CITIZEN EDITORIAL CARTOONS

NAFTA : 

Critical Failure To Recognize That The Community and Business Have Diffrerent Intesrts 

The most prominent example of a failure to distinguish Wall Street from Main Street can be found in the case of NAFTA and the exuberant rhetoric that promoted it. As perdicted the profits did grow for the business sector, but as Ross Perot said there was that, “sucking sound of the jobs going South.” To be more accurate Ross could have mentioned it would be followed by an even greater sucking sound of jobs going to the Far East, but he made the point well enough and little good it did for employment here.

Certain employment sectors did benefit from the new employment environment.

Some adapt and even though they aren’t Sushi Gardeners, they keep the American dream alive.

Yes, American companies are hiring, but not so much in America. They have found a higher rate of profit in hiring  and moving their plants to foreign countries, the most prominent being China.  They are moving a lot more than equipment and plants, they are moving American technology. This technology is a national resource paid for by American taxpayer who support the schools that educate the people who come up with the technology and the universities where the research is finalized. This is an enormous expenditure , but the requirement of the Chinese  American joint ventures are that American corporations arrive with technology goodies.  Below is a review of some aspects of this unfolding Chinese American relationship and while the outcome is uncertain, it is certain that there is a lot more to come, but not our way.

   Is there such a thing as Corporate loyalty, except to profit?

One of the little discussed outcomes of the Supreme Court Decision to allow anonymous Corporate funding of political candidates is that it will become harder to know if the candidates are being bought domestically or are they internationally purchased? Just whose pocket are they in? Right now it’s simple to tell who belongs to who and if any doubt exists throw a dart at the Fortune 500 list and you can’t be far off.

While there is a lot of pain on Main Street, the good news is that our betters here and in China are finding common ground and a level of camaraderie that transcends minor issues like capitalism and socialism

Here’s how some are feeling and this is before Sen Sanders pried the information about who got TARP money and found we had TARPed McDonald’s, Caterpillar and General Electric.