They took your jobs and gave you

[Skidmore]

toys....that is the message I want someone to have the courage to stand up and say. They took your jobs and told you that you could make a living by just sitting at a phone and selling things...the jobs of the future. After you bought the biggest house you could get and double or triple mortgaged it, put a van and a sedan in the garage with a boat and a pickup to haul it (on credit), filled the house will the right furniture and sleek appliances, bought all the electronic gadgetry so you could keep up with your friends, filled your closets with designer clothing and shoes, and acquired all the knowledge of upper crust culture you could. You learned the lifestyle of the rich and famous and you bought the bill of goods they sold you that you could live it for free while they picked your pocket clean and emptied your bank accounts and retirement plans. They laughed at your gullibility and got you to elect handpicked accomplices to write the rules to allow the theft. And now that you look around you in the devastation they left in their wake you find that your schools will take a generation to rebuild and your children are being educated to curriculums shrilled into existence by people who would have better living in the 5th century to get dead end jobs that pay minimum wage. Your manufacturing jobs were sent overseas under the guise of supporting "free markets" and streamlining operations. You are no longer self-sufficient as a nation and so hooked into other failing systems that all drop like a stone in disaster.



Rolled out with the media seasons and on cue, they sold you out. Yes, they gave you toys while they took away your financial security, your personal wellbeing, and your rights. Now what are you going to do to get them back?

[rubberducky]

1. Oh, how I wish I could rec this 100 times.

[Greyhound]

2. There's 5.

:thumbsup:

[votingupstart]

3. i know it sounds corny but

the line from star wars ran through my head as i was reading this

"this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause"

[Shoedogg]

77. Not corny at all....

I think that line was intended to refer to us.

[anonymous171]

4. So true. K&R

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. K&R

:thumbsup:

[pnorman]

6. I'm going to quote that in entirety on a union listserve I administer. Thanks.

I'd be only too glad to acknowledge its authorship by name, but that seems to be out of the question here.

pnorman

[Skidmore]

9. Help yourself.

I wish I had a nickle for every time I argued with my friends that giving our manufacturing base was no way to create national security or financial security it the future. I tried to argue that you can't make something from nothing and racing to the bottom does not create wealth or pay the bills. Not repairing the infrastructure and dismantling the education system does not make for greatness. Bamboozled...this nation allowed itself to be Madoffed and got Layed too.

[wolfgangmo]

55. Mark Twain once said that

you get the government you deserve, not the one you need. (paraphrased).

What does that say about us as a people?

[havocmom]

92. Throw in the foods we import and it is clear we have NO SECURITY at all

But try to get those points across over all the shouting from RW media and the angry teabaggers :banghead:

[HowHasItComeToThis]

7. HERE IS MY REC

[arthritisR_US]

8. ditto! n/t

[emilyg]

27. Mine, too

[Laelth]

10. k&r for the truth. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Hannah Bell]

11. like trading pretty trinkets for land.

tactics don't change.

exchanged your birthright for a mess of pottage.

[Skidmore]

12. Yup. nt

[elehhhhna]

13. yes -- with a touch of indentured servitude on the side...

don't forget how easy credit "paid" for all our toys, and many people are working just to pay debt. (The rest are working for their health innsurance "benefits".)

Such good little patriots. Bush, in his great wisdom, after 9/11 instructed us to "go out and spend more". And we did.

[wolfgangmo]

56. Poverty is slavery.

Whether you are in steel chains or in debt bondage or just have a huge mortgage and CC debt because of medical bills, you are still a slave.

[mimitabby]

14. you have some very good points

one of the problems with our economy is just from us slowing down on our purchases of these TOYS it feels like a recession.
We all have so MANY of these toys that we can cut back on spending FOR YEARS easily. That's going to hurt our spending economy.
As people's homes fill up with all this crap, and helped by the economic situation, a lot of us are going to stop this consuming habit. This will effect the economy as well.

[Skidmore]

15. Some real replacement jobs in the industrial and service sectors

needs to start occurring. We need some push on the energy front and we need to bring some of these industries home.

[Jakes Progress]

69. Without jobs

we aren't going to make it. Biggest priority that Congress and the WH can tackle.

[femrap]

81. K and r'd your post!

Ever since Tiennamein (sp?) Square, I have refused to buy anything made in China. As a result, everything I purchase, I look at the country of origin.

