Monday, September 6, 2010

How to celebrate Labor Day during a period of high unemployment

by Charles E. Reier, MD, and Rebecca A. Reier

Labor Day has become a meaningless holiday for approximately 20-40 million who are unemployed, underemployed or have dropped from the American labor force. On the other hand for working Americans in a compassionate society, this problem takes on an even greater meaning since more and more of their tax dollars must provide food, shelter and medical care for this increasingly large group of people. How well is our social safety net working? Obama says 1 in 8 Americans are hungry – and that food banks are low on supplies.

Unfortunately the cause of our chronically increasing unemployment/underemployment seems to have eluded the economic and political leaders of both parties. China, through currency manipulation and unfair trade (masquerading as beneficial or “free trade”) has taken over 2 trillion dollars out of the paychecks of American workers. In the process they have laid waste to the physical and intellectual skills of hundreds of legitimate American industries. No surprise then that the millions of Americans willing to work are having their debts labeled as sub-prime when indeed the term sub-prime should be applied to their opportunities for the employment necessary to pay their debts.

How is China using its huge largess of American dollars? In the United Nations and elsewhere they obstruct worldwide efforts to limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities. On the high seas China’s Sec. of Navy suggests that they and the United States should divide the Pacific on a line through the Hawaiian Islands while Chinese nuclear subs lie off the coast of South Korea. Elsewhere the Chinese are busily locking up contracts for Iraqi oil and the world’s largest reserve of copper in Afghanistan - the very land stained by the blood of our brave American troops.

In the area of economics, a deputy of the Peoples Bank of China held little prospect for rapid appreciation of the Yuan. This move is absolutely essential for balancing and making fair the trade between the two countries. The deputy further states “the currency doesn’t have a key role in rebalancing bilateral trade between the US and China”. This statement is equivalent to stating that accurate accounting of money is not essential in playing a game of Monopoly.

The administration is already moving on this issue but needs encouragement and support. Your communication will also send a message to Chinese leaders that in trade they have lost the status of a “poor under-developed country” that needs our assistance. More importantly Chinese leaders must know that our trade representatives are backed by the full force of the American working public.

Although the leading force on this issue has been Senator Charles Schumer (D) of New York, it is time to let our congressional leaders know that the issue of fair trade with China is a bipartisan issue essential to the survival of our economy. Celebrate Labor Day by contacting your congressional representatives with the message: Free trade with China must be FAIR trade.

11 comments:

  1. China did nothing to the U. S. people that our government, the corporations, and citizens did not LET them do. Are we not responsible for ourselves? I know also that we will NOT allow a foreign entity to take our possessions.

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  2. I will say this about China.THEY SUCK.I remember a time when WE the American people didnt need trade with China.If im not mistaken didnt we liberate china from japan in WW11?I know that we are being out paced in growth and technology by china and its companys like wal mart and lowes that are helping them.So just think every time you or me shop at wal mart or lowes we are sending money to them.Remember when wal mart was buy american?How long has it been sense you have seen one of those commercials on T.V.We had better wake up or america want be the economy that sets the standards for the world.

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  3. the corporations such as wallmart for example buy from china/japan/mexico/india and many other countries do it for high profits because of very low labor.labor rates are 40 cents per hour more or less.

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  4. Obama the messiah promised one of the first things he was going to do was reopen NAFTA and make it more beneficial to the US. How is that coming along. I would not support anything Chuckie Schumer was backing. How about we cut the corporate tax rate to encourage corps to stay int he US? Oh thats right dems and liberals think all corporations are evil. One wonders how democrats can expect corps to cooperate after obama and his liberal cronies bash them every day.

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  5. Robert,

    How low are you going to cut their taxes? To make their domestic costs less than the cost of outsourcing you'll nearly need to make them tax exempt. Then you'll complain about a larger deficit.

    The issue is that foreign entities are able to produce the reasonably same product for much less cost. Until Americans are willing to take such a huge pay cut, we'll never be able to compete.

    For America to thrive and grow, we really need to focus on innovation, local services, and other value adds that cannot be outdone by an outfit thousands of miles away for cheaper.

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  6. Lou, I can certainly agree about the low costs of our competitive nations. However I would say that the US is second only behind Japan in the corporate tax rates. We need to cut that rate to even start to compete. I too am for fair trade, not totally free trade. I just have no confidence in the present administration to do anything to help the matter. We should start by making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent. Corporations in this country need some certainty about the future. It has been my observation that corporations can handle bad news and they can handle good news. It is the uncertainty they cannot deal well with. Obama wants to raise taxes on small businesses, that is a perscription for more disaster. The current debt we have is killing our economy. Start cutting the budget and do it deep enough to make a dent in the deficit and debt. When corps see the administration has a clue about running an economy they will begin to hire again.

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  7. Instead of trying to bring America down to their level we should be trying to bring them up to ours. Companies in America are forced to comply with strict safety and environmental regulations that foreign companies do not have to deal with. I think that the Government should impose penalties on goods that are not manufactured under the same conditions mandated here. Just because they are not polluting on our soil doesn’t mean it will never affect us. It’s all the same planet and sooner or later we are going to realize that we have to be responsible for it’s care.

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  8. DDN headlines today: Republicans recommend “Tax breaks would save businesses $200 billion: Oops! that is the Democrats. Congratulations to the President for having taken an unused play out of the Republican playbook.

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  9. The congress will never pass anything without a ton of add ons and earmarks. It is too close to the election to do anything now. The so called president wants a total of 350 billion more in "stimulous" spending because the 850 billion did nothing. Good luck with that! Barry Hussein Obama is scared about the coming election, he knows the dems are in for a beating and he hopes people are gullible enough to believe he favors business.

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  10. Hey JL!! GO HUG A TREE!

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  11. 9:49, what's your problem with trees? I bet if they built one of these huge mega-polluting factories in Darke County it would never be tollerated, so why is it ok as long as it's in someone else's backyard? I just think the playing field should be level in that people shouldn't be able to move jobs out of our country just to avoind worker and environmental protections.

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