Behold the fruits of the EU's labors

Now to temper this article a bit, many news outlets have been screaming for months about increasing xenophobic attacks for quite some time.  Now, first off most mainstream outlets, here and in Europe, use the racist/xenophobic trope constantly to demonize individuals who are concerned about their cultural heritage.  However, attacks like these are serious and shouldn't be trivialized, yes media today is willing to drop say individuals are motivated by racism for too often, France's burka ban raised such complaints, but these attacks do display a rising nationalistic sentiment that is truly dark. 

It is one thing to protest illegals and demand that immigrants confirm to ones culture. I understand this, and I will be the first one to say that all cultures and societies are not created equal. Some cultures are better than others, politically incorrect to be sure, but true none the less.  But attacks against foreign looking individuals hint to something darker in the horizon.  And the worst part is that the EU has no one to blame but themselves.

For a better part decade, perhaps two, and for far longer within each nations respective national governments, patriotic pride and a sense of culture has been actively disparaged, or even quashed by the ruling elite.  Many EU ministers have disparaged the growing nationalistic sentiment displayed by their constituents as quaint, backward, and too old world.  However, just because nationalism is no longer popular amongst the elected and academic elite in Europe, and to a lesser extent in America, doesn't mean that it doesn't matter else where in the world, or even in their own backyards. And by actively suppressing the natural feelings and sentiments of their peoples we now see the fruits of their misbegotten labors.

American leaders and academia take note. By trying to surpress American culture you will assuredly cause this violence in our own land.  This violence is terrible not only because it hurts those that deserve no harm, regardless of a persons nation of origin or how they got into this country, but also because it is indiscriminate. This sort of violence could easily be targeted towards an immigrant who has played by the rules and followed our unspoken social contract, by accepting American values we will accept you, in this country.

It is high time our leaders realize that by ignoring, or slighting, Americans who are concerned about illegal immigration only increases the certainty of such attacks occurring. Americans around the nation can sense that their nation, their culture, and their way of life are falling a part. We see multilingual signs on ballots, in commercials, and civil rights protests where the flags being flown or of another nation.  How could this not raise public ire and anger? At some point violence will break out, and innocents will get hurt.  Will our leaders realize the folly of their universalist creed, that all cultures are equal, before it is too late? I hope so, but I do not remain confident.



*I feel it is pertinent to add an addendum to this post. I do not give two craps about the racial make up of America. As long as a person conforms to American culture and our values I do not care a whit about where they came from. America should be for Americans, but anyone can become an American.

Economic Rainbows and Manufacturing

Stumbled onto to this the other day and I thought I would share it.  Slate magazine apparently decided to list their 5 favorite plans to help reinvigorate American manufacturing. I thought this was interesting enough to click the link and read the articles and then share them with you.  For those of you who don't know Slate is an online magazine that is often featured on mnsbc online, naturally there is a center left biased to most of their editorials. I decided to read the articles posted because I wanted to see how far far away from good economic sense their readership suggestions were. Naturally ,there were some that were very bad, while others were well intentioned but operating off of what I would considered based on flawed or incomplete premises.  Here is one such article with my comments bolded.

'American Manufacturing could be reinvigorated by good wages for factory workers and high consumer product regulation - as strange as that may seem at first glance.' 

It is but I will let you make your case.

'Good Wages for Factory Workers: First of all, American manufacturing companies, and American consumers, need to realize that there is simply no way that factories in American can compete with factories in the developing world on labor price.'

True to an extent. If we ignored the continuing atomization and computerization of many tasks then yes; however, as shown in this article by msnmoney many robots can do the same tasks for humans for pennies on the dollar.

'No matter how many unions are dissolved, how low minimum wage is, or how small benefits packages are, a company simply can't pay an American worker low enough to compete with a worker in a country who can be paid 50 cents an hour. American manufacturing just can't compete on labor costs, it has to compete on something else. That something else has to be consumer confidence and quality.'

America does have an advantage over developing nations in this regard, but it won't necessarily last forever. Japan was once known as the manufacturer of cheap and ill-made trinkets.  Forty to Fifty years later we have seen this reputation completely reverse. Still the author makes a valid point, if we ignore robotizing of many services.

'Competing on labor price is just not possible. High Consumer Product Regulation: Consumers need to know that if they purchase an American made product, that no product in the world is safer or of higher quality. Consumers need to know that if they give their child a Made in America toy, that it would never contain any harmful chemicals, that it is completely safe, and that it was built in a factory by adults who were paid decently. A teenager who buys an MP3 player made in the US should be proud that he purchased a product that wasn't made by children who are forced to work in a factory instead of going to school.'