Over the years, I have watched as more and more items said 'Made in China.' But a couple of months ago, I really got disgusted when I noticed that even our fucking toothpicks are no longer made here in the US. And with that went the straws as well. Thankfully I had stocked up when they were made in the US.

I'm a huge bargain hunter so I go to outlet stores...and there one can find the last of the US made products. You can tell (usually) that they will start being made in China.

I love socks...(I have no idea why...cold feet, maybe) and now they're made in China. Korea and Taiwan were big and now here comes the Chinese. I can still find a few made in Korea and I buy those...(Koreans are the only developed nation that works longer hours than people in the US).

Then came cards...the ones you send. I love cards...maybe because no one listens so I have to write it down. Now they're all made in China. Did the price go down? Fuck No. In fact the prices went up. I contacted Graphique de France and gave them some shit. Now I can't buy their cards...no cards whatsoever. I'll make my own fucking cards!

Fucking greedy corporations...no ethics, no morals. I say Eat the Rich!

If China ever decides to put a nice big fat embargo on us....just think of it!

Sorry for the ramble.

[anonymous171]

22. Yep. No more booms. It's going to be all bubbles from now on. nt

[AuntPatsy]

16. K & R

[varelse]

17. So many kick ass op's

and only one rec for each - it's not fair! :'(

Only one quibble - "they sold us out" - didn't we more or less sell ourselves and our children out?

[CLANG]

18. I have a shiny new iPhone! It's mysterious and scary, and did I say shiney!

[Grinchie]

30. Did demons crawl into your iPhone and draw those paintings on the screen"

I don't know, and it Frightens and Confuses me!

Because I'm just and Unfrozen Caveman Laywer.

[CLANG]

90. That's it! I too am a caveman. So what as long as I have this shiny iPhone?

[anonymous171]

19. How sustainable is a service economy? How long can the world sustain us?

I mean, third world workers can only be exploited so much before they start taking matters into their own hands.

[Grinchie]

32. Don't look at me. I rebelled and can actually produce real stuff now.

I actually learned the the stuff that the Third World makes isn't all that it's cracked up to be. I guess it was that package of masking tape the wanted to stick to itself and not come off the roll. Or maybe it was that 8 pack to Ace brand "Carbon Hack Saw Blades" from China that were actually as soft as Carbon! Maybe it was the Briggs and Stratton motor on that cheap Coleman Generator I bought that lasted 30 minutes of run time before throwing a valve, then took a month to get repaired under warranty, which then froze solid 15 minutes after I got it home, but only after I changed the filthy oil left in it by the repair man, and then returning it to Home Depot and getting a Gift Card for the balance, which I still have to this day because their is nothing at Home Depot that I wish to buy anymore.

The service economy doesn't know how to service. The parts take too long to get here.

[RagAss]

20. Not me. Born to see bullshit.

[lordsummerisle]

21. K&R n/t

[earcandle]

23. Well said! I totally agree with you.

[proReality]

24. Hold on...

If people are living way above their means, then "they" didn't do anything but provide the toys that the weak felt they had to have in order to make themselves into something they aren't. Who is responsible? Certainly not the corporations--they wouldn't exist as they do if each individual was taking responsibility for him/herself.

They sold us out only because they were allowed to. We enabled them.

Think about it.

[KT2000]

25. Uh huh -

that is Skidmore's point.

[TexasObserver]

26. Like Esau, who sold his birthright for a bowl of beans.

I love Old Testament stories that have a timeless message. As myth and literature, of course.

[cliffordu]

28. ...An even hundred recs.

Just fucking excellent. K&R

[Grinchie]

29. I am personally not going to consume anymore and collapse their world!

I've been trying for 6 years, maybe other people might join and make it a movement. We all turn into self employed, non consumers, that earn no wages yet somehow survive on 25 dollars a day for a family of 2. and only have 1000 dollars in the bank at one time.

Now, ifwe could multiply this effect by 100 Millon or so.... Yeah, that's the ticket.

[Aragorn]

42. that's the ticket

me too

[Greyhound]

83. Only about 15% - 20% is required to collapse this house of cards.

:kick: & R

[AtheistCrusader]

31. Finish paying off my last credit card next paycheck.

Then I just have to finish paying off a fairly reasonable mortgage.

[Grinchie]

33. No No No!

Always pay mortgage first. Always. Secured debt comes before unsecured debt, but good for you if the card is down.

