During the late 19th century, the USA became an industrial powerhouse, its manufacturing capacity becoming among the world’s foremost. During the late 20th century, industry was disappearing at an alarming rate. Countless mill towns and even some major cities were blighted, a trend naming a broad region: the Rust Belt. Globalism caused this devastation. The British can tell a similar story.
Just as Communists once proclaimed that socialism was inevitable, the free trade fanatics insist that globalism is the only possible way. Overpaid CEOs join the chorus, moaning that American workers are too expensive. Contrary to what the talking heads think, it wasn’t always like this. Let’s see what we can learn from history and explore a reasonable compromise.
How it rolled in the Renaissance
It’s all about keeping this stuff circulating within your own country.
The trade doctrine of mercantilism included the following features:
- High tariffs
- Forbidding colonies to trade with other nations
- Monopolizing markets with staple ports (the public can buy goods passing through the city)
- Banning the export of gold and silver, even for payments
- Forbidding trade to be carried in foreign ships
- Subsidies on exports
- Promoting manufacturing through research or direct subsidies
- Limiting wages
- Maximizing the use of domestic resources
- Restricting domestic consumption through non-tariff barriers to trade (such as regulations and quotas)
This wasn’t an elaborate doctrine originating from theory. This developed from nations doing what was in their economy’s best interests, and only later did theoreticians document it. Basically, this represents trade protectionism and hard-nosed business practices to keep wealth circulating within their country rather than flowing out of it. Note also that today’s economic policies take the opposite approach—except, of course, for limiting wages.
Eventually, Adam Smith’s ideas friendly to free trade prevailed. Lately, economic whiz kids give mercantilism a pretty bad rap. Nations doing what’s in their economy’s best interests? What? Oh hell no, we can’t have that!
Mercantilism has been criticized for leading to wars. Well, has anything improved lately? Banksters love wars (be they worldwide catastrophes or prolonged spit-in-your-eye wars), and so does the military-industrial complex. Individual businesses often benefit too.
Globalist hubris
“We have got to stop sending jobs overseas. It’s pretty simple: If you’re paying $12, $13, $14 an hour for factory workers and you can move your factory South of the border, pay a dollar an hour for labor, have no health care, no environmental controls, no pollution controls and no retirement, and you don’t care about anything but making money, there will be a giant sucking sound going south.” —Ross Perot
Item 5 from above is of particular interest. It would be a hard sell to insist all container ships be American-operated. However, it’s rather galling that the government started allowing Mexican trucks to ship cargo inside the USA, to cut American truck drivers out of their piece of the action. To facilitate NAFTA imports, the federal government spent taxpayer money to build Interstate 69 (quite a symbolic number).
More ambitious plans for the “SHAFTA Superhighway” haven’t come to pass. This would’ve included a mega-scale walled-off toll road up to four football fields wide, with tributaries bound toward all corners of the USA, carrying Chinese goods shipped in from a Mexican port (cutting out American dock workers too), with Mexican customs officials in a Kansas City “SmartPort”.
Interestingly, the lefty magazine The Nation wrote an article beginning with how all that was a crazy right-wing conspiracy theory. Then the article reversed direction, describing how politicians were working on plans for pretty much all that, until citizens raised holy hell. Really, liberals should be just as concerned—aren’t they supposed to be all about protecting the common people from predatory plutocrats? Well, so the theory goes.
Other than that, we haven’t traded our dollars out for “ameros” yet. However, ultra-wealthy globalists certainly do have ambitions to erase the USA’s borders and create a “North American Union“, eventually to include Central and South America. Actually, that’s exactly what Leon Trotsky wanted too. Strange, that.
American tariff policies, past and present
It wasn’t always this way.
In 2010, tariffs (averaging 1.3%) were 1.2% of US revenue. Back in 1860, tariffs (averaging 15%) funded 94.9% of the federal budget. Fifteen percent? How punishing! Imagine going to a big box store and paying $11.50 instead of $10.13 for $10 of foreign merchandise—zOMG!