This would be the unicorns and bunnies portion of this treatise. It is hard for me to fathom how individuals still think that these ideas somehow carry weight.  There has been a buy American movement for at least a decade, if no much longer, and these arguments were constantly made as being the major impetus for why we should buy American.  Yet more people buy foreign goods today.  The fact is that outside of individual who work, or know people who make those products, and those who simply want to feel good, those arguments carry no weight whatsoever.  Now to be fair to the author he did acknowledge this fact in the comments section, but there is still another point that needs to be made.

Americans, particularly those on the left, focus n child labor, or slave labor conditions, all the while being almost completely ignorant of the economic realities that cause people to go into those trades. Believe me, I used to refuse to eat Chiquita bananas after what I saw in Guatemala, and it wasn't until my college economic professor, a Keynesian no less, set me straight.  The fact is this, no matter how terrible those jobs seem to us, they are better than what are available to those individuals in those impoverished countries; they only alternative is back breaking labor in some rice paddy.

 'Selling the concepts of well paid factory workers and high regulation to consumers: American companies need to be proud of the fact that they only employ well compensated adults who use safe machines, work in good environments, and are proud of the products they produce. Consumers need to be reassured by various advertising campaigns and perhaps a "A Safe Product Made in a Safe American Factory" sticker or something similar placed on consumer products.'

A pretty decent idea. I don't think it would have a major effect, at least for now. But it could grab traction.

'Consumers need to be reassured that American manufacturing regulations are there to protect them from dangerous chemicals, and that they cannot be assured that products created in non-democratic countries will be as safe. Documentaries should be made about appalling labor conditions in some offshore factories that create products American consumers buy daily.'

I'm skeptical when it comes to documentaries. It seems its more about egos of the director than the actual display or finding of truth.  But it doesn't really on using governmental force so I have no real qualms against this idea.

'The farmer at my local farmer's market is happy to show me a picture of happy the chickens who laid the eggs he sells. He is proud that they aren't caged chickens. Why don't we pay as much attention to the human beings who build our cell phones as to the chickens who lay our eggs? Companies should be equally proud (and proudly advertise) that they only use adult laborers who are well compensated, live in the United States, and that they do not resort to hiring factory workers in areas of the world where workers' rights and freedoms come second to what the local strong man gang thinks should be done.Additionally, American regulatory agencies need to have the teeth to be able to take way an American company's seal of approval if that company doesn't meet strict health and safety guidelines.'

America doesn't need any more regulation from its regulatory agencies.  The fact is that all these agencies would accomplish is causing the companies to move their plants to other countries that don't attract the ire of regulators.  Yes it will make activist feel good, but it doesn't too much for the poor individuals who just lost their jobs just because their country ran afoul of America. And let us be utterly candid, nations that were on Americas good side would get a pass, while nations that ended up with antagonistic relationships, would be punished. It is very easy to see how this sort of thing would be abuse and fail to solve the problem.

 An American Manufacturing commercial could feature an American mother trying to decide between two dolls to buy her daughter for her 7th birthday. One doll is cheaper and was made in offshore in a country with dubious labor standards and a political leader who was not elected democratically. The other, slightly more expensive, doll was made in The United States. After considering that the American doll is guaranteed to be free of dangerous chemicals and not built by a little girl factory worker who looks just like her daughter - the mother decides to purchase the American doll.'

I don't really have much to say about the ending.  The article was about what I expected, full of good intentions but fails to see how things would turn out with regulations, or even consider why individuals work those kinds of jobs in the first place.

Lastly, a lot of Americans, justifiably, complain about the decline of America's manufacturing.  When it comes to the number of Americans employed by manufacturing this is true; however, wait people fail to realize is that America is still the largest manufacturer in the world.  There is some dispute as some claim that China recently surpassed America.  But the point is that America still manufacture a great deal of items, its just not the items you see every day.  We manufacture high tech high value goods.  But that is beside the point. In the end, even if goose America's portion of gdp that is manufacturing it just won't change the fact that many manufacturing jobs are gone; robotification is the future. And that raises some potential major issues in the future. (Such as what will happen to individuals that literally can do nothing more than menial labor, but have seen their job taken over by robots?)

