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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (88327)	1/24/2011 4:47:44 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 149317

Yeah Krugman has become a little boring, I think. But he's right here: Consider: A corporate leader who increases profits by slashing his work force is thought to be successful. Well, that’s more or less what has happened in America recently: employment is way down, but profits are hitting new records. Who, exactly, considers this economic success? It seems like the corps have become so big, and are doing so much business overseas that they don't have too much of a stake in the domestic economy. If they have a lot of employees here a high US unemployment rate, and the subsequent cheap and plentiful labor, may outweigh any lost domestic sales from a weak economy. As they say, "if you're not with us you are again' us". The corps may truly have become the enemy of the middle class. I guess the way I see it corps have never been the friend of this country nor its middle class. It seems their loyalty has always been to their shareholders. As early as the 1920s corps made very clear where they stood. First they screwed the places where they were founded. The shoe industry used to be headquartered around Boston and New England but in the 1920s, corps began moving their factories to the South followed shortly by the clothing and furniture industries. Rarely, did they make any efforts to smooth the transition for the towns and cities they were abandoning. And so, they stayed in the South for a few decades but when the South became more expensive to do business, they were the first industries to outsource their manu. to countries overseas or to Mexico. That is the nature of the corp. beast. To often we confuse corps with companies that are owned by a family who do show some loyalty to the founding location where many of the family members still reside. But family owned companies have mostly gone the way of the dodo bird. So, in my mind, I don't expect any loyalty from corps. That's like expecting a snake to be a good pet. Its not in their nature. And so, just as a Boston or a Seattle or a Minneapolis can't compete with a Dallas or a Tampa or a Phoenix in terms of land, wage and overhead costs, the US can't compete with Mexico or Malaysia or Vietnam in terms of labor, overhead and construction costs. And like those northern cities, the only way the US can remain competitive in a global economy, given the US's uncompetitive wage requirements, is to be the very best this country can be in certain areas. That means having the best infrastructure, the best research failities, the best universities, the most highly skilled workforce, the most dynamic cities, etc. For those qualities, in certain instances, corps will forego their wage requirements and locate specific facilities in expensive areas. That's how Boston and MPLS and Seattle have continued to thrive. And that's how the US will thrive. The US needs to be targeting.....not the labor intensive factories.......but the company components that facilitate the manu. process like research......and to encourage in every way possible the development of new industries. That's what Obama sees and that's why he's pushing improving America's infrastructure. The US has gotten fat and lazy and has fallen behind. Improving the infrastructure is just a first step in our revival. IMO, its Krugman who doesn't see the total picture and that's why his comments seem like so much pitiful whining to me. Again IMO, its time to stop with the whining and start with the doing.