Is This Our Future?

[TheWhitneyBrown]

After we ship all our manufacturing jobs overseas, and then all our service jobs overseas, they say we will create a whole lot more jobs, but no one ever mentions what these jobs will be.

Occasionally I see biotech mentioned, but I think they could do that cheaper in India as well. Plus more people to test the biotech products on over there.

But Boeing and the airplane industry aside, the top 20 American exports are soybeans, corn, wheat, hides, ore, cotton,logs, etc. Just the raw products of this blessedly fertile land.
In return we get shiny doodads and amazing gizmos. This sounds familiar.
Our export profile already resembles an agricultural colony, and we are importing the workers for that as well, just like the 18th century sugar planters imported their labor.

The pressure to reduce our environmental standards is going to be enormous as our trade deficit continues to rise. Preserving our environment will soon be portrayed as a luxury we no longer afford if we wish to remain competitive.

The Chinese are purchasing our deficit, financing our consumption of their goods, much like we did with 'foreign aid' to other countries in times past.
Instead of paying our taxes we spend the money on foreign goods, and in order to pay them back, eventually we are going to have to sell everything we own, including the ore, the timber and fossil fuels in our national parks. Everything sacred to us.

As the dollar falls, the pressure will rise, and when people are hungry, they do what they have to do, even if it destroys the land.

This has all happened before,I think. Except that this time, WE are the natives.

Is this an inaccurate scenario? I'd like to know.

[ablbodyed]

1. Yes, it's accurate....

Heaven help us. And welcome to DU.

[Indiana_Dem]

2. From what I've been reading, yeah, you've got it.

:cry:

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. Some will steal, some will beg

Because the US is a wealthier nation and the prison industry is an investor favorite, more will be imprisoned than in Honduras or Malawi.

Some will be deployed as expendable human resources as the US expands its military operations to bring extra-territorial possessions to heel, and secure its natural resources around the globe.

And of course some will die as a result of domestic anti-terrorism actions, because many people who have been accustomed to a more affluent lifestyle may have some initial adjustment curve..

Lack of access to housing and medical care, combined with more aggressive law-enforcement will assure that business interests are not jeopardized by unmanageable numbers of outstreamed.

[TheWhitneyBrown]

5. I wish someone would disagree.

It would make me feel a lot better. Instead, your post makes perfect sense. It gives me a shaky feeling, a feeling of great sadness, and a rising, but seemingly futile, anger.

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. I wish many many people would disagree enough to stop it

However, that is not likely.

There is a self-help book for women in abusive relationships, called "When Hope Can Kill."

The premise is that women who engage in magical thinking, or are just natural optimistic hopeful people, keep hoping and believing and hoping that the abuser will "change," they are not only not helping themselves, but frequently putting their lives and those of their children in jeopardy.

The real hope to focus on is that the woman herself will "change" and get herself and her kids out of that situation, and live a happy life.

The US voting class, and to a lesser extent, the majority population itself, has been enabling an abuser for a long, long time.

Hoping that the regime will change, that politicians will change, that rich men will change.

And not changing themselves.

[Scottie72]

4. Welcome to DU!!

Welcome to DU!! :hi:

I believe that is highly accurate. It is ashame that jobs are being outsourced to other countries for cheaper labor. There is an increase in Discount Retail Department Stores which employ workers at a wage that is far below what any family can even dream to live on. Thus now forcing those families to shop at those stores and buying the goods made by those outsourced jobs. Thus keeping the CEOs of the companies super rich while we everyone eles gets poorer. (I hope this came across alright)

[TheWhitneyBrown]

6. The Company Store

This sounds familiar, too.

"16 Tons, and what do I get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
St. Peter don't you call me 'cuz I can't go.
I owe my Soul to the Company Store."

[Gildor Inglorion]

8. The French showed us the way...

in the Eighteenth Century, when their living conditons became intolerable. Despite its eventual hijacking by Bonaparte, their revolution was a glorious victory over the forces of privilege, opression, and intolerable greed and gluttony at the top. So will ours be; I only hope I live long enough to see it!

Aux armes citoyens!
Formez vos bataillons! :o

[brokensymmetry]

9. Partly accurate. Perhaps too optimistic.

You state that people will do what they must, even if it destroys the land. But suppose that we follow the model indicated by the failure of the USSR.

