Democrats

American Presidential Candidates Can Learn From German Caravan Capitalism

January 21, 2008 ⋅  E-Mail Article ⋅  Print Article ⋅ Post a comment

Who says you can’t stand up to outsourcing and buyouts? Don’t listen to lobbyist bought politicians or big business CEO’s, just look at what the political movement in Germany is doing to protect their workers and their economy. Anti-Nokia anger in Germany has occurred because Nokia is closing a factory in Germany. Nokia recently stated it plans to close a major factory in Bochum in the Ruhr industrial heartland and shift production to Romania where labor costs are lower which will result in 2,300 job losses. However, Germany stepped up and said enough is enough and that is admirable. There is now growing political action being considered along with politicians publicly ditching the firm’s phones while joining their constituents and fellow citizens in a call for a national boycott of Nokia in Europe’s largest economy. Maybe American citizens and politicians should take note of this and enact similar action on the companies who close domestic American plants for overseas plants. Outsourcing and off-shoring are destroying major economies because the low paying jobs cannot support an economy and these poor workers are not buying the products the yare creating. Additionally, laid off, bought out, and outsourced employees in Europe and America are now not able to buy big business products as well. This shows that one, much like Germany you can stand up to outsourcing and off-shoring, and two, outsourcing and global economy is not the tide to raise all ships but instead it’s the tsunami that is sinking all of the civilized world. Stocks were down dramatically worldwide on Monday following declines on Wall Street last week. U.S. markets were closed for Martin Luther King Jr. holiday but there were still steep market declines today in Europe, Asia and Canada. This shows that globalization is leading to global collapses of economies and this issue needs to be addressed immediately. The race to the bottom brought on by outsourcing and Chinese currency manipulation is destroying everyone’s economy. It’s this simple, we need to build it to afford to buy it and you cannot have one country building and another trying to buy because the ones buying will run out of money without jobs and the outsourced labor building on the cheap cannot afford to buy what they are making let alone buy at a price that lets a business profit. Hong Kong’s blue-chip Hang Seng index plummeted to its biggest percentage drop since the terrorist’s attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and other Asian markets got hammered as well. Called it protectionism or any other name but if we do not enact legislation and take steps like Germany we soon will not have an economy to protect. Back to Germany and their boycott of Nokia…

Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck referred to Nokias’ actions as caravan capitalism. Let’s hope politicians and active American citizens see what Germany is doing to save their jobs and they do the same. Big business hates what is going on in Germany and does not want you to even hear about this but we have and we need to follow suit. It’s time industrialized countries stand up for their citizens and not be bled dry by outsourcing. And let’s quit calling buyouts buyouts, they are really just voluntary firing with a nice settlement package. This buyout is similar to being fired or laid off but big business does nto want you to hear these terms because it puts their company ina negative light just like they don’t want you to think the economy is in the tank from job losses but instead its some credit crunch and mortgage loan problem but remember the credit crunch and loan problem are brought on by a loss of jobs and good paying jobs. Do not let the man win, stand up and rage against the machine, stand up and take back your livelihood like they are doing in Germany. Make your politicians and neighbors become active and make them stand up for American jobs just like Germans are doing.

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