Yesterday, a young communist challenged Limbaugh, show me the money! by Mark Vogl
(conservative)
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Rush Limbaugh is truly an important personality in today's America. He is not the complete answer to a broken American media, or broken Republican Party. One man can't do it all. The other conservative talk show hosts, Hannity, Beck, Savage, etc are not anywhere near as important, or as relevant to the consideration of America's troubles as Rush. Each of them has their own small purpose, and together they voice the neo conservative argument for America's defense of Israel and our occupation of the Middle East. But, only Limbaugh really speaks for mid America. I don't agree with Rush on everything but I respect him immensely for his success as a thinker, broadcaster, conservative leader and American.
Yesterday a young man called Rush to voice his belief that the government must redistribute the wealth, since the rich wouldn’t. Repeatedly the college student said that the people with money were hoarding it, not doing anything with it for the nation. The youth did not back down one step during his lengthy appearance on the show.
Unfortunately, at least from my perspective, Rush did not do the best job in countering the youth's argument...and so in this essay I would like to talk about the "rich" and where the money is going. Some of what I will say, Rush may not like. But, I believe what I am about to write is the truth, and explains alot of why the United States economy is in trouble.
First, let’s more clearly define the "rich." The communist youth was talking about individuals, and probably y would include Rush as one of the rich. But for me, the rich, those in control of large amounts of capital is much more than the personal rich. Large amounts of capital are controlled by union pension funds, mutual funds, investment houses, the health care industry, international corporations, banks, etc. Of course the individually wealthy are also a part of this slice of America.
Now, when the economy, the American economy is not doing well, the rich...all of the above do NOT put their dollars in a mattress. The money is not withdrawn from the world and placed in boxes and hidden somewhere. The money remains in the world, in investments. For corporations earning money, the funds may be placed in the "least risk" type savings accounts and held. In today's economy, where companies do not know what their tax liabilities will be, what is the future of Obama Care, and how the United States will choose to deal with a 17 trillion dollar national debt, making long term building and product investment plans just would not make sense. Who would invest large sums of money in new product lines that may never reach the market?
So the dollars are placed in "least risk" investments within the United States...or...and here's what Rush may not like, the monies could be invested outside the United States! You see those responsible for the care and stewardship of funds will do as the story in the Bible tells us. They will attempt to invest it wisely to earn a return. Globalism is about this...it is about offering people, corporations, unions, organizations with money a buffet of investment opportunities. And this buffet no longer resides primarily in America. So, American money is being invested overseas. Globalism encourages this. Globalism is the free movement of money, people, ideas and product across national boundaries.
Globalism is taking American money from America, and investing outside of America. The result of that is the exodus of American industry and jobs. Uneducated folks in third world nations are employed at much lower investment costs, to create goods at a cheaper price, to sell in the rich (though dying) markets like America.
American nationalism is a dying social force. Whether a company was born in the US, or did most of its business here in the past, that is no longer their sole business interest. Globalism offers new places to invest money. New countries that don’t have unions, don't have strict environmental laws, new countries that don't have the high social infra-structure costs of the United States. Money can leave America and create jobs in Central America, eastern Europe, China, and grow at a much quicker rate than in America.
Now is all money leaving America? No. But given our credit driven government spending, our lack of American nationalism, our over educated labor force, our "diversity" which has robbed America of a central nationalism, enough money is leaving America, combined with a huge trade imbalance, a structurally flawed federal budget, and unclear future to insure that domestic investment which could create jobs is all but gone.
In large part America has "educated" itself out of work. The huge blue collar workforce responsible for the America of the 20th century was demeaned and belittled by an academic elite that over built a higher education infra-structure. America has at least one third too many colleges and universities, and at least one third too many college graduates, and many, many more people who wasted time attending college for a period of time. What we don't have is plumbers, carpenters, electricians, sheet metal workers, and most importantly craftsmen. We don't make things here in America. And we don't have an economy built on the concept of qualitative "spread".
America’s economy has been built on volume. The more you create, the more you sell, the more you earn. But quality, as a means of earning is almost nonexistent. When you look at America's cars, trucks, etc. they are all THE SAME! You can't order a car to your liking. You can't chose wood paneling over the plastics they use now. You can't choose a more powerful engine, or an old style engine, one that operates without computers. Same with furniture, or clocks, or almost anything you can think of. Individualism of the end product, and quality are not features of today's product lines. There are only two factors of today's product lines...boundless quantity, and price.
Centralization of government, and also of business has robbed America of its natural ability to blossom in tough times. Because all systems and decisions are centralized, when a system fails or a decision is wrong, all suffer. Compartmentalization, the practice of protecting things by dividing them and decentralizing them, is no longer a practice in America. And because of that, America is homogenizing into a kind of non-descript vanilla. There is no individual excellence, no individual experimentation and creativity. Instead standardization and mass production are the only practices with economic viability.