In a pinch though, you would preferrably default on unsecured debt and not the secured debt. Sound like you have enough for both.

[AtheistCrusader]

34. Well, the mortgage is going to take quite some time.

23 years left on that. I can pay more, but the CC interest rate is higher, and needs to be 0. That means more money to plow into the mortgate for an early payoff.

I want a new motorcycle so bad... But I will resist. House comes first.

[Aragorn]

43. get a bicycle instead

AND it's good for you!

[AtheistCrusader]

54. Not if I have to ride 15 miles to work on the side of I-90.

There are a couple trails I can use for about half the trip, but it's either ride on the shoulder of the freeway, which is legal but dangerous as all hell, or ride on the side of 202, which is also legal, but the shoulder is about a foot wide in most areas, sometimes less.

I can throw it on the front of the once-an-hour bus, to get past the dangerous bit, if no more than one other person has the same idea that morning.

Also good for me is working on trail maintenence, but I doubt the county will be buying any land for the rest of the link I would need to ride all the way.

[Grinchie]

89. Carpool

You'll find a Motorcycle is another doodad that demands a crap load of money.

[Grinchie]

88. Forget doodads, New is not necessarily better.

Sounds like you are doing OK. and good for you on getting rid of frivolous expensive and CC debt.

There are some that don't have that choice, and for them, forget Unsecured Debt, and focus on the home. That's what they are really after.

[Initech]

35. THEY TOOK OUR JOBS!!!!

[BobTheSubgenius]

36. Says he, through clenched teeth.

Huge K&R for the OP.

It's a spot-on summary of what's happened...and it's ugly and it's desperately sad.

[Initech]

57. I take it you haven't seen that South Park episode.

[Romulox]

58. Have you seen the South Park where they go after big corps

and demonstrate the aftermath of poverty and declining standards of living for working Americans in the wake of cut throat capitalism?

Me neither. But I like the one where Tom Cruise is in the closet. :shrug:

[Deja Q]

73. What job industry do you work in?

[Techn0Girl]

37. I'll Tell you what people are going to do ...

They're basically going to do nothing.
People have always done nothing.
Which is why they get taken advantage of again and again.
It's easier to just do ... nothing.
Oh... a few may post things on the Internet... a few more may shout K&R! and feel like they've done their part...
But basically they'll do - nothing because it's easier and cheaper in the short run.

They guys with big bucks will always have the money to bus in 70 thousand idiots (who would otherwise be doing nothing) to D.C. and make a big fuss and shout "Glen Beck!...Glen Beck!" while they are getting royally screwed over ...

But we here in Cyberland...
The vast majority of us ... we'll do nothing.


We could be marching every weekend and making a fuss until we get decent health coverage and the bankers pay what they owe to everyone. We could be writing letters to Congress critters every week and inundating their offices with paper - same to the local newspapers. We could be gathering together with other Progressive Democrats and figuring out ways to make ourselves seen and heard and not be ignored. We could be boycotting B of A and Shitty bank ... we could organize a debtors revolt really.

We could do all that but my guess is that we'll do ......

Oh yeah.... K&R! K&R !

[Indenturedebtor]

38. Yep. And they enslaved you with debt and fear of losing what you've indebted yourself too

Hence the name = Indenturedebtor.

I've since gone bankrupt, moved to a smaller place, gotten rid of one car, a house, and most of our crap. We're SO much happier now. I make less but save more. Go figure hah.

K + R x 1,000 :woohoo:

[secondwind]

39. K&R!

[Biker13]

40. K&R

Yup!

[onlyadream]

41. And while we do this

we ship off our "gold". Now we're in dept to freaking China - a communist country no less.

[timo]

44. soooo glad

I have a small nursery/tree farm, we live like hippies, big garden, chickens and eggs, shits almost paid for and dont want any more payments!!!!

[arcadian]

45. Commie

Why don't you go back to Mother Russia? :rofl::rofl::rofl: That's how this would be shot down among the common herd and MSM. Great OP! K&R.

[Kansas Wyatt]

50. The sad thing is...

The Reich Wing made Communist China more powerful than they could have accused any Liberal of doing.

[wolfgangmo]

59. The truly sad thing is that the Reich Wing...

... don't seem to know that what they call communism (Stallinism) is in reality the logical outcome of corporate capitalism. Imaging if IBM had purchased all the other companies in the US back in the 50's.... voila - the USSR. The difference between the PR of communism and the reality of communism is very stark.

