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Re: US Politics Thread
I agree with the sentiment from mitchejw. This is a view I came to have years ago.
I’m from Canada, and my great grandparents were American born and raised. So I have a love for the US.
The problem is corporations that sell out there industries. They outsource for cheap slave labour. Roots in Canada used to be made here, and the majority isn’t (we had a thriving textile industry in Toronto and Montreal), Doc Martins used to be made in England, and now the majority aren’t, Converse were made in the USA until 2001, and now they ain’t. We can go on and on about industries and there are numerous.
These corporate rats have sold out there countries.
I’ve got no problem about making a buck, I do have a problem with greed.
When you’re paying the same price for runners that were made here before and now they’re made with slave labour, that’s fucked.
Unions aren’t the problem. They have their time and place. The greatest generation coming back from WW2 saw the need for worker protection.
Our mainstream parties have sold us out. Conservatives and Liberals up here in Canada. Democrats and Republicans in the USA. There truly hasn’t been a good Republican since Richard Nixon. As for a Democrat, maybe Jimmy Carter. As Bill Clinton fucked up Glass Steagall. I liked Barrack Obama, but the bailout was bullshit.
I personally try and buy 95 percent of my stuff from ethical sources or a country with standards. I remember going to a Brian Wilson show in Toronto and he had rad shirts but, they were made in Honduras. And I declined getting it after finding out. I thought that’s fucking cheap. Probably not a choice Brian made. But, he sings about the American dream. And I just couldn’t stomach that. In 2017 when I went to see Tom Petty in Kansas City it brought me so much joy seeing that a minor detail of where the shirt was made mattered to someone in the chain of command. As every shirt they had was made in the USA. You don’t get anymore American than Tom fucking Petty, and obviously that mattered to the guy.
Henry Ford paid a fair wage, so people could buy his products.
I realize with my iPhone and some electronics it’s just not possible. Hence the five percent. However, Kyocera Mobile, and Sony Xperia has lines made in Japan. I had a dual sim one but, unfortunately it didn’t work on my mobile network at the time, and I returned it. Now it would with my ATT that is Rogers up here when roaming.
My rant is I don’t reward these assholes with my money if I don’t have to. I used to have a great store in Toronto called Groovy Shoes that had New Balance shoes made in the USA / UK, one would get nice mark downs on them too. Now the store eats shit, and I need a new source. Fuck Guns N’ Roses for being too cheap to use Los Angeles apparel for their shirts. I assume U2 are a bunch of fuckheads too. If anyone has any official concert shirts let me know. New Era baseball hats again you really need to check for the made in USA ones. And fuckhead Nike has the MLB jersey license now I doubt your authentic 300 usd jersey will be made in the USA like Majestics authentic ones were.
I’m that annoying person that looks at where shit is made on the packaging. I’ll even contact the company. I think shit should he labelled properly too. Arm and Hammer toothpaste no label up here where it is made, found out it was mass in the USA(which is good) versus Colgate being made in Mexico. Oh that Salmon is made in China, fuck that I’ll take the other then.
My rant is these fuckheads fucking their people over for greed. Then claiming they love their country and people. Yet sell them out.
Then we are beholden to China. As we can’t produce our own goods here. Imagine that. A World Health Organization saying oh not to worry China has that Covid 19 under control. The story then keeps on changing and before you know it a fucking pandemic. Yet we can’t produce goods in North America as hey I want that 3 dollar fucking T-shirt.
What the fuck would we do in a trade war with China or an actual conflict? America has to be able to stand on its own and be able to put its foot down, and that would be extremely hard with our over reliance on Chinese goods.
Now there is nothing wrong with the Chinese people let me make that clear. There is something morally wrong with its leaders, and the terrible working conditions they have.
This prevents people in the West from being able to criticize China on its human rights abuses and concentration camps for the Uighurs, and dissidents (Tibet / Hong Kong). What kind of weak-kneed leaders do we have that can’t criticize a fucking despot? Oh wait ones that don’t want to offend their source of cheap goods, yet keep allowing the working class to be fucked.
Up here in Canada our dear leader Justin Trudeau is weak on that file. Especially, with a couple Canadians jailed due to that Huawei executive being under house arrest. Oh and we still haven’t banned Huawei from 5G yet. Apparently it takes a long time for these dipshits to say no to blood money, and even when Canada’s intelligence agencies have said not to do it.
I’m going to end this long rant on a quote that I enjoy from the late Carl Sagan:
“ I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...”
You post all of this, but it's like you know what happened and have no idea why or how it happened. It started a long time ago...shit my dad was in the navy in the 60s and would come back with electronics from Japan because they were so much cheaper than anything he could buy here. NAFTA was the straw that broke the camel's back, but it's been a problem for a long, long time. Companies are greedy. CEOs (while they should be highly compensated) are overpaid. Shareholders are put over customers in almost every decision being made.
The greed isn't strictly corporate though. Everyone wants what someone else has and doesn't want to do the work they did to get it...so now we run up credit card debt and buy stuff we don't need and can't afford because Jimmy next door has one and can afford it. The entire country is full entitled fuckheads (and almost all of us fall into that category at times)...huge houses, fancy cars, the newest iPhone, etc. They don't understand that they want these things...they think they need these things. Since they can't afford them though, they look for less expensive sources, so to compete, American companies outsource to lower their costs. I wasn't around and I didn't study economics, so this is a chicken/egg situation in my mind...no idea what happened first, but there's no logical way to blame all of this on either side unless you have deeply studied this subject. From a distance you can infer whatever you want depending on what you want to believe. As is usually the case though, the truth isn't black and white. There are problems on both ends and the circle just keeps going and going.
