Recession or not, it hurts. And there's only one thing that can get us back on track. Jobs!
Following every other recession, we've had jobs to revitalize us. Now those jobs are in other countries.
We're even looking at the positive side of $4 gas ... as the cost of importing product goes up, bringing jobs back to the states looks better each day. Toyota is now moving a Prius plant to the U.S.
Barack Obama wants to eliminate subsidies to companies that outsource jobs to other countries, and indeed we should. But we also should ask why politicians gave these taxpayer-funded favors in the first place.
That's easy. Our moneyed electoral system demands it - politicians from both parties taking money to do exactly opposite of what is in the best interest of the country. It will ultimately cost us our democracy.
Correction, it already has.
I don't care that our GDP is growing. We are spending increasing amounts of money on gas, food and health care. How else would you expect the GDP to respond? And when the newly-rich foreigners - you know, the ones who now have our jobs - buy products from the U.S., it is also added to our growing GDP.
And you thought our GDP represented only American spending?
I don't care if the "average personal income" is rising faster than inflation. That's because the salaries for our richest CEOs are rising at 25 percent even while those at the bottom are in an effective nosedive. That'll show a positive every time.
What I do care about is that an ever-higher percentage of my family's personal income is going to satisfy the millionaires that line the pockets of the politicians, and less of our individual income is going to savings and to my family's needs.
I call that a "recession," but you can call it whatever you want.
We wonder why resources are not available for education, health care, and social structure. And even FDA oversight of our foods and drugs or to catch up on the nation's DNA testing so we can catch rapists and murderers. We're out of money, and what money we do have is going into someone else's pockets. Someone big.
Our nation's resources instead are being transferred to the wealthiest among us, thus those dollars aren't available for needed purposes. Simply, the rich are getting richer.
Our CEOs may be greedy, but they aren't stupid. They know how to spend money to make money, and their easiest mark is the politician. Much easier than legitimately competing in the marketplace.
Deregulation adds to the bottom line, and they can't get that through competitiveness. Only politicians can give it to them on a regular basis, so they buy them with campaign dollars.
We blame our demise on politicians who make bad decisions, but that lets the CEOs off the hook. The politicians simply are being paid to implement the CEOs' bad decisions. Blame them for letting payola influence their votes, but blame the private sector for the bad spending decisions that result.
Instead of a democratically-controlled Congress and Legislature, they are controlled by special-interest money. It is that process that must be changed.
Political corruption is not going away, at least not easily. If politicians are to be beholden to their funders, those funders should be the taxpayers. And at a cost of $5 per taxpayer per year, public funding of campaigns would be a bargain.
But that's not what current politicians want; they like the financial advantage that comes with incumbency, and the last thing in the world they want is a level playing field. Good guys these.
So let me restate the opening: There are two things that can get us back on track: new jobs and new politicians. Only a complete turnover of politicians
- Jack Lohman is a retired business owner from Colgate and publishes http://MoneyedPoliticians.net. He authored "Politicians - Owned and Operated by Corporate America" and can be reached at jlohman@execpc.com.
Following every other recession, we've had jobs to revitalize us. Now those jobs are in other countries.
We're even looking at the positive side of $4 gas ... as the cost of importing product goes up, bringing jobs back to the states looks better each day. Toyota is now moving a Prius plant to the U.S.
Barack Obama wants to eliminate subsidies to companies that outsource jobs to other countries, and indeed we should. But we also should ask why politicians gave these taxpayer-funded favors in the first place.
That's easy. Our moneyed electoral system demands it - politicians from both parties taking money to do exactly opposite of what is in the best interest of the country. It will ultimately cost us our democracy.
Correction, it already has.
I don't care that our GDP is growing. We are spending increasing amounts of money on gas, food and health care. How else would you expect the GDP to respond? And when the newly-rich foreigners - you know, the ones who now have our jobs - buy products from the U.S., it is also added to our growing GDP.
And you thought our GDP represented only American spending?
I don't care if the "average personal income" is rising faster than inflation. That's because the salaries for our richest CEOs are rising at 25 percent even while those at the bottom are in an effective nosedive. That'll show a positive every time.
What I do care about is that an ever-higher percentage of my family's personal income is going to satisfy the millionaires that line the pockets of the politicians, and less of our individual income is going to savings and to my family's needs.
I call that a "recession," but you can call it whatever you want.
We wonder why resources are not available for education, health care, and social structure. And even FDA oversight of our foods and drugs or to catch up on the nation's DNA testing so we can catch rapists and murderers. We're out of money, and what money we do have is going into someone else's pockets. Someone big.
Our nation's resources instead are being transferred to the wealthiest among us, thus those dollars aren't available for needed purposes. Simply, the rich are getting richer.
Our CEOs may be greedy, but they aren't stupid. They know how to spend money to make money, and their easiest mark is the politician. Much easier than legitimately competing in the marketplace.
Deregulation adds to the bottom line, and they can't get that through competitiveness. Only politicians can give it to them on a regular basis, so they buy them with campaign dollars.
We blame our demise on politicians who make bad decisions, but that lets the CEOs off the hook. The politicians simply are being paid to implement the CEOs' bad decisions. Blame them for letting payola influence their votes, but blame the private sector for the bad spending decisions that result.
Instead of a democratically-controlled Congress and Legislature, they are controlled by special-interest money. It is that process that must be changed.
Political corruption is not going away, at least not easily. If politicians are to be beholden to their funders, those funders should be the taxpayers. And at a cost of $5 per taxpayer per year, public funding of campaigns would be a bargain.
But that's not what current politicians want; they like the financial advantage that comes with incumbency, and the last thing in the world they want is a level playing field. Good guys these.
So let me restate the opening: There are two things that can get us back on track: new jobs and new politicians. Only a complete turnover of politicians
- Jack Lohman is a retired business owner from Colgate and publishes http://MoneyedPoliticians.net. He authored "Politicians - Owned and Operated by Corporate America" and can be reached at jlohman@execpc.com.
