Where's the Outrage?

And what about those who are attacking the banks saying "We gave you all of that government money to rescue you from your reckless investments and now you DON'T WANT TO MAKE the 'reckless investments' that WE want you to make today!!!!"?

When politics and finance collide (see Fannie and Freddie) the political process starts to dictate the terms by which banks will make investments while ignoring or shifting the risk.

Sadly under Obama we are streaming toward an economy based on popular via the government will rather than market based priorities.

Healthcare reform is pricing US labor out of the market, I would guess by design. The end game is to leverage high healthcare costs for employers to implement true single-payer coverage. The problem then will be that, to pay for it, higher individual taxes will be required, which will also put pressure on the cost of labor, and it will require higher corporate taxes, which will further incent companies to outsource or relocate off shore.

Profit is the motive to move overseas. The corporations seem to be doing just fine. I get calls all the time from 3 major companies wanting us to cut our healthcare coverage to the employees so they can provide supplemental coverage at the employees cost. Our owner believes in taking care of his employees. But some of the people get really upset when I tell them this. They want him to increase the deductible to 2500 instead of 500. AFLAC is one. The companies are just suppose to provide coverage not necessarily good coverage. But it would raise the profits of the company which pays bigger dividends to the stock holders. Small businesses are getting a break this year on healthcare. Our company does about 4 million a year and we meet the qualifications to take 1/2 off our taxes.

The corporate officers don't want to spend the money and use the excuse of fear of greater taxes. It is the same scare tactics the big banks use it will kill the economy. But whose economy are they boosting Not ours if they send the jobs overseas.

Healthcare doesn't have to kick in until 2014. So what are their excuses? I am so proud of Ford for pulling out of the mess they were in now that is a corporation on the right track.

Since corporations have to plan ahead at least 5 years, 2014 is last year. Both the healthcare and financial reform bills leave huge categories of regulations yet to be written by government panels that haven't even been organized yet.

Corporate planners are staring into a vast abyss of unknowns. That forces them into a holding pattern, with a ton of energy being spent on contingency planning rather than expansion planning....unless they can find something less uncertain overseas.

I wonder if they count temporary workers in their findings. Probably not. I know the temp services are doing booming business in all fields. It is cheaper to hire temps and still keep your bottomline going up. It just hurts the workers who need the healthcare and benefits. I know our company uses temps alot. But we usually use them to thin out people because the company does have such good benefits.

Idaho is going full steam ahead into Geothermal production. They have so many lease applications they can't keep up with all of them. It is going to be a big boom for southern Idaho and surrounding areas. Which is exciting to watch. Unfortunately Utah is fighting doing it because they have too many coal companies to support. So it will be pockets of this kind of good news to see. Certain areas taking advantage of the demand for this clean energy.I do believe the country would get behind helping these companies get started with help from the government. I know they must be getting subsidies. But the republicans fight everything that wants to help this technology. The big excuse was China and that they weren't switching but now they are building wind farms faster than any other country. One wind farm they state will fill the demand of 15 coal plants. So there are no more excuses.

If Americans want jobs, Americans are going to have to buy American products.

It's that simple.

The American people have forced jobs overseas by selecting foreign products over American made.

No legislation can fix this. It's up to us.

I wish it were that simple. But many American companies outsource jobs so buying "American" isn't really what you think it is. My company included. Proceeds are sent offshore to cheaper labor.

yes of course they do. Maybe I took it for granted that everybody knows that.

And it's up to us to do a little homework to make sure that what we buy is truly American made.

I don't see how the answer is economic isolationism, not that it could ever be accomplished at this stage. On a macro scale, we ought to be able to benefit from Chinese and Indian low-cost labor--and they should be able to benefit from having us as a market--win-win. Plus there is that other side of the equation--the stuff we get and the services they provide at lower cost, as long as our retailers weed out the stuff with lead paint. We have the most dynamic, entrepreneurial workforce in the world. Better than anyone else, we should be able put the released labor to good use (jobs lost then created).

Joe -

That's much harder than you think - http://www.amazon.com/Year-Without-Made-China-Adventure/dp/0470379200/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280344925&sr=8-1

I know how hard it is.

Having an America without jobs is harder, though.