Much like politics, everyone blames the other side. Nobody accepts responsibility; nobody acknowledges that they are part of the problem. Everyone feels 100% justified in what they are doing and fuck the other side for not getting it. Sound familiar?
Re: US Politics Thread
buzzsaw wrote:mitchejw wrote:It is bad because it's so short sighted. Isolationism is short sighted...It's incoherent with the goals of economics, imho...
you can't artificially create supply and demand by fighting trade wars with countries who make products that are in high demand in America.
I'm Scandinavian...a Norwegian deep down...and the more I learn about my ancestors I see a reasonable progressive path forward. My German brothers in Wisconsin once thought the same thing.
Ok...you want your Rocky Balboa (Trump) fighting for you...but if you don't assess the results then you just have blow hard telling you what you want to hear. What blue collar worker from the rust belt gives two shit about the stock market?
Is it short-sighted though? It's not just because you think it is. We'd probably not all be holed up in our houses if we were more isolationist. We'd be involved in less wars. The trade wars are long overdue. We started screwing ourselves with NAFTA...we use other country's stuff because it's cheaper, not because it's better. So basically we use slave labor and sweatshops to import cheaper goods and you feel good about that?
Regardless, you can be America first without being an isolationist. We can take care of ourselves first...that doesn't mean screw anybody else...it literally means take care of our own first. I know you think there are no boundaries and we're all one people (not true, but whatever). All you do is look at the bad of everything without giving a single consideration to the good of it.
Isn't the root of isolationism protecting what you have no matter what little you have? That's what I feel like we're doing...we've got so little left...we don't export anywhere near what we import. Ok maybe that's because our labor is too expensive...but it's also quality labor...or is it?
We're low on trade skills right? Then let's invest in that. No problem there. That's how we put American first.
Do we need infrastructure...hell yeah? How do we invest in America, fix that. That's how you put American first.
When big business is allowed to outsource US jobs and hide their money somewhere else...that's not putting America first. Americans are working against Americans...so how is that putting American first?
When the most wealthy use their money as leverage to participate fully in our economy...that's not putting America first.
Isolationism is about not worrying about the rest of the world. I don't know where you're getting protecting what little we have.
Somewhere in this post you switched from government to big business and somehow expect the same thought process from business. This is where your thinking goes off the rails. Government has to pretend to care about you; businesses don't really. Big business certainly has all national level politicians in their pockets, but big business is all about big business and nothing else. They will be for whatever is in their interests and change with the winds as necessary. They don't care about the US unless it becomes in their interest to care about the US. This is why socialism will never work here...there is zero chance that the rich are going to just hand over half of their money...it is never going to happen.
Re: US Politics Thread
IRISH OS1R1S wrote:Americans probably have one of the best lifestyles in the world. I don't get the always negative attitude. Count yourself lucky mate there are people in far worse positions like the folk who make those products you buy. I said it before to Randall and I'll say it to you. There is a whole other world out there and you come across as living in a bubble.
Everyone here makes sure of it...
EVERYONE
Re: US Politics Thread
Wow. I'll be honest. I think it's here. I feel like 20-30% of the population probably has it, or will within 2 weeks. It's just that maybe it's less of a death sentence then we feared, like the early days of AIDS in the 80s. Seems people with underlying conditions are more susceptible (asthma, lung condition, illness) & it leads to pnuemonia or something. But just 'getting it' isn't too dire.
Seems the gov't is even shifting and saying do not get a test just because you feel sick, only get a test if you're in bad shape & save the tests for the ER.
Re: US Politics Thread
Wow. I'll be honest. I think it's here. I feel like 20-30% of the population probably has it, or will within 2 weeks. It's just that maybe it's less of a death sentence then we feared, like the early days of AIDS in the 80s. Seems people with underlying conditions are more susceptible (asthma, lung condition, illness) & it leads to pnuemonia or something. But just 'getting it' isn't too dire.
Seems the gov't is even shifting and saying do not get a test just because you feel sick, only get a test if you're in bad shape & save the tests for the ER.
Doesn’t this mean the whole senate could have it?
Re: US Politics Thread
The bubble post said it all, Irish. There is always shit that needs to be fixed, no doubt, but it's the height of privilege to go off the rails and dislike the "versions" of this country based on who's in the white house. The country doesn't change all that much under a president. I'm sorry, but liberals would rather pat themselves on the back for reciting some BS talking points than actually help people who have the audacity to think differently than they do. Conservatives believe everyone has equal footing and love to talk about themselves, comparing everyone to their own life stories, unaware there are people who actually had/have it harder. Our parties are too invested in division, both of them, not one over the other. Despite all of our flaws, look how much this country (the people) do for each other and People around the world. People still want to come HERE no matter who is in the WH.
- IRISH OS1R1S
- Rep: 59
Re: US Politics Thread
The bubble post said it all, Irish. There is always shit that needs to be fixed, no doubt, but it's the height of privilege to go off the rails and dislike the "versions" of this country based on who's in the white house. The country doesn't change all that much under a president. I'm sorry, but liberals would rather pat themselves on the back for reciting some BS talking points than actually help people who have the audacity to think differently than they do. Conservatives believe everyone has equal footing and love to talk about themselves, comparing everyone to their own life stories, unaware there are people who actually had/have it harder. Our parties are too invested in division, both of them, not one over the other. Despite all of our flaws, look how much this country (the people) do for each other and People around the world. People still want to come HERE no matter who is in the WH.
Nicely put. It's our nature I guess to be greedy as fuck but some perspective goes along way.