About a century ago, the federal government got hooked on income tax, and it’s never been the same since. I’m not saying we can return to 1860s standards and maybe even abolish the income tax. That only could happen if the government quit fighting spit-in-your-eye wars, paid down their astronomical debt, weaned the public off the welfare tit, and fixed government waste. How awful—hell no, we can’t have that!
Free trade is great for multinational business owners, but not so good for labor. At this, free trade zealots often scoff, “What, you’re saying American workers can’t compete?” Well, of course we could, if we brought back sweatshops, starvation wages, no pollution controls, 12-hour workdays, goon squads, etc. Sounds awesome! Another problem is that when a huge trade imbalance persists, wealth gets sucked out of one country and poured into another, at least until conditions in both places meet in the middle and the trade imbalance begins to even out because of that “invisible hand” mojo.
The meddlesome globalist CEOs swim in gravy, but how does the public really benefit? Jobs in factories and call centers have been moving overseas steadily for decades. Slightly cheaper merchandise at Wally World isn’t much good for those who can’t find work.
The economy has been pozzed out to varying degrees since 2001. Wall Street has bounced back (and gained quite a bit more) from after the banksters and Wall Street crashed the economy in 2008. Unfortunately, things haven’t fully recovered for the real people, despite improving somewhat lately.
Following the 2008 disaster, multitudes of formerly working people had to get on public assistance, no matter how galling it was. For one example, during 2009, the number of disability applicants rose by about a fourth—coincidence? Desperation was in the air while talking heads spoke of the economic “new normal”.
Today, the World Trade Organization is running the international commerce show, surely with many grubby globalist fingers in the pie. Countries with Most Favored Nation status must have the same standards applied, whether they’re industrialized countries like ours, or places where laborers toil in horrible sweatshops for a tiny fraction of our minimum wage. Well, to hell with all that!
A trade policy to protect jobs here and promote progress abroad
Penalizing starvation wages and exploitation could help the world’s downtrodden.
Here’s a better proposal:
- Baseline 2% tariff, including not just manufactured goods but “offshored” services
- 2% more for countries with a minimum wage under 60% of ours, per the official exchange rate
- Additional 2% more for countries with a minimum wage below 30% of ours
- 2% penalty for those without reasonable environmental protection
- 2% penalty for those with regressive labor practices (organized labor forbidden, unsafe factories, etc.)
- 5% penalty for severe exploitation (legally mandated social immobility child labor, exorbitant predatory lending / debt bondage, toleration of slavery, etc.)
So according to this sliding scale, decently-run industrialized countries get the 2% rate, and the worst get the “punishing” 1860 rate of 15%. This would reduce incentives for globalists to move jobs wherever they can pay the fewest peanuts. There would be plenty of free trade between countries with similar wages and labor standards. Goods from elsewhere still would be obtainable, though at up to 13 cents on the dollar more.
Would this hurt Third World countries? Actually, this would provide incentives for their leaders to stop treating their workers like dirt. (Compliance checks would be required; having enlightened laws on the books that never get enforced doesn’t count.) A badly-run country could knock one third off of their tariff simply by abolishing unconscionable practices.
An added benefit is that incentivizing livable wages and reducing exploitation might improve conditions in the Third World. Now, destitute masses flee by the millions to First World countries. Some compete for jobs with the citizens, but others live off the welfare tit, cause trouble, and outbreed the locals. Indeed, as devastating as free trade favoring the absolute cheapest labor markets has been, population replacement immigration is globalism’s worst crime.
Read More: Global Elites Caught Plotting The Islamic Invasion Of Europe
Aldi talks 😉
Here in Texas many years ago, Governor Rick the Dick Perry at one point years ago supported the Trans Texas corridor which would have bulldozed and condemned thousands of acres of farming and ranch land to this globalist wet dream. It would have also been owned and operated by a European country.
