Do the powerful in the US not care if they kill the goose that laid the golden eggs?

[raccoon]

That goose is the American consumer. And it's been in ICU for years.

Do they not realize that people who work in a McJob, making McJob wages, can't consume as much as, say, an auto worker, unionized and full-time with benefits? The McJob worker can consume for a while beyond his means, using credit and home-equity loans. But you don't have to be John Kenneth Galbraith to know that that can't last.

:shrug:

[grannie4peace]

1. they think they lay those eggs!

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. Short sighted mega profits driven greedy rat bastards. The Lot of Them.

No they don't care.

[SteppingRazor]

3. I think there's a difference between individuals and the capitalist class as a whole.

If you ask any individual, sure, they're willing to admit that the situation you describe is unsustainable. But as long as everybody else is paying McWages, they'll be damned if they're the only one who won't. Thus, while they're smart goes and gals individually, as a collective, they're stupid.

It's the same situation with smart environmentalism. Clearly, in the long run, it's actually cheaper to not dump toxic chemicals in the nearest lake, rather than eventually be discovered and have to pay out billions in clean-up costs and lawsuits. And yet, environmental sustainability is treated as a sick joke among a lot of business leaders.

[Donnachaidh]

4. they want to make the american middle class work for the *company store*

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogoct08/serfdom10-08.html

"The system's most pernicious feature: the worker/serf never escaped debt. Indeed, the system was constructed to increase the debt to the point it could never be paid off, insuring a lifetime of profitable servitude to the nobility/corporation."

Just think of all the income streams being set up for the uber-wealthy right now, while the clamps are being fashioned for our CHILDREN.

[terisan]

5. Immelt, head of GE, and advisor to administration has said it is the emerging markets

that are important.

300 million people-even if they are Americans-are no longer very important as a market. Our population is too small. All growth is in the emerging markets-India, China, S. America.

GE , parent company of MSNBC, received bailout loan guarantees but they aim to invest overseas. (Things Keith doesn't tell us).

Immelt makes 14 million +; Keith makes 7 million+. Wonder where they invest their personal wealth.

[Moostache]

11. Yes, but here's the rub...

True, there are far more people in "emerging markets"....BUT, those people earn NOTHING...I mean the McJob's of America are actually GOOD PAYING JOBS for India or China or Vietnam/Thailand/Laos!

What the ruling elites utterly fail to recognize is that by moving manufacturing jobs from America overseas to exploit cheap labor and lax environmental standards (or more accurately NO standards) they kill themselves ultimately. If Americans, even those stuck in shitty jobs with low pay and no benefits, are being paid TOO MUCH, and still cannot afford to buy goods and services that are enriching the very few and exploiting everyone else, then what the hell do they think an Indian making 1/7th as much money is going to buy???

It is a simple equation really. There is only so much "money" or "value" available. If a small group of say fewer than 0.1% of ALL PEOPLE ON The globe HOARD UP TO 40% of it, that makes for a large imbalance in the system. This has been happening for a good 30 years or so already and in America it was masked by credit and buying on margins and over-extending the workers' meager pay.

Business owners ALWAYS seem to focus on the very, very short-term these days...the next business cycle is only 90 days away...yet their collective actions are myopic and suicidal in the end. When you send away the jobs, cut the pay, eliminate the benefits (which is really just another way of cutting pay) AND bribe everyone in government to eliminate regulations - all in service of increasing the share of the total that they themselves keep! What you get is a toxic stew of very wealthy people trying to squeeze ever more out of the larger group of very poor or soon-to-be very poor. They are a cancer on humanity, and like the more virulent types of cancer, they simply take over a healthy system, pervert it to do their bidding and then once that cell/host/system is destroyed, they metastasize elsewhere....the sad fact is though that even if they can find another market to exploit for cheaper labor and less regulation, in time runaway cancer kills the entire body...healthy cells AND cancerous cells. Its a suicide mission they are on and it is well past time for society to start radical therapy....

Surgically remove the tumors (greedy, over-reaching business criminals)...
Chemo-therapy and Radiology (HARSH, HARSH regulations that may also inadvertently harm some healthy parts too) should be returned...
And Preventative measures (such as new laws to prohibit such excesses and actual prosecutions of the current criminals for everything the weight of law can hit them with) are also essential...

We either die a slow death lying down and doing nothing, or we take our chances on destroying the root cause and trying to rebuild and strengthen that which does survive. Make no mistake though...if we do nothing (or continue using snake-oil and charlatan's 'medicines' (...like TARP and ARRP and anything else that does not stop trying to save the ruling elites from themselves) then we will die in time...its only a question of when, not if....

[raccoon]

15. At least Immelt was honest.

"This is the era of the developing world, and of emerging markets," Immelt said. As the U.S. economy cools, GE and other large multinational companies are shifting their focus to faster-growth parts of the world.

This year (2007), GE will earn more revenue outside the United States than in it….

