All Over The Map

This section of the globe could be to show that we are a long way from the population center of the Earth.

Or, it could be showing those places that don’t care who wins the Stanley Cup (oops, I left out Nashville) or the NBA Championship, or whether Senator Nelson is looking out for Warren Buffet’s profits, or who the next Senator from Florida will be, or if Sarah Palin has read all of the newspapers, or if Dick Cheney has shot any friends in the face (who knew he had any).

Then again, it could be a map showing where all of our jobs have gone.

The first George Bush tried to give us NAFTA. Bill Clinton succeeded. Do you remember the promises, the promised benefits? There were too many to remember them all. Have you been enjoying them? Free trade has its benefits. It’s just that we don’t get them.

The promises made on behalf of “Free Trade” sounded nice. But, what are the results? China ships us $50 billion worth of computers and associated equipment. We ship them $8 billion worth of waste paper and scrap metal. Okay, who’s ahead, so far?

All the laid-off factory worker has to do is be retrained as an engineer and move from Akron to California, where schools for his kids are closing, the government is scaling back or closing down every service they can find, where earthquakes have dropped to the bottom of citizens’ worry lists.

The alternatives are flipping burgers, being a Walmart greeter, if you are old enough, or moving to Bangladesh. They did promise jobs, didn’t they?

Well, productivity has increased. The only problem there with the way it is calculated.

First, pay has not kept up with productivity as it is supposed to. That’s the theory. Or, at least that’s the song they sing to lure you into believing the American Dream is just around the corner (where you can’t see it).

The more output of widgets you have given an established amount of man-hours, the greater the productivity. Say you work on an auto assembly line. The engine was assembled abroad. So was the transmission. And the radio, the axle and transaxle, the electronic panel.

That factory is producing more cars with fewer American workers, so productivity is up. Wow! We won.

Another way of calculating productivity is one the corporations prefer not to emphasize to the general public. How much does it cost to produce a widget? Figuring in the 75-cent per hour cost of a child from China or Thailand brings the total labor cost down a little bit. Once again, productivity is up. Rejoice!

We get to indulge in fake lower prices at Walmart, if we have a job. The corporations have a prettier bottom line, so the executives can pay themselves that extra $5 million bonus. This keeps the executives relatively quiet when they see their luckier brethren on Wall Street getting half a billion a year.

Exxon had $37 billion in earnings last year, without having to pay any corporate tax in this country. Of course, many of their former employees didn’t have to pay any income tax either. We should give Exxon a pass though. They haven’t had any monumental accidents since their eponymous tanker Valdez dripped a bit into one of our major fishing areas. We know they learned their lesson because some day they will pay for all of the damage . . . oops, I forgot that the courts let them off the hook.

Well, anyway, enjoy the benefits of “Free Trade,” since some of you have a lot of spare time to do so.

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