Where Have the Jobs Gone?
The American economy is currently in shambles; following a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, at a time when the economy was already slow, our financial status sunk lower; corporate scandal, massive tax cuts, and a bogged-down war in Iraq have only continued the damage. Jobs have disappeared at an amazing rate, leaving more and more Americans jobless, searching for new work while collecting unemployment insurance, sometimes slipping into the world of welfare and food stamps.
It would be naive to absolve President Bush of any responsibility for this situation. However, to blame only him, or perhaps Congress now or at any time as well, would be shortsighted and unfair; of course, in America it is not all that unusual to utilize a scapegoat whenever possible. To not place much of the blame on ourselves would be an abdication of responsibility on our collective part.
We are much deserving of the blame for our current economic situation. It is we, the public, who have continually elected officials who favor free trade over tariff-driven protectionism. It is we who -- rather than driving (or perhaps walking if the load will be light) uptown to support local businesses owned and operated by people whom we know who attend our churches, sponsor our children’s little league teams, and are active in our communities -- load the children in the minivan and drive forty miles, pumping the air full of pollutants and burning gas that we will now have to replenish more frequently, often with gas purchased from someone whom we do not know, to stock up on food and other general merchandise at Wal-Mart, Target, Meijer, or K-Mart. It is we who buy our clothes at Kohl’s and not at the now empty department store or men’s store in our hometown. In order to save a few dollars (and further destroy our fragile environment), we say goodbye to locally-owned stores to frequent big boxes who are so easily implicated in the death of the American economy.
Where do all of the American jobs go? To Mexico, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, China (Human rights violations, communism, and sweat shops do tend to yield the best merchandise.), and fifty-plus other countries. How do they get there? Our elected officials approve organizations, agreements and treaties such as NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO; the Home Depot and Walton Enterprises (Wal-Mart, Sam’s, etc.) see this as an opportunity to save money and quit buying from American suppliers, instead opting for goods manufactured by American-owned companies who save money for themselves by building plants in foreign nations where they can get away with paying wages nowhere near what American laborers have earned for themselves in their struggle for rights.
At the opening of a Wal-Mart in upstate New York a local union offered two five-hundred dollar prizes, one to a member of the union, and one to the general public, to the first person to find the most products under the “Buy American” signs in the Wal-Mart which were made elsewhere -- in the shortest amount of time. The winner found products from forty nations in sixty minutes! Recently, a Kohl’s in Indiana was inspected. Not a single shoe could be found which was made in America. Into another part of the store, only a select few shirts, tops, shorts, and pants were made in the USA. A number of Sonoma® brand shirts, very patriotic in nature, with “America” or “USA” and American flags on them, were available; the tag stated that the printing was done in the United States. Where was the shirt made, though? In Mexico. Of course, who more than the Mexicans should celebrate the USA? After all, NAFTA has given the Mexican economy plenty of low-paying jobs.
This information is not new. Plant closings and moves to foreign countries are in the news everyday; the tags on our clothing tell us in which nation the items were made. Yet we continue to do whatever we can to save money, even if it means selling out American laborers: our friends, neighbors, cousins, brothers, and community members. We continue to vote for free trade supporters, and then wonder why there are no jobs. George W. Bush and politicians in general can only be blamed to a certain extent. The real blame lies with manufactures like Fruit of the Loom and stores like Wal-Mart, and even more so with us, who would rather buy cheap underwear and orange juice, thus destroying American jobs and killing our small towns, so that every community in American might someday look the same, be the same, and offer us no shopping choices.
Our small, charming communities are dying, the result of superstores. These stores further increase sprawl, killing property values and the environment, as well as millions of jobs. But Americans care more about saving money (at least for now, as we can only hope that superstores keep prices low when they control the market) and time than saving jobs, communities, and the environment. And let us not forget that the government is the enemy of small business (with, perhaps, the exclusion of the Small Business Administration), and resultantly, of charming communities and the environment (Go figure.). Besides failing to enforce anti-trust laws, and besides having a judiciary which has time and again ruled against claims of anti-trust violations, claiming that the laws are only to benefit the consumer, and not small businesses, governments (primarily state and local in this case) all too frequently make concessions to chain stores and the sprawl which accompanies them, including tax breaks and credits and taxpayer-supplied sewage, water, and other utilities. And in the Sunday, August 2, 2003, edition of the Chicago Tribune, John Kass tells of a ridiculous Illinois state law which further harms small businesses. No child (including twin granddaughters in the example he gave) under the age of sixteen may work in a [family-owned] business (except for on farms) for pay, whether it be in money, candy, or any form. The child must work for free. Yes, this does keep payroll down, but it upsets the conscience of the parent or grandparent who must force his child to work for nothing.
Not Without Representation And Other Tax Grievances
A sixteen-year-old male can hold a job as a stock boy in a grocery store and have taxes taken out of his income. This money then goes to support various government programs, many of with which he may disagree. The law says that an individual must be eighteen to vote. A minor can be taxed, but without representation. Perhaps it is time that the working youth of America lead a revolution against King George. . . . .
As socialist as it sounds, the truth is the rich should be taxed more than those who are not as financially well-off as they. The current progressive income tax insures this, but perhaps not enough. While many of the financially elite in our country made their millions the old fashioned way, through hard work, all too many made it by cutthroat practices or inheriting it from those whose cutthroat approaches made them wealthy. A debt is owed to society, particularly to those who suffered at the hands of unethical, quite possibly illegal, practices which were never halted. The middle class deserves the tax break. As the poor see more and more handouts, and the upper class sees tax cuts coming in their direction, the middle class must bear the burden of covering this money sent in other directions. This needs to stop. Property taxes for family farmers trying to make a living (especially in time and place where even farms are becoming giant corporations) are often too much to handle. Capital gains taxes make it difficult for a retiring farmer to sell his land in exchange for a nice nest egg, because the government takes too much of that nest egg for itself. (Of course, many farmers who do not truly need the help receive much more than they could justify to the average taxpayer in annual subsidies. Brand new tractors purchased every few years could easily be replaced by regular maintenance and repair on older equipment.) Small businessmen trying to compete with giant near-monopolies which the government ignore face tax bills (as well as insurance and an assortment of other bills) which large corporate chains can easily manage, while they are forced to dig deep, receiving little help from a government (which often gives tax breaks and credits to superstores who create more sprawl) which should be supporting competition, and not allowing monopolization to occur. And in one place where taxes should exist, they do not. The Internet is currently sales tax-exempt. This is nice for consumers, but hurts competing small business who have to charge sales tax, and also it hurts the nation as a whole: those tax dollars would quickly add up if they were to be collected.
