Working Class/Consumers are Starting to See the Consequences of Oligarchic Rule

I am seeing the posts on social media of the container ships floating out in the Pacific Ocean. Even consumers in Europe see disruptions in our global supply chains. The local Dunkin Donut Shop blamed their lack of donuts on supply chain issues. Consumers take pictures of empty shelves at the grocery stores and post them on Facebook, causing more panic buying. It’s like the beginning of the pandemic when people crammed their trunks full of bottled water and toilet paper.

It doesn’t help that news consumers have their TVs blaring 24/7 with talking heads talking about the Laws of Supply and Demand. Everybody is an amateur economist now also. These economists are blaming the Chinese for the pandemic and shortages.

Amateur public sector experts blame it on the government giving free benefits, so workers are staying home. It doesn’t matter that Unemployment Insurance expired in August and early September. We know there is a shortage of truck drivers, but there was a shortage before the pandemic.

After weeks of blaming still doesn’t solve the problem, those with solutions are surfacing. Thankfully, we have an answer to the globalization problem of our shortages — bring our jobs home.

International Trade Deals/Outsourcing

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, when corporations (oligarchs) decided they could make more money if they moved their manufacturing facilities to lesser developed countries, they could work out a low regulation and cheap workforce for themselves. In addition, wealthy countries like the United States had unions that wanted workers to have more effective sharing in corporate profits. So, the oligarchs figured they could move operations to Asian and Mexican plants, and their costs would drop drastically, but they’d still be able to charge the same prices. As a result, the Japanese Auto Makers were making higher-quality cars for less money.

The only thing missing was convincing consumers this would be great for them. This was the end of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The union jobs and the plants went away. Profits soared. The oligarchs could ship the raw materials to China, assemble the car, ship it back, and make more profit than if they made it here. The oligarchs could make a more significant profit for themselves and shareholders without sharing it with the working class. Wouldn’t the consumers/working class be upset about this proposition?

Not if the oligarchs used the media to manufacture consumers’ consent through propaganda — lots of it. They couldn’t call it propaganda since the Nazis used that in Germany to convince the German people to do cruel things to the Jewish population. They called it marketing and storytelling. The oligarchs told consumers the big bad unions were responsible for them losing high-paying jobs.

Well, the auto industry oligarchs weren’t the only intelligent people around. Remember those Walton’s from Arkansas? Not the Walton family on the prairie, but the retailers. They were proud to sell USA-made products, till they weren’t. Since they were allowed to grow large, they used their buying power to dictate prices to their vendors. The profit margins of the vendors started drying up, so the consumer goods oligarchs moved to China. Next thing you know, all the major manufacturers were seeking cheap labor and low regulations. Profit was king.

Bring those Jobs Back Home

Well then, along comes a pandemic during the presidency of our least brilliant presidents, who already got in a trading war with a country consisting of 1.5 billion consumers. Yet, on grain and other products, our farmers grow. I mean, who advised this guy? Oh yea, he took advice from his gut because it was brighter than anyone in the world. His gut cost a $500 billion farmer bailout since China shopped for food elsewhere.

For at least two decades, the stock market has enjoyed the effects of trickle-down economics and profit maximization schemes at the expense of the working class. Workers or consumers haven’t rebelled because the media has been pressing the propaganda buttons hard. Think about what would happen to their cost-basis if they moved those jobs back to the USA under orders of President Biden. No chance.

Are you beginning to see the problem?

Two Final Issues

Let me introduce you to the other two problems that I see heading our way from this economic tsunami. The first one is we’ve pressed the economic and technological buttons of the world’s largest continent. We’ve primed the pump for the Chinese. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing — I’m saying it’s an economic and technological reality. It’s also a political and geopolitical reality. So you can’t point your fingers at them, or even worse, pick a fight with them. That isn’t very smart.

The second issue is an overinflated stock market, which is part of the kleptocracy and kakistocracy of our neofascist government/private sector/oligarchic union. Talk about pressing the primer button for too long. Finally, former President Obama should get the award for a giant snake in the grass. He thought he pulled a fast one by allowing CitiGroup banksters to fix the looming crisis by feeding the addict heroin instead of oxycontin pills. Guess what?

From Pam and Wess Martens:

Unfortunately, the suggestion in Senator Brown’s letter that things will get better when President Biden appoints new members to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve is a pipe dream. Nothing is going to get materially better in the banking system of the United States until the Glass-Steagall Act is restored, making federally-insured banks completely separate from the crony trading casino on Wall Street that is variously shilled for, and bailed out by, the Fed. And nothing is going to get better in terms of bank supervision until the Fed is stripped of its bank supervisory powers and focuses on restoring its credibility as the central bank of the United States.

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2021/10/senate-banking-chair-sherrod-brown-gives-feds-quarles-a-scathing-bon-voyage/

Yes, he just kicked the can down the road. After about a $20 trillion high between the Federal Reserve and Congress, the Fed has continued priming the pump at $120 billion a month to keep Wall Street afloat. The CIA just unloaded a treasure trove of the world’s wealthiest hiding money from government theft except for US players. The Pandora Papers is likely a box full of surprises, but it’s also a distraction for the media to play with while US oligarchs scramble for the doors.