One big issue is the rules and regulations here that need to be reduced or eliminated. Not to ‘turd world’ standards, but regulation is a big issue right after taxes.
I’ve also wondered whether if the world on a commodity backed currency with gold and silver whether most of us would be better off. None of us whether Americans or other benefit from a funny money system that is depreciating in purchasing power by the month.
http://www.corridorwatch.org/ttc_2007/CW00000093.htm
And this guy Rick Perry is a Republican.
And people wonder why I don’t trust politicians.
He also armtwisted Amazon to collect the state sales tax in return for a warehouse facility in Dallas. Yeah, Team R keeping those taxes low.
The government has always protected its pals. First they denied people’s property rights which resulted in the horrid conditions we are told would result without government protection. The pollution and so forth happened because government failed to do its job. Then when the people got really angry government created the regulatory system we “enjoy” today. This took the form of pollution grants. The bigs get them but you or I couldn’t.
Big oil is allowed to pollute the source of my drinking water within limits. When they wanted to raise the limits government said, sure no problem until people learned about it and got angry. It’s the 21st century and they are still allowed to let their waste get into lake Michigan. If you or I built a refinery and released anything measurable into the lake we wouldn’t be allowed to even build. Yet big oil, no problem.
United States still maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad—from giant “Little Americas” to small radar facilities. Britain, France and Russia, by contrast, have about 30 foreign bases combined.
You don’t really think that the US military is out there to spread peace and democracy, do you?
Just to put a spin on things…
We have bases everywhere because our allies are often too weak to do it themselves and we have treaties stating that we will support and defend them.
I’m not saying having a billion overseas bases is good, just that there is an explanation for it. I’d personally like to see several eliminated.
Not to mention, France and Britain’s militaries are castrated and Russia is militarizing the Arctic.
More like they are often too frightened (and justifiably so) because re-arming themselves would “disrupt” the regional power balance and US has a penchant for regime change when that happens, hence they have grown accustomed to behave according to their vassal condition. Hey, if I’m not allowed to have my own interests and my influence sphere, at least I get to enjoy the perks of the vassals…protection from my lord.
Only equals can call themselves allies. Weaker parties are vassals.
“Only equals can call themselves allies. Weaker parties are vassals.”
Not related but it reminds me of the statement, “Communication is only possible between equals.”
And I agree with what you state here.
Here is the head of the US Marine Corps spin on things…
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during
that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big
Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a
gangster for capitalism.
I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico
safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a
decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I
helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the
benefit of Wall Street.
I helped purify Nicaragua for the International
Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the
Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped
make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China
in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.
Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best
he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on
three continents.”
― Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket by America’s Most Decorated Soldier
A star for “war is a racket”.
Nothing has changed but we have to endure they fought for our freedom nonsense.
Yep, some definitely see it that way, too.
Yeah, we’d all be speaking Vietnamese right now and Saddam Hussein would be the president!…if not for the military! Thank you for your service!
… and it has nothing to do with global trade.
“What would libertarians — even conservatives — give today in order to return to an era in which the central government extracted 1% of the nation’s wealth? Where there was no income tax?”
Tricked on the Fourth of July
https://www.garynorth.com/public/16833.cfm
civic and especially ethno nationalism will cure all of this. once people start looking out for themselves and their own first everything should fall into place
‘billionaires’ – sounds a bit like ‘bill ayers’. Coincidence? Not to mention most billionaires seem to be as strangely communist as bill ayers himself.
Hmmmmm…
While people are hooked on television, factories are dismantled and shipped overseas.
While people get fired-up about Presidential candidates, factories are dismantled and shipped overseas.
While people stand and place their hands on their hearts for the singing of the national anthem at various sporting events, factories are dismantled and shipped overseas.
While people debate about invading a country, defending an ally, or supporting Israel, factories are dismantled and shipped overseas.
While people sleep, whether happy or bitter about events in daily life they can’t control anyway, factories are dismantled and shipped overseas.