There, assets were looted by well connected oligarchs. The people (i.e., the government) got pennies on the Ruble, while the oligarchs made multi-billion dollar fortunes overnight. They immediately took this money out of their country.

Now, we look at the US. Isn't it interesting that productive assets are all departing? Isn't it also interesting where the dollar is going, compared to foreign currencies? And as our debt expands, and our production of anything of value declines, what happens to the dollar? It must surely decline, must it not?

What happens to the savings and pensions of millions? In the USSR, one could spend a lifetime's savings to purchase a large link of sausage. In essence, the government liquidated its debt - and the currency became valueless.

Could that happen to us? Social Security would no longer be a problem, would it? Pension funds wouldn't be a drag on corporate earnings, would they? Our own oligarchs, their money safely stored in Euro-denominated assets, or gold, or whatever, could then come back in and buy the remaining dollar-valued land, buildings, companies, and so forth for...well, essentially nothing.

The average life expectency for a male in Russia, in 1996, was 57 years. Women were 70 years. Compare with 73 for males and 79 for females in the US. With no health care and medieval working conditions, we can expect the US to follow that pattern.

So, as I say, you are - if anything - a voice of hope...;(

[kalian]

10. You forgot to throw in something else....

Peak Oil...

Once energy becomes expensive and eventually scarce, then the
situation will become even worse. Not only for the US, but for the
entire world.
With the recent report by the Pentagon to the WH about climatic
change within the next 15 years, we're really going to be in a
world (sic) of hurt.

The key here is that we won't be able to change society's way of
thinking. The only thing that you can do is start preparing for
the inevitable on your own or find like-minded people and plan
together.
No, this isn't about eco-friendly, pseudo-hippie gatherings but
people that have accepted the eventuality of where we're going as
a species. The most difficult part is to "break away" from the
illusion that this society has created for us. Think "The Matrix"...

I'm dead serious. Read up on Peak Oil and learn what's headed our
way...

[fedsron2us]

11. There are two things the greedy corporate bastards neglect

The first is that the population of countries such as India and China will not want to work for slave wage rates for ever.

Second, what makes them think that their corporations are inevitably going to reap the profits of globalization.

I think the Asians are going to have them for a hot lunch.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4340889/

[amazona]

13. in china it's live a slave or die as an organ donor

I don't see how we can compete with a country where, if the gov't doesn't like what you're saying or doing, they can execute you and sell your organs for $50,000. I don't see the Chinese getting their freedom any time soon. I imagine they will be slaves for a long time to come.

[amazona]

12. our land is pretty well destroyed already

The United States has one of the highest rates of extinction (if not the highest non-island rate of extinction) in the world. The last time I saw the statistics, I believe they projected 1/3 of species to be extinct within 100 years. Of course, a great many extinct species are not yet "officially" extinct, because they can't get enough people and documentation to do all the paperwork -- even such well-known extinct species as Bachman's Warbler and Ivory-Billed Woodpecker are not yet "officially" extinct. Our wild flowers and butterflies are in terrible trouble. Some states are nothing but agricultural desert already; I believe it's Indiana where less than 0.5 percent of the original habitat remains. We have a very efficient agricultural industry and it's amazing we can get all the food out of it we do, but we've taken it about as far as we can take it, especially once the midwest aquifers start running dry. I don't see us an agricultural colony (which is, agreed, what we are now) for more than a few more decades. We will be a desert. And not just agricultural desert with no wildlife but Dust Bowl type 1930s desert. Sorry to sound such a note of gloom but I don't see any evidence that people will take one bit of action to save the world for their children. Most folks won't even plan for their own futures, much less their children's. There is something about the human brain that prevents us from long-term planning.

As far as jobs, agriculture is no longer a good source of jobs. My partner's work is putting agricultural workers out of business -- setting up computer-operated factories where only one or two people can operate an entire factory. And even he isn't that well paid!

The profit on a chicken is literally a few pennies so every job eliminated makes a big difference in the bottom line surprisingly. I don't know what the answer is but don't expect to be able to work on a farm or in a factory and still make enough money to live. You won't because you won't get hired to begin with. There are the billionaires like Tyson and Sanderson, and then there are the increasingly few workers who get paid shockingly little, and then there are the computers. And they already have too many computer people. (not that any of them know how to service a computer at a chicken plant but that's another issue)

I don't know where the jobs will come from but it won't be agriculture.