Arms Sales Begin at Home

[Big Train]

Sesh,

Being your usual illiterate self uses pics to describe things. Love it..

Anyway, for all the doom and gloom, there is opportunity, the great engine of capitalism. There is all kinds of money to be made in energy (alt. sources), manufacturing and the new industries that crop up with new problems. The problem isn't so much existing industries (although there are some things of concern), but inventing and dominating new ones. I firmly believe we will figure them out as the century progresses. As for China being the big bad bully, there is also Russia. It's a balancing act, they cannot succeed if we fail, and vice versa, it's that simple. There is too much money in the balance.

My bigger concern closer to where I live is the BLATANT intellectual property bullshit going on (mine being the music industry) that, combined with similar industries, is eroding one of our chief assests we sell to the world: Our Ideas. Whether it's the label's stuff being burned like there is no tomorrow, or a set of golf clubs being knocked off left and right, it's that kind of bullshit that is bleeding this economy and will only continue to do get worse in more industries. Cases will be harder to file and win, as there is precendent for all kinds of shit to fly which never has. That is going to eat at more and more jobs as the bottom lines get bled.

Who benefits? China..

[Nitro Express]

Exactly. I took a shit load of finance and economics classes in college. One class dealt with the history of economics and we all concluded that Marxism was a complete failure but unchecked capitalism isn't the answer. You hear a lot about laise fare and Adam Smith's invisible hand. That's all great but in the end of pure capitalism you have monopolies that become as menacing as dictators. You need some regulation with the capatalism.

Teddy Roosevelt showed the govt. could break up trusts without ruining the economy. I think he was a great president. He came from wealth but cared about the average American. He had a real can do attitude. America built the Panama Canal (Many viewed it as an impossible project) when other countries failed.

The problem now is capitalism is alive and well but fewer and fewer people are bennefiting from it. Corporate leaders pay and bennefits have gone up exponetially since the 1960's and these companies employee less and less people. US companies mainly outsource the manufacturing to China or some other off shore cheap labor haven and slap a brandname on the product. This will continue to happen as long as the people on the top of the corporate ladder make a shit load of money and get away with it.