Unemployed people complain about losing their jobs to low-wage foreign workers, but their next car purchase is Toyota or Hyundai.
To make a long story short, the people we vote for, work for, make rich, pull the rug out of under our feet when we are not looking. That’s after they stab us in the back. And of course, as aware of this as we claim to be, how often are we really expecting it.
The Federal Reserve is the beginning of the end of America. The central bank and the graduated income tax are planks of the Communist Manifesto by a friend of the show here, Mr. Karl Marx. Printing money out of thin air, and charging interest on that fiat currency to the U.S. Federal Government leads to massive debt America has. It destabilizes the economy, society, culture, and nation, of a country that is still great but slipping.
And the currency in America is not backed by gold. It hasn’t been for decades. Instead, it is propped up by Saudi oil.
Look at all this. Look at it honestly.
Do you think I’m stupid?
If so, that shows me you’re smart.
But any dummy on Earth can see
a)The secure jobs of yesteryear ain’t coming back.
b)Waste your time voting only if you like getting lied to and betrayed.
c)National debt in the USA will never be re-paid as long as the Federal Reserve exists.
d)More wars for profit so banks and corporations (who shipped your job overseas) can get richer.
e)More fuckery from the Gubment over you, me, and your offspring.
What’s the solution?
Keep up with the Kardashians. Their way is your way now. Find a way to become wealthy with whatever little-to-nothing you have to offer. At least you’ll get plenty of sex. That may help to soothe the pain of knowing that we are citizens of a nation that, not only our government, but our very ancestors, don’t give a handful of fuck about us.
All their schemes fail.
Why?
Because they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing, either.
they are already softening us for what is coming next- Ive seen articles of late on the new “hustle economy”- multiple jobs for one person. Also been a push for micro apartments and shared accommodations with other adults or strangers
Its kinda grim.
Actually surprised they haven’t seized private pensions yet. They have been talking about it for a decade.
why private pensions and not public ones too?
Why not both?
cheeseburgercheeseburger
“why private pensions and not public ones too?”
Communism. Elimination of private property.
The USA is no longer a republic, gents. Face it.
Public pensions are non-existant– it is paid by confiscatory taxation and/or more debt. Consider that two-thrids (>$2 trillion) of the US federal budget consists of social security, medicare and medicare, the public pensions are funded in the same way. Check out the unfunded liabilities in the state of CA or Illinios at the moment and the amount of retired state employees. Heh.
Private pensions (401k, IRAs) are actual wealth accumulated by invididuals who have invested or saved, or their employers paying partially into an existing plan, which I last checked held $4 trillion in personal retirement plans. One cannot have a pile of money near democrats they cannot touch for long, so like pedophiles at a kids birthday party they have been crafting storylines in order to molest. Obama and crew were squaking about appropriating private pension funds and paying people an annuity when they retire (link). I actually read Hillary Clinton proposing this BS back in 2008 in the old rag Businessweek, so they have smacking their lips about this for sometime.
https://moneymorning.com/2010/01/27/retirement-plans/
I haven’t looked at this in a few years, but I am noticing that a lot of other supporting information has been scrubbed from the web.
Everyday I’m hustlin. Dis nigga be stacking fat stacks daily. Hustlin
I KNEW you’d turn up.
Live in an eco-hovel; work yourself to death for money to spend in taxes and at retail. Reap no genuine reward along the way.
This is not a future fit for human beings.
“Live in an eco-hovel; work yourself to death for money to spend in taxes and at retail. Reap no genuine reward along the way.
This is not a future fit for human beings.”
You have said, in these few words, what I have failed to articulate. Thank you for doing that for me.
unless you’re born into the Ownership Class. Then, life is a sweet deal.
It’s already mostly like that in the city I live in.
Great comment, the Federal Reserve bank is an abomination to humanity
Psquare Thank you.
“Because they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing, either.”
Or do they, perhaps? Creating value out of thin air, that’s not an error
I think the Fed does know what it’s doing: keeping a nation at war keeps it continually in debt.
