The real agenda for the big corporations, and the politicians owned by them, is obvious. Reduce the economy to the point where they can control labor costs, and make the system such that they do not have to pay for benefits, and healthcare. In the process they can get rid of the Unions that have been the campaigners for things like the “living wage”, “pension benefits”, “adequate healthcare”, “child labor laws”, “the weekend”.
      How dare the Unions feel that people are somehow entitled to an adequate standard of living.
     One of the other points of battle for the Corporations and the Politicians, is the fight against small businesses. Small businesses provide direct competition on a local level to the “large corporations”. Besides that, small businesses generally care about their employees, and small businesses try to encourage the success of those employees, with the idea being the employee will then return the wish for success for that business.
     The “large Corporations” like to function with the “slave labor” mentality. The “do it or we’ll kill you” mentality. They function with the “we control our world” mentality. Controlling their world includes controlling the politicians that may want to regulate the Corporations.
     Why do you think there was no public option in the new healthcare plan. Why do you think the bailouts went to the big banks, but no help has ever come fourth for the little homeowner. Why do you think the news “corporations” continue to drive the anti-worker sentiment in this country. 
                                                            The Politicians are Corporate owned!
     Lock, stock,and barrel, they do the bidding of the large corporations. Today the badge of honor for a politician is that they support the people, and their interests. That is the battle cry of most of the campaigns you hear. Doesn’t matter what political persuasion you may be from, it’s what you will hear.
     Taking the economy to the lowest possible level will remove the ability of the people to fight back forever. Making the average Joe happy to feed his family, and taking away any hope of the American dream is the goal of Political/Corporate America. Actually there is no “Corporate America” anymore. We are being controlled by “Global Interests”.
    Until we have a total reform of the election process, none of it will ever change. We are in a “catch-22”. The only way things will change is if our politicians change things. Yet our politicians are owned by the corporations. 

During the ‘cold war,’ a term used to describe the tension between communist and capitalist countries that lasted from 1947 to 1991, one of the fears was a military conflict between Russia or China and the U.S.

It didn’t happen. The potential of a military war instead morphed into an economic war.

The U.S. was winning hands down for a long time, but not so much anymore. It used to be that the U.S. was number one in pretty much everything: education, technology, standard of living, economic and military strength, admired world leadership. It was leading the rest of the world into the future with the demonstrative power of democracy and free markets, new technological breakthroughs in automation, computers, communications, energy, medicine, space travel, to name a few.

Over the last ten years China’s economy has surged past those of Canada, Spain, Brazil, Italy, France, and Germany, and is expected to pass Japan this year, to become the second largest economy in the world, behind the U.S.

Whether it’s manufacturing efficiency, high-speed rail-line technology, nuclear power plant construction, clean air energy technology, education, China is making impressive global inroads, even in areas where the U.S. still has significant dominance. Much of it has to do with China’s massive population, about which the U.S. can do nothing.

For instance, while U.S. Internet companies dominate global headlines, China now has the world’s largest internet market as measured by the number of users. Yet internet use has only penetrated 22 percent of the population versus 75 percent in the U.S. Meanwhile, U.S. Internet giants like Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, Facebook and Expedia are experiencing problems trying to transport their dominance into the Chinese market. Part of it is obstacles placed in their way by China’s government, in support of China’s state-controlled corporations. The result is Chinese internet companies like Tencent, and Baidu, cannot help but become world leaders.

Here’s a statistic of more importance. U.S. universities will graduate 150,000 engineering students this year, while Chinese universities will graduate more than 500,000. I’ve had people tell me that’s an unfair comparison since China’s population is larger by approximately the same ratio. But that’s not the issue. The issue is the degree to which China has moved higher education to the top of its priorities, and the fact that 500,000 new engineers a year will probably come up with more high-tech innovations than 150,000 can.

China’s great leap forward has been going through the same phases the early U.S. experienced as it worked toward becoming the world’s dominant economy.

When we criticize China for the treatment of its underpaid and overworked labor force we sometimes forget that in the early years the U.S. also exploited its workers, even utilizing child labor in 14 hour days in garment, textile, and shoe factories, coal mines and crop fields, which gave the country its initial low-cost jump start economically.

It appears China is beginning to exit that phase and enter the next, of treating its workers better. In the past year Chinese workers have been allowed to form unions and strike for higher wages and shorter hours at various auto and electronics plants.

The west would probably like to think that is due to the pressure put on China to improve human rights. However, China has never shown any inclination to bow to pressure in any area. The fact is that the next phase of China’s economic development must be, as it was in the U.S., to develop a strong domestic economy. To do so it needs to have a more prosperous population of consumers, rather than depending on low cost exports to other countries.

Meanwhile, it can be said that China is eating America’s lunch, never taking its eyes off the goal, while we squabble among ourselves, paying no attention.

That’s unfortunate. As Sam Houston said in the U.S. Senate in 1850, “A nation divided against itself cannot stand.”

Yet, for the last 15 years the U.S. has divided itself in increasingly bitter time and energy-consuming political arguments: the morals of President Clinton, whether or not war should be waged to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, whether the country’s current problems are due to the depth of the economic hole dug during the last administration, or ineptness of the current administration in pulling the economy out of the hole.

Return of the Killer Trade Deficit

     The days of Corporate Nationalism are over. UPS is a perfect example of how the “bottom line” drives a company away from caring about their employees in America.
     The company used to have what I call the “Jim Casey management method”. My impression of that method has always been that “we are all in it together, to benefit us all”. The Teamsters were invited in to organize the company to create a structured system to function by within the company. Everybody that worked there could expect the same treatment. No one had to fear favoritism from the boss. All opportunities were made available based on performance, not on how brown your nose was.
      The company showed the employees how valuable they were to the company through various award systems, and outside activities. The job was still tough, and the battles were still fierce, but an employee could still expect a fair shake if they demonstrated that they cared about the profitability of the company, and cared about working as a team to get the job done with their fellow employees. Team play was encouraged through softball games, and get togethers sponsored by the company. Becoming friends among the workforce was considered a “formula for success”. Employees were awarded for safe driving, safe work methods, volume development, etc. Now most of those programs have been tossed in the name of profit.
     So where are we today? I do not have to tell you the effect of Telematics and the way the company uses it to brow beat the drivers. I do not have to tell you how management has a total “do it, or be fired” mentality. I do not have to tell you how the company continues to attack the Teamsters, and the contract, continually, even when they are being unfair to one employee or another.
It’s strictly about the ‘bottom line”. I do not have to tell you about the “Lord and Master” type of management. 
      Employees are an expendable necessity for doing business.
      The management mentality is to do as little for the employee as they can, in order to improve profit for the public stockholders, and reduce the costs of operation. Doesn’t matter at what personal expense, or damage to people it does. People no longer matter.
     Think our world has not changed? Think we have not become a world of the giant “multi-national” corporations?
                                             Look in your own backyard!

George Carlin’s opinion. Contains explicit language.

The attached article talks of the reality people live because of our politicians inaction, or inattention to the people in the real world.
Life in the Real World

The Governors race in Colorado is heating up with Tom Tancredo throwing in as a candidate. 
                          Denver Post Article