01.20.11
Not Made In China: US Bullshit Manufacturing
Your host didn’t quite know what to say after viewing the meeting of the President and the Hu fellow from China yesterday. A perfectly honest man might have created a stink and told the truth:
We’ve spent a lot of time digging our own holes and now you’re a part of that, an enabler. And since we’re not going to agree on anything, get out. But before everyone leaves I’d like to show some handy charts I’ve had prepared by government employees, people who still have jobs. Which is what this is all about.
From the Department of Commerce, a pie chart of worldwide steel production as of November 2010:
The Commerce department on steel production is full of graphical data. All of it a horror show in terms of showing how the United States has disintegrated.
From 2009, another appalling graph — produced from data taken by the US Census, part of Commerce, on military production in the US versus everything else (and originally shown in the NY Times):
This continues on the blog riff that the US produces nothing but weapons. At the expense of everything else.
And that while what production of durable goods in the US that remains is charted, it — along with the fortunes of the middle class and the new mass of unemployed — cratered in 2009. However, military production did not.
It went through a minor dip and then soared.
This is immoral. It destroys any argument on fairness and shared burden and consequences being a part of US society. It broadly and mercilessly insults the intelligence of all those who must listen to, see or read about the Department of Defense making nibbles around the edges to trim its budget in the coming time of austerity.
The post a few days ago asked the rhetorical questions: What manner of leading western country has one company, General Atomics, devoted to only making killer drones for assassinating people elsewhere — that’s half the size of the Food and Drug Administration? Or where the budget for killer drones is the same as the one to ““Transform Food Safety System, Invest in Medical Product Safety, [and provide] Regulatory Science”?
In light of this, I had an idea for what would have been an appropriate response to the Obama/Hu joint appearance. People armed with creme pies, enough for those onstage and in the polite audience.
Today’s news, from AP, delivers this classic piece of instantly generated convenient American bullshit, the usual lame attempt to polish a really big turd:
[President Obama] said the newly announced business deals worth $45 billion — which include a highly sought-after $19 billion deal for 200 Boeing airplanes — would help create 235,000 U.S. jobs, in addition to the half-million U.S. jobs already generated by the United States’ annual $100 billion in exports to China.
Boeing, the big arms manufacturer.
Perhaps one of the problems rests in the idea that the people who lead this country, and those who follow them around reporting on their insubstantial statements, don’t really grasp how many things in the US are made in China.
It’s not just a lot. It’s virtually everything I come into contact during my daily travels, except cars and food. There’s no getting away from it. There are no alternatives.
Perhaps the people in power never look hard at the astonishing data revealing profound failure, all carefully produced by government agency. It’s too ugly and impeaching. It reveals economic treason on a grand scale.
Here’s a quaint poster, one sold to the upper middle class, a decorative thing that shows a government chart of US steel production from 1895. Now it’s sold as a gift, presumably made in China, for hanging on the wall where perhaps someone fancy and fine will momentarily wonder what happened to all that and how the word growth was redefined as looting.
An alert and courteous reader passed on a related piece, from someone’s column on innovation, or the lack of it in the US. It was discussing how that word has been redefined also — downward into the nothing of going nuts for iPhones and apps:
As for the rest of the crowd, it was disturbing to observe what appeared to be a total lack of awareness of the bigger picture. The preoccupation, bordering on obsession, with what they define as “technology??? really costs all of us. In the minds of the svelte and young, it seems technology is only information technology: iPods, iPads, laptops, displays, and cell phones ad nauseam.
The concept of technology that you and I might define as the real iron that once drove this country — motors, valves, machinery, presses — that stuff that required the skills of engineers and craftspeople in this country to design and build, never seemed to cross the minds of the beautiful.
I suppose that is the root of the problem. The technology being discussed, software and cell phones and the like, is engineered and built overseas. The software is outsourced to India and the electronics built in China.
From Fortune magazine, to laugh at, the best companies to work for in the United States. Software, a consulting group, investment firms, Google, frou-frou supermarket chains where you can at least be surrounded by mouth-watering things while earning very little.