Want freedom from Central Banking? Let’s start with the aggressive pursuit of peace and downsizing of the Armed Forces.
As a third generation small business owner, I can write a book about how America is literally forcing businesses out of the country. Its disgusting. We could literally be self sufficient if we stopped negotiating losing deals with every country we do business with!
Most people have no clue how wealth is created or how the world operates. I see it in my own famly.
Write! Tell people what is going on.
“I can write a book about how America is literally forcing businesses out of the country.”
If you write it, tell me. I want to read it.
You SHOULD write a book about it. Find a good ghost writter to help you if needed, and use publicity to promote its sales and to push your agenda.
Where do I sign up to buy a copy of the book once it’s out?
Part of the problem is that we have had politicians who believe that we don’t “deserve” the success we have had, and think that is it their job to “right social injustice” by funneling money to other countries. Never mind that these same politicians are enriching themselves along the way.
Not completely true. Business that do business with ultra-rich clients (namely mine; I’m in jewelry and precious metals) are doing smashingly.
Can you make one slight change to that chart with the household income index? Extend the 08/09 recession shaded in blue thru 2015?
A talking head stated the USA hasnt had such tepid growth for such an extended period since the 1930s. But somehow, the recession ended in 09 and we are NOT in another great depression.
Yep. If the US unemployment rate is really in 5% or so range, I’ll suck Michelle Obama’s dick on live TV.
more like 22%
Gotta say this being banned thing is getting really old. Did GoJ throw you a few hundred bucks to keep banning me? SAD! I can do this all day bro.
they’ll NEVER stop the Peach Bandit, eh!
When factories in Mexico and Brazil who pay there workers something like $30 a week are closing up shop and moving to asia to reduce labor costs you know manufacturing is not coming back to the west in a hurry.
True. I worked for a large international company (which shall remain nameless) about a decade ago and was setting up a site in Eastern Europe together with the logistics director and we spoke about the manufacturing sites. He told me they were already planning to leave China as the costs continue to rise per unit and were already looking at Vietnam or Algeria (before the turmoil started in North Africa).
The labor instensive jobs go to the lowest bidder until they go full “Venezuela.” Then the pack up in the middle of the night, load the containers and disappear.
There must be a third choice besides this kind of extraction, robber-barron shit and communism…..
Sure there is, but that would require less opportunities for graft. The company got bought in the end as their competitors beat them to the punch.
Manufacturing still exists in the US. Our industrial output has doubled. It’s all automated though.
That was then, Now it’s today ?? Progressive have good intentions ??
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DD3b_QWWAAEi9nk.jpg
Fuckin’ gold.
They certainly are fucking gold
sounds painful
Few people bother to learn what progressives are progressing to and fall for the program’s marketing.
If someone in Mexico can do the same job for $3 an hour that a US person does for $18, the problem is not Mexico. That person’s low skills are the problem.
A factory worker in the US is not entitled to high paying, low skill job anymore than a McDonald’s French Fry maker deserves $15 an hour.
The problem is that a ‘growing economy’ no longer creates jobs, much less the highly skilled, highly paid kind.
Well more like the the person with low skills has a problem. If economists cheer-leading the global one market now had their jobs up for tender and had to compete with Indian & Chinese economists who were happy to do their job at a 1/6 of the pay and it would save the govt or university money, then they suddenly too would also have a problem. Not all manufacturing jobs lost to cheap overseas companies are necessarily zero skill jobs ie welder, machinist, fabricator, production planner, accounts clerks,
I’d hardly call $15/hr close to high paying. The thing is if suddenly all the millions of low skilled piled into university and graduated as architects, programmers, accountants, engineers, chemists, etc, its not like they are going to be overwhelmed with job offers. I read that the number of companies on the stock exchange has gone from like 7000 odd in the 90s to 4000 odd now. There are just not enough well paying jobs out there now to give prosperity to everyone who wants it. I can only see it getting harder with increased automation & AI. New generation multi billion $ companies like WhatsApp employ so few people they are not going to be the saviors to job seekers.
