One thing you hear from republicans and conservatives constantly is that federal regulations eliminate jobs and are a drag on the economy. If only we didn't make our factories and businesses comply with EPA and OSHA and other workplace regulations, our economy would be booming.
They're right. But...
In 2009 I spent 3 weeks in China, traveling from Beijing down to the beaches on the South China Sea near the Vietnam border and back up to Beijing again. When you land in Beijing airport, there is a huge, scrolling electronic sign that advises you of all the diseases you might catch in China and what the symptoms are: thyphoid fever, cholera, dengue fever, CSARs, bird flu, yellow fever and - really - bubonic plague. Everybody except the poorest of the poor drinks bottled water because of cholera. I stayed in 5 star hotels (in China it's either a 5 star or a 1 star, nothing much in between). Every morning when they cleaned my room they brought in a fresh supply of bottled water. So you can't even drink the water in a five star hotel. The pollution in Beijing creaated a murky brown haze that hung over the city. We had planned a boat trip down the yellow river, but parts of it are so polluted from factory runoff that your eyes burn and you can't breath in certain places on that waterway. People work long, long hours without benefits, there's no social security, the state spies on you and you do what your boss says or else.
Why? Because the Chinese don't have the EPA, OSHA, a Clean Air Act, public health initiatives, etc.
Get the picture? Sure, we can bury China's economy overnight and get ours booming like crazy if we remove regulations. But you won't be able to drink the water, breath the air, complain about the dangerous working conditions or long hours at your job and when you're too old to work, you'll be on your own. If you lose a hand on an unsafe machine, you're also on your own.
So you choose: regulations or quality of life. Sometimes you have to compromise in life
Showing posts with label the economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the economy. Show all posts
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Creating Jobs, Pt. 2
"You know, each business is run for the benefit of its owners, its sharEHOlders, its customers AnD its employees. It' s not run for the benefit of the COuntry. That's not whY people run businesses."
- Bill Frezza, a venture capitalist and a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute
(The above quote comes from an interview on NPR's "Morning Edition" earlier this week. You can hear the whole thing if you want by going here: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/04/141033128/venture-capitalist-cautions-against-job-creation-myths)
What's wrong with that quote? Re-read it. If you say "makes sense to me," then you can join Bill Frezza and others who should be labeled as self-serving bastards (SSBs). Businesses aren't run for the benefit of the country? Hmmmmm....sounds to me like some people want to take without giving back, enjoy getting rich in a country that let's them start a business without giving back to that country. Sounds downright unpatriotic to me. Sounds like "thanks, America, for providing me with a place to earn millions of dollars without having to give a shit about the people who helped me earn it."
Here's a simple idea that used to exist in all communities: a town, a state, a country, a family, a village, a tribe, a clan, whatever, is made of people who have to compromise and get along to survive. If Og the cavemen had a good day hunting and Nung the caveman didn't, they shared what they had so they might survive and hunt another day. And you should be glad they did - that's how you and i got here. We - you and i - are the end result of millions of years of humans having sex and creating babies and then successfully raising those babies to make more babies. And what allowed them to make and raise all those babies in the centuries before antibiotics, central heating and TV was sharing and cooperating. That's how we got here - you, me, Rush Limbaugh, Mother Theresa, Warren Buffett, Osama Bin Laden, all of us. Our biological ancestors sacrified "for the common" good, at least to some extent. Even a king knows that if he wants to have lots of servants and a big army, he has to distribute enough food and money so that his citizens won't die of starvation. Otherwise, no servants, no soldiers.
But now in America (and the rest of the world) we have SSBs like Bill Frezza who believe that if they invest money they should get it back AND with a fat profit, thank you very much. Use ten percent of my wealth to create a college scholarship fund? What are you, crazy? Just give it away? That's enough for second vacation home. Give some of my time each week to help the old lady down the block do her grocery shopping? What the fuck is wrong with you?!?! That's my golf day. Where's the bernefit to me in that?
This is how SSBs think. Me first. Mine first. Stay off my property. Don't touch my things. "I was smart and energetic and i worked hard to get where i am, and that's the way capitalism works and that's the American way so why should i give away my "hard earned money"?
First of all, rich people don't have "hard earned money." Maybe they did once, but not now. People who clean toilets for $8 an hour or dig ditches in the rain or work two jobs to send their kid to a decent school have "hard earned money." People who have vacation homes and can afford to pay someone to clean their non-vacation home and who ride around in expensive cars and can write a check to pay for their kids' college tuition, they just have money. Nothing hard earned about it. (If you disagree, i invite you to get a job at MacDonald's for three months and let me know how you much fun it was).
Second, not being willing to give back some of that "hard earned money" tells the world you don't give a rat's ass about anyone but yourself and your pals. It's quite literally like saying "you can starve for all I care" or "why should i give a crap if your kid can't afford surgery"? By being unwilling to share, you send the message that some people "aren't worth" your time/effort/money. In other words, some peoples' live are more valuable or necessary than others. That is, frankly, sick.
I'm not stupid bleeding heart liberal. I'm not saying that we can solve all problems by turning the rich upside down and shaking the change out of their pockets. Individuals bear some responsibility. I think most of us agree that someone who has been through a drug treatment program 12 times in 12 years and still can't stay clean and sober has not made good use of the opportunities afforded them. So no more free ride for you, pal. On the other hand, people who go through a drug treatment program twice in twelve years and are struggling to afford night school deserve a leg up. There's a difference. At least to me. Not to a lot of rich people and businessmen. Remember, Bill Frezza says companies are only responsible for making money for themselves and their investors and employees, they're not beholden to the country that provides them with a place to set up shop.