“[Dreamworks Animation] CEO Jefferey Katzenberg still takes time to call job candidates to encourage them to join,” it reads.
“Any DreamWorker can pitch a movie idea to company executives — and can take the company-sponsored ‘Life’s A Pitch’ workshop to learn how best to do it.”
Chuck said,
January 20, 2011 at 10:56 am
That NYT graphic on durable goods shipments has some telling points on it. Note that the military shipments took a big jump in 2001 and never looked back. The jump in consumer durables starting in ’05 was probably a result of the stupid real-estate lending practices that ended in a (still-bursting) bubble.
I believe that a fair amount of the military uptick is also due to the ballooning of the security business. Of course, it’s difficult to know what the US investment is, as many of the numbers are classified. But the PBS “Frontline” dealing with “Top Secret America” can give you a rough idea.
Junious Ricardo Stanton said,
January 20, 2011 at 12:18 pm
What might the AmeriKKKan sheeple discover if for example you created a time line and a series of graphs showing not only the loss of steel industry jobs over the years coinciding with Nixon and Kissinger beginning the process to fast track China into the World Trade Organization and the Western capitalist system but also showing the results of “multilateral trade agreements” like GATT, NAFTA and all the other anti worker and anti-environmental policies the Kelptocrats and their cohorts in Congress fashioned but told us would bring jobs and prosperity to the US? What if your graphs included the loss of family farms and farming jobs, sheet metal, machine shop, manufacturing and even distribution/transportation positions over the past twenty five years?
What if you drew graphs, flow charts and a time line showing how Wall Street, the banks, bond rating companies, mortgage companies, mortgage brokers, real estate appraisers, real estate agents, the government and media shills snookered the people into getting into debt they may never get out of?
Do you think more of the sheeple would perk up, begin to think for themselves, put two and two together and come to the conclusion big capital and their government puppets are not on our side? Or would they merely yawn and go back to watching Fox News, American Idol, and the Super Bowl?
Warren said,
January 20, 2011 at 12:36 pm
Shipping US manufacturing to China, yet another violation of our rights. Add it to the list of gov’t violations of our right:
They violate the 1st Amendment by placing protesters in cages, banning books like “America Deceived II??? and censoring the internet.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns.
They violate the 4th and 5th Amendment by molesting airline passengers.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting undeclared wars for foreign countries.
Impeach Obama and sweep out the Congress, except Ron Paul.
(Last link of Banned Book):
http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000190526
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robertsgt40 said,
January 20, 2011 at 1:51 pm
Can’t have a NWO with sovereign nations on the loose. We’ve been looted in every way imaginable. I saw on msm that the US is #1 in manufacturing. People swallow this crap because it makes them feel better about being broke. Somehow the shysters that engineered this train wreck will somehow right the ship. Mass delusion.
ehswan said,
January 20, 2011 at 2:28 pm
And so now our primary exports are food and destruction. And perhaps our gmo foods are also a form of destruction? I think that Satan won, rules, and we have become his minions. Have as good a day as you can have under these circumstances.
Jen Chen said,
January 20, 2011 at 2:36 pm
There is still industry in the USA-but it is all military-why? because it is a police state-the elite are in a panic that huge populations of people can overthrow their rule over them-if they unite-they hate that you are not submissive enough-sheep. This is WW3 it is being fought against the entire civilian population of the world-who don’t have a clue-the elite believe in “paying the soldiers” (Caesar) The rest of the population will be poisoned-starved-uprooted by poverty and disasters and accidents that are neither natural or accidental. The elite are even killing off soldiers now who are not obedient enough to kill civilians-calling it suicide. The wars today are training soldiers to kill civilians-they want soldiers who obey like robot slaves-who never question orders only-the elite-who control the military and NASA, have the technology to turn the soldiers left alive in manageable numbers into actual robots with brain implants-part machine part computer and with altered DNA-no souls-they will remove the frontal lobe replacing it with robot parts. Because some human beings (soldiers/police) are willing to protect and serve only these elite-for cash and status as incentives-the elite will win- killing civilians only requires convincing these soldiers to really believe are the enemy-it proves one thing-there is something very wrong with the human psyche and what will happen should happen-the Henoch prophecies and John Titor confirm it will happen. Earth will be a better place and you will be much better at being robots than Humans are at loving one another as Christ tried in vain to teach you to do.
