re: #4 Eclectic Cyborg

No I think the new Bumper sticker should be: “Buy American - If you can afford it”

My understanding is that labor is not a huge portion of the cost of manufactured goods. So offshoring jobs was more about increasing profits than making cheaper goods. Price remained the same, but profits were increased.

Unfortunately that meant that consumers, whose were now unemployed or with jobs that paid a great deal less, became highly dependent on credit to continue consuming. It is, I believe, one of the main causes of the increase in indebtedness since 1980. But now, that credit is starting to run out.

And, for the most part, where goods were manufactured, the workers weren’t paid enough to buy the goods they made. These goods had to be shipped to the West in order to make a profit. That market, as I pointed out, is in trouble.

Also, as mentioned in the article, the giant chains business model was highly dependent on cheap fuel. Both for delivering goods down the supply chain and for its customers to get to the stores. From my observations, WalMart is entirely a rural and suburban phenomena. Now that shipping goods to stores and driving to stores to get stuff is a lot more expensive than it was, this model is starting to break down.

Ultimately, I believe the blame can be placed at the foot of the economic system called globalism. As my favorite author points out, globalism resembles European feudalism. It is an abstract system unconnected to geography and the people that inhabit that geography. The system’s only goal is the continuation of the system. What happens to countries or people is of no concern to it. To the people who exist in this system the only goal is to increase their personal wealth and power, and they don’t care about nations or people either.

Not that I’m against global trade but the current system, like European feudalism, is in many ways a destructive system, not a constructive one. Until that changes, we’re in trouble.