Combating Gang Violence By Shoving Your Head Up Your Ass

Chicago once again proves as an example that the most common why municipal politicians try to fight gang violence is by shoving their head up their ass.  Soft gun confiscation programs failed. Outright gun bans failed. So what makes these politicians think that a tax will have any effect? It won't, and honestly, even city board president Preckwinckle probably knows this.  While I wouldn't put it past politicians to be utterly clueless when it comes to being able analyze a cause and effect relationship, in this case gun bans resulting in no appreciable drop in the murder or crime rate points the fact that there is no cause and effect relationship between the two, I find it hard to be believe that in this instance the board members honestly believe this law will have any effect. There is simply too much evidence to the contrary.

Now the fact that the city is willing to pass a law, despite it almost certainly being challenged in court, points to a strict adherence to dogmatic belief despite the fact of empirical evidence to the contrary.  Now, unlike the Seattle park handgun ban, which the state attorney general said would be overturned in court, that cost the city millions in legal fees and ended exactly the way the state attorney said it would, this law might have a chance of standing. I can't say for sure, but I have a feeling the Illinois in general is less gun friendly than Washington state.  Still, the challenge will most certainly cost the city, that is already pretty much bankrupt, a lot of money. Which begs the question why? Given the gains made by gun rights advocates recently, and the general attitude about guns in this country, the battle for Chicago will be uphill. So the only other thing that comes to mind, despite their protests to the contrary, is that they hope it will generate some revenue for their deeply indebted city, however little it may be.

It is shame the Chicago's leaders are so horribly inept, as I really enjoyed visiting the city. But the city is getting exactly what they deserve, leaders with heads up their asses, because that is exactly what Chicago is doing, sticking their collective head up their ass, by continually electing in incompetents.

You Got to Be Kidding Me

Now, I never equated age as a good barometer as to the fitness of someones ability to govern will govern. I haven't reached 30 yet but I am pretty confident that I could govern better than the vast majority of individuals twice my age. I could have an excessively high opinion of myself but that is neither here nor there. The fact is that I would rather have a competent 25 year old than an incompetent 65 year old sitting with congress.  But how in the hell is a 19 year old, with a criminal record no less, elected to a city council? I guess there is the possibility that he ran unopposed to his seat, but I mean how is this supposed to turn out any other way than it did? I foresee age qualifications for holding office in Alburtis Pennsylvania in the near future.

Cash Leaking Out of China

I have blogged extensively about the economic conditions of China, as what happens in China is very important to the United States.  Now I have repeatedly said that the claims that China would overtake the US are wrong as I believe there are fundamental problems that exist in China that will prevent them from surpassing the US in the near future.  One thing that I have mentioned is that millionaires are leaving China as one of my cases about an imminent crisis that will hit the middle kingdom, a canary in the coalmine if you will.  Well new data from the Wall Street Journal shows that over $ 225 billion dollars has left China. 

Now you might argue that this news means nothing whatsoever. China is a nation with an increasingly burgeoning wealthy population and it would make sense that the noveau riche would purchase items throughout the world. But the article does make special note to include the quote from a Hong Kong immigrant consultant who says Chinese are buying permanent residency and passport like a certain designer good.  The 'permanent residency' is the most important part.  Passports don't allow for permanent immigration, but permanent residency does. And in some instances permanent residency is not that hard to acquire

Cyprus has become a popular investment destination for wealthy Chinese. The island nation in the Eastern Mediterranean gives permanent European Union residency to anyone who spends €300,000 on a property.
 

 That is just shy of $ 400,000 in the United States.  The EU certainly has made it easier to immigrate than the US has with their E-2 visa, and I can personally attest that Chinese have invested heavily into the US to qualify for one.

And this makes one ask the question. If China is the next super power, then why are billions of dollars from Chinese million and billionaires purchasing investment visas in the US and permanent residencies in Europe?  While the Japanese miracle during the mid to late 20th century did see a lot of Japanese companies purchasing assets in Europe and America, and a lot of tourists to boot; Japanese citizens didn't try to purchase residencies in other countries, they stayed and lived in Japan.  China is a whole other beast entirely.

China has been a state run gangster economy for years, if not decades. And the roosters are starting to come home to roost. Chinese who have means, either legitimate or ill gotten, have seen what has happened to Bo Xilai, and know that another wave of uncertainty is coming.  China, for a nation that strives for a harmonious society, undergoes transformation tempests that are very violent, and often very bloody.  It has been this way in the middle kingdom from time immemorial, and I have seen little to indicate that anything fundamentally changed.