RoHa said,
January 20, 2011 at 3:22 pm
“except cars and food”
No “Great Wall” 4WD’s on sale in the US? We can get them here in Australia. And Chinese apples. And I picked up a packet of Nabisco (American company) Oreos in the supermarket. Guess where they were made. Go on. Try reaaaallly hard.
mike said,
January 20, 2011 at 3:54 pm
well! i work in manufacturing. a nasty, dirty, unsafe, unhealthy and low wage paying factory. dont see no future in it. sorry, i do. i see a future of hard work in poverty, then death. yup, uhmerika ia just like china. half of new york city is china town. go see your self. and the gourmet farmers market is selling garlic bulbs 6 for a dollar made in china. stick a fork in our buttocks and turn us over. we is done!
George Smith said,
January 20, 2011 at 5:21 pm
What if you drew graphs, flow charts and a time line showing how Wall Street, the banks, bond rating companies, mortgage companies, mortgage brokers, real estate appraisers, real estate agents, the government and media shills snookered the people into getting into debt they may never get out of?
Do you think more of the sheeple would perk up, begin to think for themselves, put two and two together and come to the conclusion big capital and their government puppets are not on our side? Or would they merely yawn and go back to watching Fox News, American Idol, and the Super Bowl?
I’m not getting my hopes up over any happy answer to that.
Scott Banks said,
January 21, 2011 at 3:34 am
It is stated in the AP article quoted that America exports $100 billion a year and makes it sound as if that’s good.
Here’s what AP isn’t telling you. First of all the figure for 2010 was $81 billion. Close the borders to Chinese goods and American factory production would rise by $250 billion. That’s the value of all the crap America imported from China last year minus the exports The globalist line is always that protectionism would hurt US exports. And it would, no doubt about it. But why worry about it when your economy can gain 3 times more than it can lose?
Walter Carpus said,
January 25, 2011 at 4:29 am
We get what we deserve! American’s today are basically “fat (and I do mean FAT), Dumb; (look where we stand in education compared to the more advanced countries in the world), and HAPPY (of course Happy: after all, as long as we have our cell phones, beer money and cigarettes…why not?)
Computers/development are requiring more and more demand for skilled workers, yet in my son’s masters class in computer science there were only two out of eighteen Americans in the class! I personally blame the media. They are so good at telling you how to live and what to believe that the gullible just fall in line with their gibberish. People watch those stupid commercials and laugh at some little creatures antics and never do find out what they are really selling! My friends and I agree that nine out of ten commercials are simply stupid. But, that is where so much of the brain-washing has taken us, right down the road of the “dumbing down of America!.” Things will not get much better until we get both eyes open.
chugs said,
January 27, 2011 at 11:54 pm
well i for one think its great. who gives shit if the chinese are destroying their country and resources to make the stuff that we use once and then wipe our asses with and throw away, probably to be recycled by small poor bastard in china inhaling arsenic fumes.
all that matters is that the US has big f88king bombs and a kick ass military. you look at world war 2 and there were huge financial independences between Germany and the rest of Europe, but that didn’t stop Hitler or the Japanese from being muscled by the western allies.
Security trumps all interests and the yanks as far as I can see get that. I think you people have nothing much to worry about but your own paranoid delusions
George Smith said,
January 28, 2011 at 10:14 am
“Security trumps all interests.” I like that as a slogan for a T-shirt. But it’s probably too esoteric to sell to Tea Partiers. You have to simplify. Like your earlier quote — ‘big f88king bombs’ on the front and ‘a kick ass military’ on the back.
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