As long as companies and the wealthy and banks think like Mr Frezza and other SSBs, the economy will continue to suffer and the gap between the rich and poor will grow. The SSBs are the people telling you that if only their taxes were lowered the extra cash would be used to create jobs. The SSBs are the ones telling you that it's the government's stupid regulations that keep them from creating jobs. If you believe these tales, then perhaps you should look for a leprechaun to pay off your mortgage. People like Bill Frezza are out there in large numbers and, as his interview attests, they aren't the least bit shy about revealing their motives. There are many reasons we don't have enough jobs. One of them is all the Bill Frezzas and SSBs who firmly believe that if they can't get rich doing something, there's simply no point in doing it.
- Bill Frezza, a venture capitalist and a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute
(The above quote comes from an interview on NPR's "Morning Edition" earlier this week. You can hear the whole thing if you want by going here: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/04/141033128/venture-capitalist-cautions-against-job-creation-myths)
What's wrong with that quote? Re-read it. If you say "makes sense to me," then you can join Bill Frezza and others who should be labeled as self-serving bastards (SSBs). Businesses aren't run for the benefit of the country? Hmmmmm....sounds to me like some people want to take without giving back, enjoy getting rich in a country that let's them start a business without giving back to that country. Sounds downright unpatriotic to me. Sounds like "thanks, America, for providing me with a place to earn millions of dollars without having to give a shit about the people who helped me earn it."
Here's a simple idea that used to exist in all communities: a town, a state, a country, a family, a village, a tribe, a clan, whatever, is made of people who have to compromise and get along to survive. If Og the cavemen had a good day hunting and Nung the caveman didn't, they shared what they had so they might survive and hunt another day. And you should be glad they did - that's how you and i got here. We - you and i - are the end result of millions of years of humans having sex and creating babies and then successfully raising those babies to make more babies. And what allowed them to make and raise all those babies in the centuries before antibiotics, central heating and TV was sharing and cooperating. That's how we got here - you, me, Rush Limbaugh, Mother Theresa, Warren Buffett, Osama Bin Laden, all of us. Our biological ancestors sacrified "for the common" good, at least to some extent. Even a king knows that if he wants to have lots of servants and a big army, he has to distribute enough food and money so that his citizens won't die of starvation. Otherwise, no servants, no soldiers.
But now in America (and the rest of the world) we have SSBs like Bill Frezza who believe that if they invest money they should get it back AND with a fat profit, thank you very much. Use ten percent of my wealth to create a college scholarship fund? What are you, crazy? Just give it away? That's enough for second vacation home. Give some of my time each week to help the old lady down the block do her grocery shopping? What the fuck is wrong with you?!?! That's my golf day. Where's the bernefit to me in that?
This is how SSBs think. Me first. Mine first. Stay off my property. Don't touch my things. "I was smart and energetic and i worked hard to get where i am, and that's the way capitalism works and that's the American way so why should i give away my "hard earned money"?
First of all, rich people don't have "hard earned money." Maybe they did once, but not now. People who clean toilets for $8 an hour or dig ditches in the rain or work two jobs to send their kid to a decent school have "hard earned money." People who have vacation homes and can afford to pay someone to clean their non-vacation home and who ride around in expensive cars and can write a check to pay for their kids' college tuition, they just have money. Nothing hard earned about it. (If you disagree, i invite you to get a job at MacDonald's for three months and let me know how you much fun it was).
Second, not being willing to give back some of that "hard earned money" tells the world you don't give a rat's ass about anyone but yourself and your pals. It's quite literally like saying "you can starve for all I care" or "why should i give a crap if your kid can't afford surgery"? By being unwilling to share, you send the message that some people "aren't worth" your time/effort/money. In other words, some peoples' live are more valuable or necessary than others. That is, frankly, sick.
I'm not stupid bleeding heart liberal. I'm not saying that we can solve all problems by turning the rich upside down and shaking the change out of their pockets. Individuals bear some responsibility. I think most of us agree that someone who has been through a drug treatment program 12 times in 12 years and still can't stay clean and sober has not made good use of the opportunities afforded them. So no more free ride for you, pal. On the other hand, people who go through a drug treatment program twice in twelve years and are struggling to afford night school deserve a leg up. There's a difference. At least to me. Not to a lot of rich people and businessmen. Remember, Bill Frezza says companies are only responsible for making money for themselves and their investors and employees, they're not beholden to the country that provides them with a place to set up shop.
As long as companies and the wealthy and banks think like Mr Frezza and other SSBs, the economy will continue to suffer and the gap between the rich and poor will grow. The SSBs are the people telling you that if only their taxes were lowered the extra cash would be used to create jobs. The SSBs are the ones telling you that it's the government's stupid regulations that keep them from creating jobs. If you believe these tales, then perhaps you should look for a leprechaun to pay off your mortgage. People like Bill Frezza are out there in large numbers and, as his interview attests, they aren't the least bit shy about revealing their motives. There are many reasons we don't have enough jobs. One of them is all the Bill Frezzas and SSBs who firmly believe that if they can't get rich doing something, there's simply no point in doing it.
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