With the signing of NAFTA in 1993, Democratic President Bill Clinton signed a death sentence for the middle class in America, thus implementing the next phase of Republican Pres. Reagan's dismantling of our economy. Yes, NAFTA was the Reagan administration's idea.
I am writing this brief diary today in order to alert Kossaks that the news today is very ominous for us all, and is an indicator of how much disinformation we have been fed these past 3 years by both the government and Wall treet. Today's job report seems to have been a shocker for both Wall Street and the Obama administration, but not for ordinary Americans, or, for that matter, workers around the world. As the MSM has become a monopoly for a handful of companies, the truth about the worldwide economy and ours has been hidden.
Sadly, the truth is we are in the midst of an unprecedented economic downward spiral, as a result of 30 years of deregulation of the economy (and, yes, that means Wall Street and the other banks), accompanied by tax breaks for the 1% and corporations, and the continued growth of the Military Industrial complex. The upcoming national election will solve none of these issues as both parties are committed to continuing these failed policies.
If one looks carefully at job growth during the Bush years, half of the jobs were a result of the housing bubble, not manufacturing growth. You don't see any housing construction, do you? So where will the jobs come from? Our grim reality is that large corporations have abandoned this country, and they are not coming back, unless you are willing to cut your salary in half. And that's exactly what GM and Chrysler did to the UAW with our tax dollars.
So what is the 99% to do? Keep protesting? Well, sure, but maybe we need to get serious about creating a new cooperative economy, that is local, green, sustainable and works for the rest of us. I will be writing more about this in the coming days, but let me end with the prediction of Prof. Alan Blinder(he of the Clinton era Federal Reserve) that the US is going to lose another 30-40 million(yes, million) white collar jobs over the next 10-20 years. It's called outsourcing.
Here's a little clip from the film Heist:Who Stole the American Dream? that says it well. Where are the Jobs?