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Originally Posted by Bogart

I saw Reagan implement changes in the eighties which seemed to work. That of giving corporations huge tax breaks to get the economy going and create jobs. Unfortunately, once the economy got going, they should have been rescinded. The result was that large corporations gobbled up smaller until competition dropped and power was centralized. Things are grossly out of balance on who is now carrying the greatest tax burden compared to before enacting those tax breaks. ...

The whole of our society is about profit at any cost. They cite the same reasons manufacturing has been moved overseas as they do for why we utilize illegal labour for harvesting crops and building homes; because American workers want too much money for the job. But why is this so now? They would like me to believe that it is because we are greedy, but the truth is, I believe that it is because of the devaluation of the dollar. As long as we can buy our trinkets, have affordable housing and feed ourselves, we think we we're doing ok. It's the veneer over what is rotten underneath.

Reagan's economy prospered because the solution was implemented so many years earlier. Volker stopped the 'fix the problem with money games'. He ran interest rates up approaching 20%. A resulting and necessary economic pain finally started fixing the economy three and more years later. That is how economics works. What finally appears in spread sheet numbers must be implemented so many years earlier.

To appreciate why so many jobs go overseas, well, appreciate what engineers see. Anything a product persons does will not appear on spread sheets for four to ten years. Example. William Clay Ford replaced Jacque Nasser in 2000. So bean counters were demoted. Finally Ford engineers started designing again. In 2000, Ford engineers finally started the design of the 70 Hp/liter engine that was originally developed by GM in 1975. Therefore resulting profits finally started appearing in Ford in 2008. It takes that long for innovation to appear on any spread sheet.

Engineers are not an asset. Engineers are an expense according to bean counters. What engineers do never appears for 4 to 10 years later. Example. Engineers started designing Taurus in 1981. When did those profits finally appear in Ford? 1990.

If jobs go to China, then what appears as costs on the domestic spread sheet today also result in sales today. On spread sheets, moving jobs to China means no more costs four and ten years earlier. That 'spread sheet' mentality is why, for example, every engineer I graduated with quit within ten years. American engineers are poorly respected. To business school graduates, designers and innovators are only an expense; do not create profits. More American engineering today is done by tech school graduates - not engineers. Another money game to cut costs. A reality too complex for tea partiers educated only in soundbytes who would rather blame China. The resulting economic downturn will begin to be apparent on spread sheets (ie GDP) in 20 years.

Clinton gave the auto companies $100million to build a hybrid in 1994. In 2010, GM's first hybrid (the Volt in America, the Ampera in Europe) still are not selling. Productive companies introduce massive new innovations sometimes in as little as four years - ie Nissan Maxima. GM takes 16 years? Why? Due to bean counters, engineers could not design it right the first time. So who does Wagoner blame? Japanese. Government. Unions. All the typical soundbytes. All the same reasoning that passes for intelligence in the tea party.

Sound bytes cannot explain reality. Sound byte promoters often do not remember relevant facts from four years ago. Therefore have no idea why economics today is due to actions four and ten years ago.

Was the BP oil spill an accident? Of course not. It was the inevitable result of cost controls. When the purpose of a company is profits - not its products. A philosophy implemented more than ten years earlier in all BP operations. For those not in America, the Frontline piece can be found in The Spill first aired 26 Oct 2010.

Another example of how actual costs and profits do not appear on spread sheets for so many years or decades later. And why tea party activision preaches sound bytes logic - what happened today is due to what occurred yesterday. Nonsense. This is not and never was about partisan politics. This is about what is productive and when the numbers finally report it. Reagan's economic upturn is directly traceable to what Volker, et al did in the late 1970s.

Debts from Mission Accomplished are just beginning to punish us today. That is how economics works. The debts from lies about Vietnam in 1968 and 1970 appeared in the American economy in 1975 and 1979. That is how economics really works. Profits that only innovation can create appear four to ten years after an innovation was created. Again, that is how economics really works. But that requires tea partiers to remember realities four and ten years ago. Those educated in sound bytes quickly forget what happened even two years ago. Those same people and their soundbyte reasoning are why we are driving innovation overseas.

Who owns the Bell Labs? The French. Basic research does not appear on spread sheets for at least ten years. So business school types cut costs. They eliminated R&D first at AT&T; then at Lucent that also generated another ignorant business school pervert - Carly Fiorina. That is not politics. She is dumb because (and I was in the meeting) she insisted productive activities today result in profits this year. She is not an exception. This dumbest people are widespread when business school types use the exact same 'sound byte' reasoning. Same 'spread sheet' reasoning is also used to educate tea partiers.

Where our society remains productive, it is not about profits. It is 100% about the product. Companies that thought profits were more important (BP, GM, AT&T, IBM, Xerox) ended up having no profits. In an America that works, products (not profits) are the most important aspect. What did William Clay Ford change in Ford Motor? He stopped all programs to maximize profits. IOW Ford did not even have one new car in development. Nasser had cut costs. William Clay simply went back to the only thing that made America great. A productive America worries first and foremost always about the product - not about money games. About things that will never appear as profits on spread sheets for four to ten years.

Of course, this is too complicated for tea partiers who are educated only in sound bytes. Same people who cannot think through problems will also resort to hate and violence. Ie a mosque in Manhattan must be attacked. To see why economic (and decreased standards of living) problems exist, start at four and more years earlier. Do what business schools fear. And what economics often fails to measure. The most productive people in America cause no profits (and often increased costs) for at least four or ten years on the spread sheets. Innovations typically create profits after the innovation is no longer innovative. Economics and sound byte logic cannot grasp that.