Better tariffs are NOT the answer.
Tariffs are just taxes.
Taxes just make governments stronger and benefit only govt slugs.
Taxes just raise the prices of goods without an increase in benefits.
Tariffs allow crappy domestic producers to slack off and make crap products.
(Can you imagine GM without any outside competition?)
A newer, more effective (progressive) system of taxes/tariffs is not the answer.
Eliminating taxes and nonsense regulations is the only lasting solution for long term stable prosperity.
What you tax you get less of, what you subsidize you get more of. So instead of taxing people for making money here in the USSA, lets tax people that spend money on goods made elsewhere. That is the point of tariffs. Of course I would only be in favor of a dollar for dollar trade off between the two taxes, so there is no increase in the leviathan.
If tariffs were introduced on imported vehicles I dont think GM would get away with making crap cars.there might not be the same pressure on them to innovate, but the US is the biggest consumer market in the world. It is too juicy a market for one producer to churn out shyte products with inflated sticker prices and not have numerous other local competitors jump into the market with a better product or more consumer friendly price.
Back in the 20s-70s before the Japanese rise up the manufacturing ranks, its not like the US auto industry wasn’t vibrant or lagged the rest of world in quality. It lead the world. Sure you paid more as a % of your salary for a car, but the middle classes still grew in prosperity. If it was just GM who had the whole of the US to itself, yeh then they would cruise on substandard quality with fat profit margins,
“The Nation wrote an article beginning with how all that was a crazy right-wing conspiracy theory.”
It is always a conspiracy theory even though the various foundations and government entities will publish the plans. The NAFTA superhighway was one such thing. After it got play suddenly the various websites had less and less information on it if I remember it correctly.
“About a century ago, the federal government got hooked on income tax, and it’s never been the same since.”
The modern income tax goes along with the federal reserve. It was also not to be a tax on wages. It started as a tax on the wealthy and their sources of income. Over time it morphed to a perception of taxes on the wages of ordinary people. Of course that perception becomes reality. Larkin Rose has a good multi-part video from the VHS days where he traces through how the laws and regulations were morphed over time and how the scam was accomplished by those means.
On 1860s tariffs. Consider that the Tariffs of those times was punishing to the southern states that imported goods because they lacked a manufacturing base of their own. They had a lot of the international trade both import and export and those tariffs were a large contributing factor to formation of the confederacy.
Thanks to the alleged free market economist Milton Friedman, we go the witholding tax and had it since WWII. Milton was also a Fed apologist. Free market except in money. Lot’s of dumbass MBA’s with the same functionally stupid opinion.
“Tariffs of those times was punishing to the southern states that
imported goods because they lacked a manufacturing base of their own”
Why did the southern states have to import..why not just buy from the northern states? Money stays in the economy and no tariffs.
It had to do with what they needed and transportation limitations at the time.
This article seems decent enough for a quick search:
http://www.emarotta.com/protective-tariffs-the-primary-cause-of-the-civil-war/
I quit America some time ago, so should you!
quitter!
All taxes, tariffs and “penalties” end up in the pockets of the political insiders, government non-workers and politicians. Why should I ever support any?.
Part of the problem is that we have a corrupt, incompetent, self-serving, political class who want as many people dependent on them as they can get. They believe that everything the people have belongs to the government. They want as much control over our lives as they can get. The elite are pushing us toward “1984”.
First wave in the 80s was US firms vs Japanese and Germans. That being said, it was a different paradigm. Now US companies outsource overseas. Apple manufactures in China, Google licenses Android to various foreign vendors. Almost nothing marketed by an American company is actually built in the US.
Free trade is only beneficial when it’s between two countries with similar living standards. That is why it works with Germany and Japan but hurts America when its China and Mexico. Trade with low wage countries means high wage countries just send their production and therefore their jobs overseas.