posted on Jan, 29 2008 @ 04:38 AM
reply to post by ModernAcademia
Strangely our economy did pretty well during the rest of our imperial endeavors - Asia, Latin America, previous forays into the Middle East, etc.
What's different now is the economic approach of the people running the show. Deregulation, "reaganomics," outsourcing, corporate kickbacks...
thesee are what are what's killing our economy.
The prevailing theory is that deregulation increases competition and thus leads to lower prices and higher quality goods for the consumer. But we can
plainly see that this is untrue. Deregulation in the production area has led to cheaper, less reliable products, tainted food, and toxic inclusions,
all at the same price. Deregulation in the outlet / consumer angle has led to monopolization, unemployment, lower wages and higher shelf prices due to
LACK of competition. It had led to increased competition for employment, but unfortunately we're supposed to compete with people who work for pennies
to the dollar overseas. Basically, deregulation sets every possible obstacle in front of the CONSUMER, and makes them the ones competing, allowing
greater profits for the businesses.
Which rakes us to trickle-down, or "Reaganomics"... It just doesn't work. Increased profits to a company aren't recycled. They're put into
personal overseas bank accounts. Those dollars are not put towards research and development - you';re raking in profit hand over foot NOW, why spend
all that money when you already have a good thing going? Tax break after tax break does not have the stated effect of increasing wages for workers or
lowering costs of products, it just adds to the CEO profit margin and retirement package.
What the GOP - INCLUDING Ron Paul - have done for the last several decades, is strive to make a completely consumer-unfriendly market that
nevertheless garners record profits for their friends and donors in the big businesses and the banks. The removal of worker's rights, the fighting
against wage improvement, constant, CONSTANT removal of any oversight from all parts of industry, paired with an anti-welfare crusade that only
compounds all of the issues... these are what's causing our economy to stink.