Plant & Facilities Engineering

The Banks, moving money makes them money. Gives them influence.

Brad

If I remember correctly, I once saw that a big chunk of the national debt was interest payments to banks for the loans of large amounts of cash to the U.S. government. (That alone sounds at odds with itself, doesn't it?)

And then, when (Congress) decries the fact that we Americans save so little money each year, I have to wonder where (Congress) gets the gall to keep making new, bigger loans through legislation, each year themselves. There seems to be no (living-by-example) on their part to even just making a token effort to keep the current years' loans no bigger that last years' loans.

On top of all that, various news stories essentially credit the U.S. consumer with keeping the country out of a (rec/depr)ession with such a strong (commitment ?) to spending money that (he/she/it/they) haven't earned yet. How long can this non-logic go on? .......

Just as we believe that the Earth was specifically created to support human life, we also believe that America will always be the greatest nation of all. Globalization may ultimately be beneficial for all nations, however that may involve switching to the Euro and the reduction of US power in the World. In other words, there's no guarantee that the US won't become a fifth rate power in the process... But then, we wouldn't have to bathe as often, and we could hang out with the French!

Ok, that's one way to look at it, but why would we WANT to hang out with the French? (and yes, I AM part French, myself...)

More seriously, if you owned a manufacturing business, and your competition outsourced it's operations, then how could you expect to continue to compete, without outsourcing your own manufacturing operations?

I remember that, some 25-30 yrs ago, when I was still just a technician, I worked in the (Big Woods) country of Northern California, there were eight operating lumber mills in the region. The logs were debarked by high-pressure water jets, and sawn to various sizes, with the scraps collected and shipped off to Japan. So, young, ignorant, me asked what was done with all that scrap material. I was subsequently told that it was used to make Japanese Furniture and re-sold over here. Hmmm, I thought, why doesnt at least one of the mills simply keep the scrap here, hire a furniture designer with a Japanese name, and make and sell such furniture over here, while saving the costs of shipping across the Pacific Ocean, twice... I was promptly (enlightened) to the fact that (oh no, we couldn't do that... ). With economics such as they were then, I knew something was wrong, but I wasn't sure what... Now, we are all being shown what was wrong, and we all need to face up to it. (By the way, I think there is only one,or at the most, two mills left now...).

About 20 years ago, one of the Georgia Pacific's mills were about to close because they had a rule that if a mill couldn't make a profit better than 20% it was no good.

The mill workers got together and pooled their money and offered to purchase the mill from Georgia Pacific - while it was making a little under 20% it would still be a major benefit to the local community. Georgia Pacific declined their offer. Their reason for declining was that what the workers proposed was communism, and they would not be a party to furthering communism!

Today, trees are cut down, then ferried out to Japanese floating sawmills off the Pacific coast, where they cut and process the lumber and then take it home.

Without actually knowing how such a decision was made at that time, I would have to primarily suspect that over-promoted management was not about to allow anyone a chance to publicly demonstrate that it was possible to manage that particular mill at a profit of greater than 20%, and that said management would be thereby publically revealed as comparatively deficient before reaching retirement age at said company. I fully expect such self-interest to eventually undo most of (American Business), just as it already has undone almost of all of (American Government)....

The US will continue to decay as it has over the past decade. It can be seen by the confidence in the dollar

The Banks own the U.S., more every day. the contract was for gold dollars not Federal Reserve Notes dollars so if it is still then the sinking dollar benefits them even more.

Wish it was different.

Brad

Pure and simple, at this point in history, global out-sourcing is helping those that really owe no allegiance to any country in particular. If you work for one of these companies, please say hi to my families prosperity as it goes floating by. The same goes for families in other countries... Bye, bye!!!