[arcadian]

95. I agree

The thing about competition is that somebody must always come out on top. Capitalism's logical conclusion is a one world corporate state.

[Blue_Tires]

46. kick for truth...

[OwnedByFerrets]

47. What can we do? We have the toys, they have the power.

[Greyhound]

84. We have the power, we just don't remember that we do.

The only way to win their game is not to play.

[OwnedByFerrets]

93. Sorry to be a bother, but what power do we have?

Im serious. I dont see us having ANY.

[Greyhound]

94. We have only one power, the power to say no.

Just stop playing. Refuse to participate. Stop voting for the lesser evil. Stop supporting the system that is killing you.

"I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves." - Harriet Tubman

[freebrew]

48. Good post,

Reminds me of Carlin's rant.
Don't buy new toys, fix the old ones.
Motorcycle? I built my own out of cheap throw away junk.
Now have a Harley Shovelhead 5 speed for less than $2000(much less).
If you don't have the ability or knowledge, maybe a neighbor does.

No CC debt, paid off every month.
No new car, keep the old one until it can no longer be repaired(that's the problem with computer cars).
So, only have reasonable mortgage, made unreasonable by insurance and real estate taxes.
Wife works for the school system, insurance sucks but may pay a little for extreme cases, probably not.

Live in a cheaper red area, but it's driving me up....

Oh yeah...K&R

[Skidmore]

67. Kicking for your response. We do this and did before it was fashionable or an

absolute necessity. We have nice things in our home, but only a handful have been purchased new. I'm lucky that my husband can repair about anything and that I'm not a sports widow (well, except for maybe during the World Series). I chuckled when my little grandson told me one day that we must be really rich to have such nice things. I sat him down and talked to him about the connection between work and income and about recycling and the value of knowing how things work so you can fix them in this throw-away society.

[havocmom]

49. Best summation of the real effects of Trickle Down Economics ever!

:thumbsup:


:thumbsup:

[TBF]

51. That is how capitalism works -

until we're rid of it this is how it goes.

[Deja Q]

74. Well, people can live with it or get rid of it.

Seems people are happy to live with it.

I actually am, despite not profiting from it...


Of course, so are people who are profiting from it.

[TBF]

79. Your pretty sure about that - people are happy right now?

Which people? Please be specific and include income brackets.

[Locrian]

52. awesome

I actually had a manager / zombie say to me (with regards to outsourcing) that, yeah, it's hard but you wouldn't have these if you didn't. And he showed me his fucking cell phone.

I laughed and said something to the effect of "gee, it used to be shinny beads, now we sell out for cell phones?"

[MindPilot]

62. I had a CEO say a similar thing at a meeting

right after he announced that he wanted to make the IT department "a model of outsourcing" he said the main advantage will be that "when downsizing, fewer people will be fired." :wtf::eyes::banghead:

[Romulox]

53. Why will committed capitalists never engage these points? nt

[TomClash]

60. They are irrelevant to a Capitalist

Your welfare is not important. They don't think of you, except as a consumer or servant. Only profit (money) and market (power) matter.

[myrna minx]

61. K&R n/t

[Hamlette]

63. Bullshit. it is "their" fault if I spend beyond my ability to repay? By "the biggest house" I can?

This is the victimization I hate.

Take responsibility for your own actions.

[Deja Q]

72. So when the jobs don't pay enough to even rent an apartment, it's still our faults?

This isn't about victimization.

So stop acting like a victim with your own bullshit.

[Flatulo]

64. That pretty much sums it up. nt

[jimmil]

65. This is spot on the money

For years I was a high powered so and so and I helped move things off shore for the company I worked for. I shipped software to India, manufacturing to China, hired foreign workers at a quarter of the pay of an American. And when I had done all that I found it was me that was no longer needed and I was canned. I am lucky I saved a bit here and there and can live the same lifestyle but there are millions that can't.

Have you ever noticed that the new bright shiny stuff is all targeted toward where the disposable money is? Seriously, look at the pricing for an Iphone, Gameboy, whatever, and the price point is now down there for people making $8-$15/hr. These people have a small amount of disposable income and they are the target sales. Rich people have the money but they are also smart enough not to impulse buy. However, when one does not have a lot, a shiny new widget is just what the doctor ordered. Look around at the Conns, the Best Buys, and other huge importers. The shoppers are mostly the young with just enough money to buy the DVD or cheap LG widescreen. The last of the disposable money in this country is being sucked away.