From “GE chief lays out plans for emerging-market expansion”

By Heather Timmons
Published: May 31, 2007

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/31/business/ge.php



Part of globalizing is creating a win-win situation. “Can the standard of living in India grow by 100-fold without the standard of living in the U.S. going down over time?,” Immelt asked. (That, my friends, is the $64,000 question.)

He didn’t have a clear answer his own question, but described the problem. The U.S. manufacturing base is hollowed out, the country has a $1 trillion trade deficit and the education system isn’t graduating enough engineering students to compete globally (Not sure if I believe that), he said. “We are not working hard enough to be exporters,” Immelt said.

From “GE CEO Jeff Immelt: India, globalization and the economics of scarcity” July 6th, 2007

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=5595

[gordianot]

20. That makes some sense, we are supposed share the wealth while top management gets wealthier.

The world wide corporate masters will not settle for less.

[guitar man]

6. they are clueless

I think they though that the "McGoods", cheap chinese made crap from WalMart etc. would be the answer for consumers on McWages. It ain't cutting it, never has, never will. The downward spiral continues. :(

[PA Democrat]

7. I think their modus operandi is "Take the money and run."

All they care about is today's profits, future be damned because their intention is to make a quick fortune and get out.

[sarge43]

12. Yup. Is there anyone left who still believes the profit motive

has even a speaking acquaintence with morality?

[gordianot]

8. That is the point, none of this seems logical.

Either this is some sort of Hegelian chaos nightmare or there is plan with some sort of logic. I guess time will tell just follow the money and see who benefits in the end game. Why is the Middle class being wrecked? Feudalism was not that great even for those at the top.

[KurtNYC]

9. perhaps they believe it is already dead

and they just want the last of the eggs

[Birthmark]

10. Capitalism is an abject failure.

They can whine all they like about government, but at the end of the day it is the Free Market (hallowed be it's name) that has failed...again...as usual. How many times do we have to run the country into a ditch before we realize that large-scale capitalism isn't the way to go? How many millions of people have to have their lives wrecked so that the emotional weaklings at the top of the economic heap can feed their insecure little egos?

In short, when the fuck are we going to grow up?

[Moostache]

16. We do not have a free market!!!

The "market", such that it is, is so rigged against non-monied interests that to truly believe we operate in a "free" market is naive at best and fatal at worst.

The rules of the game (regulations and enforcement of regulations and laws) have been suspended for 30 years now. Imagine a football game where one team (say "Owners") were allowed 8 downs instead of 4, could play 22 mean at the same time instead of 11 and had no such thing as a play clock to prevent them from killing the game once they took the structurally assured lead?

Is that a fair game or a rigged one?
Similarly, is our "market" economy any different in today's world? Is there REALLY freedom when those who control the fate of us all are foot-dragging cretins on scientific issues like population control, peak oil, global warming and energy issues?

I do not indict "capitalism" itself, I indict those who believe that because you CAN do something (like use your excess profits to buy off politicians and then have them further rig the game in your favor) that you SHOULD...J'accuse fat cats, J'accuse...

[Birthmark]

19. Yeah, I understand.

There's no True Capitalism. Every time capitalism fails, it's someone/something else's fault.

It's nonsense.

Capitalism is a powerful economic tool and can be very useful. However, it isn't the ONLY economic tool --nor should it be. The fact is that whenever capitalism is adopted on a wide scale it fails miserably. That is not surprising since it is being asked to do a lot of stuff it isn't good at. It is merely a tool. As such, it is no more worthy of worship than a screwdriver.

[ThomWV]

13. When you've managed to stash away ten-dozen gold eggs its hard to care about more

And you know that at least one of those ten dozen golden eggs is going to hatch you a brand new golden goose one of these days.

[radfringe]

14. NO, now they just eat the goose and skip the eggs. n/t

[GeorgeGist]

17. Theft-by-profit ...

=< a goose egg for the consumer.

[havocmom]

18. Not only killed the goose, but roasting it up and setting the table to dine on it

They must think the world is gonna end soon. Don't want to leave anything unconsumed, unexploited, unfucked.

[NewEnglandKnowledge]

21. No they don't

Bottom line, all the powerful care about is maintaining the
gap between rich and poor.  All wealthy people do fine under
Democratic policy, but the poor inch their way closer.  That
makes rich people angry.  What's the point of being rich if
its not exclusive?

[BuelahWitch]

23. But if no one can buy the goods and services they offer,

eventually they're screwed too.

[NewEnglandKnowledge]

24. Not in their lifetime

Just like the end result of Global Warming, pollution, and everything else they dispute. Doesn't matter to a person who is 40 and rich. They will be dead, so they don't care. The French did it right, clean out the rich with the king and queen!

[BuelahWitch]

22. I've been saying this for years

Sure, Nike can make a ton of money by employing workers in a third world country at 50 cents an hour to make their shoes, which they jack up to $150. But that same worker CANNOT buy those shoes. Somebody has to make enough to be able to afford $150 sneakers after the necessities of life are paid. For awhile the easy availability of credit allowed us to do that. But now that's gone too. The rich alone cannot sustain the US economy. Why don't these millionaires with their MBAs realize that?