Subject:  What the hell is wrong with Jim Hightower? |
Author:
RobDog Bastard
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Date Posted: 07:19:48 02/16/04 Mon
Okay - so I'm searching around, honestly trying to find a reason for the apparent growth in liberalism recently. I know the answer, really, is that everybody hates George W. Bush even though they can't give a solid, educated reason as to why - but nonetheless I was out trying to find a real answer, some enlightening liberal idea I had yet to discover but that everyone else at the coffeehouse had known all along.
I came across . . . Jim Hightower. I remember this guy from the Tucson Weekly and I remember thinking what an idiot and that he'll never do any better than a weekly local rag. Well it turns out he's nationally syndicated, not even from Tucson, and he's even got some books out which are selling like hot-cakes. "America's #1 Populist," he calls himself. My god - I thought we got over this populism thing in the 30's.
Anyway so here's the guy's argument: we need more manufacturing jobs, and the government needs to make them happen. So - let me get this straight, Jim - we need to ignore the natural exodus of manufacturing jobs to devloping nations and create an artificial economy based on . . . what? Tarrifs and 'Trade Agreements'? Good plan, asshole.
This guy looks right past the fact that the economy is growing, shoots right over the fact that jobs are on the upswing and look to take a big jump in the near future, narrowly misses but deftly avoids acknowledging that the US is no longer the only - or even the primary - player in the manufacturing business, and concludes that Bush has ruined manufacturing.
Bush hasn't ruined anything. He doesn't have the power to. Living here in Pittsburgh I can see very vividly the effects of manufacturing job loss - especially in the steel industry. The bottom fell out of manufacturing two decades ago - Bush was snorting cocaine and driving prostitues around drunk in Texas back then.
Anyway - the point is this. We will never move forward as a nation as long as we insist on holding onto and protecting outmoded means of subsistence. Manufacturing isn't where the money is any longer, and we will not be able to compete with Mexico, China, Brazil, Malaysia, etc. in a game which not only have they become very good at, but they also can provide a near limitless pool of low-wage workers for. What we need to do is move on - concentrate on larger problems like creating and growing new business.
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