Back to the original question, where do the rich put their money? Where they don't put it is in small investments to create qualitatively better and unique product lines. Where they don't put it is in regionally friendly investments. Instead, they look for large, relatively safe, long term investment opportunities. While technologies have advanced the development of some product areas, like communications, technology has also robbed man kind of the quality of individual creation and the craftsmanship handed down through centuries.
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Posted By: Joel S. Hirschhorn
Date: November 4, 2011 05:22:02 PM
Here is one statistical fact that blew my mind the other day: right now Americans with wealth have $7 TRILLION in cash earning next to nothing. They are not spending as much as they could and they certainly are not investing, both of which are sorely needed to reboot the economy. Add to that about $2 trillion in cash that companies are sitting on, including, for example, $80 billion that Apple is sitting on.
If even half of all this cash was put to use more actively in the economy, our depressed economic state would be quickly sent into high gear.
Posted By: jamesluko
Date: November 7, 2011 12:20:52 AM
Mark, I would take great issue with your statement that "we don't make things here in America." These types of misinformed statements continue to create a false image that America is no longer an industrial power and lacks an industrial base. America remains the worlds largest manufacturer, yes, bigger than China, and over the past five years has continued to be the largest industrial exporter- more than China or Germany or Japan. Your misinformed statement totally ignores large industrial factories in America such as catepillar, Hughes electronics, motorola, GM, Chrysler, Ford, Johnson Tools, Boeing, McDonnel Douglas, Monsanto, etc. etc. manufacturing high precision instruments, cars, motors, tractors, medical instruments, defense and aerospace products which are unrivaled in the world. Please see my article published here on Nolan Chart last year entitled: "Made in the USA: Still Number One" to educate yourself in the global role that American manufacturing still plays.
Posted By: Mark Vogl
Date: November 7, 2011 10:04:16 AM
Joel, people don't invest their money to create jobs. They invest to earn profits. America has robbed that environment by running 17 trillion in debt, and passing Obama Care. Who would invest in America when you can never know how much the government will take?! It is our own policies which are forcing American savings to remain dorment. And James, your response did not address the mass exodux of American industry or the huge trade imbalances which drain wealth from America. And much of what you did list is funded through government contracts..not by the private sector market. America is failing...its obvious, persistent, and caused by our own trade and industrial policies. Debate all you want..but manufacturing jobs have been in decline for decades as a percentage of the American work force.
Posted By: jamesluko
Date: November 8, 2011 08:23:37 AM
Mark, no my response did not address other issues- like the exodus of “some” American factories, but directly responded to your statement that “american doesn't make anything” as being far from reality and a common misconception about the American economy. Some US industry left to other countries to avoid health, safety and pollution regulations- as well as cheap labor. However, in recent years, the majority of “relative” industrial decline has a lot more to do with increased productivity due to robots and technology- NOT an exodus of US industry to other countries. Surely you are not fighting to keep American workers to be building bricks and assembling plastic toys? Our labor market is far above that level. Regarding trade imbalances, well, as you yourself assert, so much American business has gone overseas- actually, a large part of our trade deficit is actually AMERICAN companies importing goods from American companies overseas- which at low prices- drastically increases the American standard of living- i.e. Americans can buy more consumer products with less money. Indeed, compared to services and our information economy, manufacturing is in “RELATIVE” decline, however, American manufacturing has continued to grow and 7 out of 10 new jobs in America in the past several years has been in manufacturing. In fact, manufacturing in “absolute” terms has doubled from 1986- representing about 800-900 billion dollars, to today representing 1.7 TRILLION dollars- a huge increase in absolute terms- only outdone by services as a relative share of the American economic pie. My point however, remains- that your statement is extremely misinformed and continues a popular misconception that we are no longer a major industrial power and that American manufacturing is in decline- ITS NOT- as stated above, in absolute terms it has doubled since 1986, and a majority of industrial job losses in the past 10 years are mainly due to increased productivity- less workers doing more- rather than outsourcing or factories moving to China. My God, are you really trying to keep Americans punching pieces of rubber for shoes all their life or working in a cement factory ? Rather than the hi-tech and hi-wages of America's manufacturing industry of today? Your statement that a majority of American industrial contracts is due to government spending is WAY OFF the mark, Mark- sorry for the pun! Actually, if you research the subject for just a few minutes in preparation for your article, you would see that of the 1.3 TRILLION dollars America exported last year, the MAJORITY is comprised of industrial manufactured products- that's right- MADE IN THE USA. Of those exports, 90% consisted of capital goods- industrial supplies, silicon chips, aircraft, motor vehicles and parts, computers, telecomms, chemical, medicines. Therefore, it is absolutely incorrect to attribute the majority of American industrial contracts to government orders. We export and sell domestically to our other industries- mining, natural resources, etc. etc. the best industrial tooling and precision instruments. If you travel around the world, American precision medical equipment dominates- beating out Siemens from Germany. Just research American manufacturing to learn that 22-25 million Americans remain employed- with high wages- by American factories. Don't forget Mark, 2/3rds of our economy is “domestically” produced and “domestically” consumed.
