CORPORATIONS ACCOUNTING FOR KILLING OUR ECONOMY

DUE TO: US Corporations taking advantage of the practice of outsourcing and exploiting cheap labor forces in destitute economies, they have eroded the US job markets, cutting into consumers' ability to spend and proportionally cutting away at the whole of our economy. The mass use of this exploitation was to strengthen their own corporate image among shareholders in a shaky economy, and so the problem isn't circumstantial but instead systematic and has been going on for a long time. Make no mistake: corporations see consumers as a resource for themselves to make money both by their own products and by the confidence of investors. They have no problem with abusing the consumer market as long as they benefit.

On the flipside, they are exploiting the labor of poor countries yet sending away US dollars into foreign markets. While this money is perhaps less than they would pay for equivilant numbers of workers or in providing work environments up to US legal standards and conditions dictated by workers' rights, they would at least help to reduce the amount of money bleeding away.

If corporations refuse to use their own spending ability to increase the amount of money in the US consumer market and thereby create an ACTUAL stability in their own profits, than they should be fined or taxed in proportion to their impact on the job market, taxability and spending of US consumers. The money they make off us is disproportionate to the amount of money they are sending over seas, while at the same time cutting back on jobs we need and money we've earned.

Corporations should be held accountable for their detrimental effects on the US economy. While they might have the short term solution of cutting costs and increasing productivity, they've essentially eroded the basis of their own prophits and lowered the confidence of consumers across the board. If they won't reinvest some of their profits and encourage growth at home, they should be taxed in proportion to the amount of services the government is forced to take to make up for their failings.

CORPORATIONS SHOULD ANSWER FOR AILING ECONOMY

Until the last few years we've been able to take comfort in a strong economy despite the growing number of jobs being imported to cheaper labor forces in other countries. This has been the case for years in the garment industry but now was stretching into corporate America. In the past few years as corporations tried to stem bleeding budgets and recover losses, they began a mass exodus of staple middle-class jobs like call centers, customer service, manufacturing.

Not only have these corporations moved these jobs to other nations, but they've exploited the low wages, standards of living, and lack of workers rights to produce cheaper products, streamline services, and ultimately reduce the economic capacity of middle-America. Fewer jobs equals fewer people who can buy things. This equals lower sales, less homeowners, lower credit, higher rates of people defaulting on loans, etc...

The variable rate mortages were another way of taking advantage of a seemingly strong economy held together by these stable corporate earnings and low interest rates, but ultimately as gas prices started to rise and put a crunch on every other industry, along with the further erosion of the US job market, people couldn't live on the type of credit they'd come to rely on.

Corporations that export labor are one of the most important factors to our ailing economy. Bring those jobs home, and even if they aren't proportionally creating as many jobs here due to minimum wages, at least they'll bring some mobility to the work force. If they don't bring jobs home, and insist on spreading those corporate dollars earned from US consumers, they should be taxed in proportion to the amount of money that they are bleeding away from our own economy.

GAS PRICES!!!!! AAAAAAHHH!!!!

Oh JESUS! The gas prices are so high and they aren't going to be going down. By summer they will be over $4/gallon and while this isn't nearly as bad as it is in the Europe, they don't have nearly as far or much to drive as we do in the US. What is the biggest problem? If you work anything of a 'typical' work day, 9am-5pm, you are going to end up sitting in traffic and using some of those precious gallons of gas just sitting on the highway.

I love it how there was a big mess in the news about high gas prices and how oil execs were posting record profits and paychecks. That they were then brought before Congress for a day or two of hearings and then no one was indicted is a crime. how is the working class supposed to survive when the prices of food are escalating, the prices of gas is continually rising day by day, and the rate of new jobs created and people hired continues to proportionally go down. You cannot have an economy that bounces back or has any hope of surviving when more and more people are being put into poverty and unemployment while every aspect of living costs skyrocket.

Meanwhile our half-whit-in-chief talks about taking measures to curb rising gas prices by getting Ethanol to wider markets. Meanwhile Ethanol is incredibly cost-ineffective and is causing the change of cash crops in countries around the world to switch from rice to corn for ethanol while most of the world is starving for and paying record prices for the rice they depend on as part of their diet.

It's a good thing all those truck-drivers with their 'support the troupes' and American flag stickers on their trucks voted for George Bush. I hope they suffer the most.

Rich Libral Monster...

St. Paul Minnesota is going to be the home of the 2008 Republican National Convention, in the Excell Center looking over the Historic Riverfront. The problem, though, is where are the republicans going to stay? Where are they going to eat? Where are they going to spend their money? Minnesota, and especially the Twin Cities are strongly liberal. The large younger population in Minneapolis means that that city tends to be more progressive. The St. Paul population is different. There are a lot of families, young and old, and many long-time residents. It is also a city that has made a mission out of preserving its more historic areas.

Over the past decades, however, this has meant that the projects, funding, and interest of the city was distributed among its different neighborhoods, and since there are several colleges with long histories in St. Paul, it is not hard to see why. However, this has meant that the downtown area which boasted numerous shops and dining during the sixties and seventies has shriveled up to a single Macy's which is chugging along until it's lease is up and then there'll be one more empty building downtown. In fact, there is one building already that is completely empty, it's owner having left it to stand, the street level boarded up, for almost a decade. The building isn't small either, but a dozen stories. This is the city that the republicans are coming to.

When the convention was first announced, the mayor defended the situation by saying it should attract $150 million in revenue, despite what money would be required to prepare for it. That was a few years ago. Now, however, looking at less than a year away, it is scary to think what will happen when they come. Where are those millions going to come from?

This diatribe has a point, though. The catalyst for this situation is what I will call a rabid form of self-satisfying, self-righteous, and self-glorifying liberalism on the part of upper middle class and upper class long-time citizens of this area. They'll create projects of affordable housing in neighborhoods with little crime and good schools, as long as it isn't in their neighborhood. As long as they can rely on those working class and poor people not to cross the street that marks the edge of the secluded wealthy houses than it is an act of a good old liberal. They want to preserve the historic nature of Victoria Crossing, an area with small shops and a collection of bars and restaurants which guarantees two things: night life and consistent business, though the area has benefited from their inclusion of a Bonfire Grill, a J-Crew, and a Pottery Barn.

All of this is completely overshadows the importance of a downtown filled with offices where the only places that survive do so because of their lunch crowd. The most successful shop, it seems, is the tiny candy and popcorn store which is busy at all hours and open three or four hours after everything else except bars shut down. There is little nightlife, and what of it there is scratches and claws a living out in spite of no help from the city.

Still, the good old liberals go on in their self-satisfying way, helping those poor, the blacks, the Hmong, and the Latinos, as long as it isn't bringing them into to their neighborhood, or into the schools where their children attend.