complicated the situation. Japan is bigger than South Korea or Taiwan–and other Asian nations–, but not by much. China is a huge country with a population of 1.3 billion–and very cheap labor and very hungry ambition(and talent). In many ways, nations like Japan and South Korea fear China far more than US does–and not just economically.
As for the Taiwanese, they fear the economic aspect less because being fellow Chinese, they have enjoyed much greater access–thanks to shared history, culture, and language–to the opportunities in China. Of course, militarily on the other hand, Taiwanese have most to fear.
Anyway, it seems to me that Asia vs US outlook is too simplistic. Divide and Rule is a great tactic, and US should try to D & R China and rest of Asia, not lump rest of Asia WITH China–as Buchanan tends to do. ‘They may all look alike’ but they don’t feel alike.
Also, there’s a problem when we focus on nation states when, in fact, the world economy is run more by competition among businesses/corporations than among nation states. While it’s true that Asian nations have had more of a state-guided economic sector, all corporations compete for market share. Different Auto companies in Japan compete with one another. While Toyota has done well, many Japanese car companies went under in the 90s(and were even bought up by foreigners)to the delight of Toyota and Honda–who want greater marketshare.
And, there’s no love lost between Toyota and Hyundai–just as between Microsoft and Oracle.
Buchanan talks of the transnational elite as a unified gang, but this isn’t really true. Yes, they may share similar worldviews and conceits, but when it comes to economic competition they are all out to win over the other. In a way, the reason why US economy surged so much in the 90s was because it let the winners win. IN contrast, nations like Japan and South Korea tried to coddle their many over-expanded, over-burdened, and wasteful industries(Asia had its own versions of the Big 3 that were kept going against sound economic principles). The companies had been kept afloat through government intervention and mounting foreign loans–especially in South Korea–and guess what happened? The whole thing went bust. If Asian nations had let bad companies fail and had streamlined their economy–as happened in the US in the 80s under Reagan–, they would not have suffered as much during the Asian financial crisis. The effect of the financial crisis was good for Asia in the long run because it forced them to shed off unsustainable economic flab.
Anyway, the point is it’s not a simple us-vs-them issue. It’s not simplistically us Americans vs those Asians, nor us good honest working folks vs those venal greedy transnationals. The simple fact is transnationals all compete with one another. They are not a unified bunch who are conspiring out to get us–though it’s true enough that their political views and their economic practices may cause great harm to many of us.
At any rate, China is the nation to fear. Because of their political and military situation, both South Korea and Japan can be economically strong-armed by the US. (Also, the fear of rising China makes both nations grow closer to the US whether they like it or not). China is a different matter.
The Chinese are this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru-xQac_sWw&feature=related
Nothing wrong with national pride–in fact, we should emulate the Chinese in this regard–but it may well turn into chauvanism, and then what?
I’d like to add to Michael D’Antonio’s excellent list of proposals.
#9 Take down BIG ED for dumming down our kids and brainwashing them with left wing socialism and multi-culturalism. The Education Lobby is the fifth column working feverishly to destroy this nation.
The so-called “free traders” killed Detroit. Not to mention every other U.S. city and the American dream. The only dream now is to live half as well as our fathers, but even this is now only a dream.
We have nothing to sell, except our land and services, not only because unionism and government intervention are out of control but because of poor and outmoded thinking by American management. While the first two have made it impossible to manufacture anything in this country, the latter makes it impossible for those few legacy factories that remain to compete.
Republicans and democrats favor “free trade” for different reasons, but it is not free. Its cost is our strength and vitality as an economic power. Our freedoms and right of self-determination will now begin to be debited.
With no real basis for creating wealth anymore, America must now sell off its land as well as everything on that land. Our touted intellectual property is easily stolen, so its effectively worthless. We are becoming the waiters and busboys “serving” the countries that manufacture things.
America the richest country in the world.
Welfare.
Food stamps.
Food banks.
Soup lines.
And the recession has not started yet.
The freshest statistics, covering 2007, were served up this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
An estimated 36.2 million people struggled with some form of hunger (or, to use the government term, “food insecurity.”)
That’s 12.2 percent of the population – one in eight Americans.
Among them . . . some 691,000 children.
That was last year.
We know what direction the economic arrows point this year.
When he takes office next year, President-elect Obama will have a menu full of priorities.
There should be room for hunger on his plate.
The vast majority of people who will be helped by a bailout of Detroit are White Christians. Does anyone in their right mind really think Obama, Axelorod, Summers, Geitner, etc. are going to bail out a bunch of White Christians. I wouldn’t buy stock in Ford or GM if I were you. Cerberus might get a bail out though.
You are right but your leaders have devalued the credo of protectionism. The recent APEC summit and upcoming Clinton Global Initiative will convince more nations to ban protectionism. This combined with relentless immigration will ultimately destroy the “standard” American civilization, which other democratic-capitalist nations have looked up to.
I never wanted to see the demise of the West even though your previous governments have caused my ancestors shame.
“In that case, I expect a healthy, Divine shake-up.”
It won’t be healthy unless it’s peaceful. Shaking up military superpowers is a ‘tricky’ business.
I don’t know who killed Detroit but Steve Sailer tells us how Obamanomics will kill the USA. He’s brilliant, especially in the line: “…employers who socialized costs while privatizing profits…”
We need more like Steve the Sailer Man.
The sailer article is at:
http://vdare.com/sailer/081123_wpa.htm
KEEP PRINTING MORE MONEY.
US rescues ailing Citigroup bank
The bank held emergency talks with government officials over the weekend
The US government has announced a rescue plan for troubled banking giant Citigroup after its shares plunged by more than 60% last week.
The US Treasury is set to invest $20bn (£13.4bn) in return for preferred shares in Citigroup.
The Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp will also guarantee up to $306bn (£205bn) of risky loans and securities on Citigroup’s books.
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