[raccoon]

76. You get around, don't you?

" I helped move things off shore for the company I worked for.
I shipped software to India,
manufacturing to China,
hired foreign workers at a quarter of the pay of an American.
And when I had done all that I found it was me that was no longer needed and I was canned.

[gauguin57]

66. I know so many people who have struggled because they overbought in the boom times.

I guess because I'm a pessimist/realist -- I always see the shadows coming around the corner -- I've always tried to keep my life simple ... even when I've had enough money to take it up to the next level.

And yet ... even though I have a simple life and a modest apt. and modest posessions ... I'm still struggling to pay for my crappy health insurance.

Even those of us who didn't listen to the siren call of the possibility of a big house, etc., have been screwed. And my investments and my "rainy day funds" aren't worth squat compared with a few years ago.

It starts with urging our congresscritters to pass meaningful healthcare reform; our economy will be lost without it. It starts with volunteering at the grassroots, to make sure the Democrats retake congress next year (because if the Repugs win, nothing will change ... nothing that needs to be regulated or re-regulated will BE regulated).

The money that flows through politics is one of the big reasons this bullsh*t keeps happening. We have to figure out how to counteract that. We HAVE to figure that out. I don't have the answers. But I'll vote for the people who DO find the answer.

[ScottLand]

68. And then there's Mastercard.

Our society is built around the idea that if you want, all you need is a credit card. It doesn't matter how much it costs, it's "priceless"! Guess what, they add "priceless" to your bill, with "interest".

[The_Casual_Observer]

70. There was an influential book in the 80's called "Mega Trends"

A recipe book for disaster. It advocated for all the shit that you mention.

[leeroysphitz]

71. "Now what are you going to do to get them back? " There is nothing we CAN do. It's too late.

It's all over.

If there were even the tiniest SHRED of a chance that the American people would rise up, in any fashion, to take back what belonged to them the corporations and the top 1 percent wealthiest Americans would have all fled en mass to gated residences in Dubai months ago.

It's all a done deal.

[Rozlee]

82. Reagonomics started the downward spiral

FDR raised the taxes on the wealthy to 90% after getting in office. They were 70% when Reagan came in and slashed them with his promises of wealth creation for everyone and told the sheeple the government was taking all the money from their pockets. Since then, the gulf between the top 1% and the rest of us has increased to Banana Republican status, especially during Bush's reign. Now, people have been brainwashed to see all taxes as evil. The thing is, that if we had any onions at all, we'd raise the taxes of the wealthiest 2% up to 70% again to create the revenue to kill the deficit. Yeah, fat chance. They're wailing now over a 1 or 2% projected raise and the lapsing of the Bush tax cuts. And if corporations did move to Dubai, we'd sock them with a protectionist tariff of their goods that would make their profits drop like lead. But, (sigh!) what can I say? The sad truth is that we have marshmallows for balls and we'll do nothing of the sort.

[Techn0Girl]

85. It's too late??

Hardly.
Here are some things you can do (instead of posting on the internet which does nothing):

1. Organize protests at offending banks

2. go to http://my.barackobama.com/ and join (in real life) with other like minded people to organize rallys, phonebanks, etc.

3. Try to organize fellow employees to unionize at you place of work.

4. Organize and or join in boycotts at local offending businesses (Walmart, etc...)

5. Start campaigning for candidates who work for YOU (or become one yourself - like on a school board)

6. Start a campaign to educate (flyers, newsletters etc) others about corporate abuse.

That's just off the top of my head. The important thing is to get belly to belly with someone else in real life because unless you're a Skinner , Hampsher or an Amato then posting on the internet does very little.

Or alternatively you could just pop another cheeseburger into the old piehole and sigh about the uselessness of it all.

[Turbineguy]

75. I have an idea!

I'll go to DC and hold up a really stupid sign that has words spelled wrong!

[AzDar]

78. Spot on.

:thumbsup:

[indimuse]

80. yup.

knr!

[SidneyCarton]

86. True, and bitter to behold.

[Nikki Stone1]

87. If we had a greatest post of all time page, this should be on it.

This is IT in a nutshell.

[havocmom]

91. evening kick for a masterful post

:kick: