Loss of Manufacturing Jobs

Assume that Z, Inc builds a new factory to manufacture widgets.
There are many construction jobs created in order to build the
factory. When the construction is complete, those jobs are
“lost.”
With input from the workers, innovative ideas are used to make
the manufacturing process more safe and efficient. Dangerous
and repetitive work is automated. Productivity increases.
Some of this increase is due to workers becoming more skilled
in their assigned functions. Most of the increase is due to
automation. The workers should be paid more for the
productivity increases due to their increased skill. The
investors should be paid more for the productivity increases
due to their investment in automation. With continued
productivity increases the number of widgets required to meet
demand can be manufactured with fewer workers. Jobs are “lost.”
If workers demand higher wages than justified by their share of
the productivity increases, then management may decide to
increase automation or rebuild the factory where wages are lower.
Either way, jobs are “lost.”
This is a simplified description of how manufacturing matures
and how jobs are lost. I have known this since I read Future
Shock four decades ago. Those who have a vested interest in
wages would deny it and say that management and investors are
greedy. It is a simplified description because it ignores tax
policy, the effect of government regulation, competition from X
and Y, Inc and foreign companies and many other variables.
It is not a catastrophe to lose jobs in labor-intensive
industries – except to low-skilled workers – while higher-paying
jobs are created in high-tech, high-touch industries like
computers and medicine. The jobs are not “shipped overseas,”
but the manufacturing matured. China and India, with billions
more workers have lower wages because of the much greater
supply of available, skilled labor.

The Roots of Obama's Rage - D'Souza

Barack Obama, Sr grew up in the British colony of Kenya.
Barry's (Jr) stepdad, Lolo Soetoro grew up in the Dutch
colony of Indonesia. Both father and stepfather were
anti-colonialists. They believed that nations have become
rich on the backs of their colonies; i.e. the “rich” have
become rich at the expense of the poor.
Barry is multiracial and multicultural. He is mulatto,
the son of a black father and a white mother. He grew
up in Hawaii and Indonesia. Barry only met has father once.
He was 10 years old and living in Hawaii. His first book is
Dreams From My Father published in 1995 and again 2005.
To illustrate how his ideology governs policy, Barry
used the BP oil spill to prohibit drilling in the Gulf of
Mexico. At the same time, the U.S. Export-Import Bank offered
$2 billion in loans and guarantees to Brazil's state-controlled
oil country Petrobras for offshore drilling.

Notice to School Boards

You are responsible for the education of children in Aiken
County. Part of that responsibility is to protect them
from error. We have seen a lack of integrity among
scientists involved in “Climategate” where data was selected
to prove a premise. There are great rewards such as grants
– and even Oscars and Nobel Prizes for politicians who sell
the false premise.
I received my Master of Science degree in 1969
(U. of Missouri), so I have decades of experience in the
scientific world. The recent lack of integrity among
scientists is not isolated to the global warming scam.
Those scientists who believe in the evolution idea have
actively suppressed data which questions the idea. I do
not call the evolution idea a theory because it is not
science. No “theory” of origins may be science, because
science is about observations, hypotheses and repeatable
experiments by peers.
John Dewey signed the first Humanist Manifesto in
1933. It states that “The universe is self-existing and
not created.” He was at Columbia University training
teachers. Humanist ideas have become embedded in both
teachers and textbooks that they have written.
My Bible tells me that Jesus Christ created
everything. To teach otherwise is to deny Him. My Bible
also tells me that those who deny Him will spend eternity
in the lake of fire. You may be a born-again believer,
but, if you even passively allow error to be taught by
those under your control, you will soon answer to God for
that failure. To whom much is given, much is expected.

Politics

The word comes from two roots:
poli - many
ticks - blood suckers
Politics is "many blood suckers"

Last Gasps of the Democratic Majority

We should be outraged at the activities of the Federal
Government. They continue to break the law despite their
recent rhetoric. The Congress failed in their primary
responsibility – to evaluate the President's budget and
appropriate monies to fund Constitutional activities of
government.
Fiscal Year 2011 began 1 October with none of the
appropriations bills passed. As is customary, the Congress
has passed two Continuing Resolutions with deadlines of 4
December and 18 December to fund the government. The
leadership then uses extortion to force the rest of House
and Senate members to vote for legislation they would
normally defeat.
The line-item veto would not be necessary if Congress
ever passed a “clean” bill. The bill to prevent tax
increases on 1 January, forced Congress to extend
unemployment compensation (UC) another 13 months. The 2%
decrease in F.I.C.A. Payroll deductions will be an excellent
stimulus. It is strange that putting more in the workers
money was not tried earlier. The bailouts of unions and
mismanaged states obviously did not work. We are
“heartless and without compassion for fellow Americans”
if we do not extend UC to 99 weeks plus 13 months at Hanukah
and Christmas! It is possible that those folks on UC after
99 weeks are waiting for jobs which will never return. Over
three years of UC is as dumb as FDR's program to kill and
bury hogs and dump milk down sewers in the 1930s when
Americans went hungry. As Margaret Thatcher said,
socialism [central planning] fails because eventually you run
out of other peoples' money!
Congress wants to repeal “don't ask, don't tell”, pass START
and pass a CR with a deadline of February or March or … The
Conservatives need to stand firmly until they are dismissed.
The world will not stop turning if these matters wait until
5 January 2011 or later.
If you have read this blog at all, then you know that I favor
the Fair Tax as the needed stimulus. BHO has been anti-business.
Whether he is a socialist or simply anti-colonialist, his
policies work against a business recovery – since they are
anti-capitalist. At least one Federal Judge has also agreed
that the policies are also illegal (unconstitutional).

Tasks for the 2010 Congress

Hopefully we will see a different attitude when the
new Congress convenes in January. Few Congressmen are
talking about tax reform yet. This is surprising
considering what TEA stands for.
A real stimulus to the economy would have been to
implement the Fair Tax. If the Congress will cut the
corporate tax rate and stop picking winners and losers,
then that will be a good start. Our corporations pay the
second largest tax of the developed nations. Combine
that fact with the regulations for environment and labor,
and it is hard to understand why there are still factories
in the U.S.
Right now the Republicans could agree to "tax the rich"
while exempting and cutting taxes on small businesses who
are part of the "rich" and extending the other "Bush tax
cuts." The problem is that the "rich" are mobile. An
obvious example is the baseball player who plays for a NYC
team but lives in Florida. With decreased freedom in the
U.S. (heritage.org/index), it makes sense to leave the U.S.
Congress needs to get the Federal government out of
Education. Both DOEs have been costly failures. We trail
most developed nations in test scores, and we have no place
to store nuclear waste after spending $14B. We heavily
subsidize uneconomic energy sources while paying billion$
to our enemies each day. We need to cut agricultural
subsidies immediately for farms with a net profit over $1M
and by 10% each year for all other farms. We need to reduce
our overseas military presence in Europe, Japan and Korea by
10% each year. We continue to spend far more for defense as
a percentage of GDP than any other nation - and our GDP is
more than triple that of any other nation. We are broke,
and we can no longer be the world's policeman. That is
supposed to be the function of the United Nations, and we
need to tell it when it fails.
The U.S. should pay no more to the United Nations than
any other member of the Security Council (ex. Gabon). Some
want to get out completely, but that would confirm the false
claims of imperialism and war mongering. The UN is still a
useful tool for political dialogue - however ineffective.
However, to pay over 20% of the entire costs to be constantly
insulted is stupid! The U.S. should suggest to our creditors
whose debt to us has been "forgiven" in the past that they
should forgive our debt now that the "goose laying the golden
eggs" is now broke.
We must remember that the United States of America is the
greatest nation on the planet because of our form of government
and the freedoms that it gives. We must protect it from those
domestic and foreign enemies who would subvert it.

Where do we go from here?

The Republicans won a net of about 63 seats in the House
of Representatives and about 8 in the Senate. Just as
important was the net increase in Republican Governors and
Republican-controlled state legislatures. Early next year
(8 weeks), the state legislatures will determine the
districts to be represented by the newly apportioned (2010
Census) House of Representatives.
The Republicans do not control the Senate or the
Executive Branch, but they will control who the checks are
written to. They can control the czars and czarinas by
defunding their bureaucracies. They can defund the EPA's
regulation of carbon dioxide. They can defund the
government jobs given as rewards for political support.
They can even defund the creations of previous
“progressives”: The Department of Agriculture, The
Department of Education, The Department of Energy, etc.
The Republicans – and the Democrats – need to understand
that the American people want the rule of law in the United
States. Politicians – like the Illinois Congressman who
said “I don't care what the Constitution says, it's the right
thing to do” - must realize that the Constitution is the law,
and they are criminals if they violate it. If they have sworn
an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution against all
enemies foreign and domestic”, then it is treason to violate
that oath. Congress may no longer pass laws without concern
for their constitutionality and defer to the Federal courts to
determine the legality.
The Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party movement is a group
of American citizens – most without political ambitions – who
love America and its Constitution. Many favor the Fair Tax
because it gives freedom to the individual. It frees American
corporations to compete in the global economy. It should
create a booming economy that would be the envy of the world.
It is the America capitalist system which rewards hard work
and innovation which has made America great. We do not need
to apologize for what we have achieved.
We need to let the United Nations be the world's policeman –
and hold it accountable. We should pay no more dues and
expenses than any other member of the Security Council (Gabon
for example). Our funding for the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank should be no more than any other voting member.
We have a national debt of almost $14T. Unfunded obligations
for Social Security, Medicare, Medicare Prescription Drug, etc.
make the debt more like $100T. We are broke. We are also
strong, smart, innovative, and we have a good foundation as a
constitutional republic. We have more than 200 years of
successful experience. Our schools can again be good if we
return to the Truth. We should proudly repeat our Pledge of
Allegiance and “In God We Trust,” and challenge those who would
diminish our founding principles.