The Blockade Stopping the Economy From Recovering

This article offers hope for the future in maybe doing some infrastructure work in North Carolina. The trouble is, America is not going to get back on her feet selling things to herself or redoing her hair and nails. We need an export-economy outside food. And we sent all that to China.

We absolutely, positively, must reopen textile mills, machining plants, foundries, widgets and gadgets manufactuing or we are dead in the water. Because if anything happens to our ag industry, we are finished. Our economy cannot indefinitely stay alive exporting Big Macs.

It's true. Consumers aren't spending. And they arent' spending because they can't get loans. They can't get loans because the banks know even if they have managed somehow to hang onto a job for 2-5 years, that job could instantly evaporate, leaving their loanee unable to pay them back. I wouldn't loan under those conditions either. So banks either have to be forced to lower their standards on refis and small business loans for applicants or we have to accept that we are going down as a nation.

We bailed out the banks with taxpayer monies. The banks were a credit risk and we gave them money. Now it's time to return the favor or we are all going down. If we want to startup textiles, foundries and the like, we need capital. We can't get it with the system ground to a halt. Someone in power needs to crotch-kick the economy back into gear. And fast.

 

I completely agree with you here. It was the dumbest "Social Justice" program ever developed to turn our economy from an industrialized economy into a service economy. Bill Clinton was SOOOOOO proud of doing this too.

 

Let's try not to make this partisan. We are dying as a nation. Let's not be two little punks duking it out on the playground while a man-eating tiger stalks us from the bushes.

NAFTA was a mistake. Clinton admits that. We all know it. We need to go forward and fix what's wrong.

 

Not being partisan, just saying the truth. This is just another Progress Trap that humans got us into. Too far into it to turn around now.

 

Nothing is impossible. We have food to trade, for now, until Monsanto monocultures us into one large bad season, economic failure. Meantime we should be getting ahold of all those old factory buildings, retooling them and starting up.

 

"We absolutely, positively, must reopen textile mills, machining plants, foundries, widgets and gadgets manufactuing or we are dead in the water."

Taxcutter says:
Agreed.

But until you are prepared to roll back regulations and put the brakes on runaway litigation, its never gonna happen.

When you have to wait for a federal permit to paint your product, and that permit spells out an expensive and inferior paint, you cannot compete with anybody.

BTW, the US is the world's #3 exporter and its much more than ag products.

 

Should be #1. I believe there are ways to protect the environment and workers and push out competitive products. Why does industry always have to focus on the most toxic production methods? Ag industry is a great example. Some clever petrolium salesmen figured out how to get farmers addicted to pesticides and herbicides [that are killing our soils, beneficial insects, eco systems, the Mississippi and the Gulf fishing industries]. These chemical "quick-fixes" are much more expensive that crop rotation, natural weed controls and beneficial insects. Taken altogether with the damage they're doing, petro-farming is off the charts more expensive to our overall economy considering how many others are losing their livelihoods by the pollution of the Mississippi and the Gulf.

We can tighten up, trim and get smart and efficient about how we do things. Should have a german at the top management position of every company. Then you'd see the country turn around on a dime....lol.. The old timers knew about this racial ethnic group and their penchant for tireless and endless improving and improvising systems.

The germans are like machines of efficiency. Is that racist? Yep, probably....lol..

 

How many abandoned factories could get on the fast-track for being retrofitted? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? There's your investment. 1% loans to small business people already proven in their field to expand. No startup sheisters milking the system for quick cash/bankruptcy.

 

1. You first survey the number of abandoned factory buildings.

2. Assess them for needed repairs.

3. Create jobs doing the needed repairs and upgrades

4. Escape new-construction permits and fast-track remodel ones instead.

5. Loan cheap money to people already in the trade on a smaller scale to move into the new upgraded facilities to expand.

6. You create jobs twice over and an industrial base expansion that boosts and diversifies the GDP.

7. People are earning more so they are buying more.

8. Banks see increased and more stable wage earners. So they loan more.

9. People are able to go on those vacations, or build that new business or enterprise with loans. Economy stimulated. Rich get richer thereby.

10. Everyone wins.

 

Stop the lies. The recovery is over. Time to get used to it.

 

Item #3 is the one that requires some sort of voodoo.
Item #4 flies in the face of EPA 9and other agencies') policies
Money now is as cheap as any of us have ever seen it. Easy money hasn't helped the Japanese at all.

Much easier herding unicorns.

 

Someone said on the last page "stop the lies, the economy is recovered"!? ...lol...

Hilarious. Not from where most of the people I know are looking at it. The banks still aren't loaning, finding any or no reason at all to disqualify applicants. The unemployment numbers are off the charts [literally since the charts only reflect those who are still actively looking for jobs and not the swarm who have given up completely]. Those numbers translate into people who have no money to consume. Therefore small businesses are shutting their doors right and left, more jobs are disappearing as the numbers of jobless are "tweaked" by powers that be to reflect "low unemployment rates".

The first step in recovery is to get honest.

Nobody wants easy money. People want jobs. How did you get "easy money" out of the following suggestions??? All I see when I read it are "JOBS". And that means work. And trust me, people like to feel productive.

As to your statements Taxcutter that #3 requires voodoo. WTF? You think refurbing thousands of derelict factories with fast-tracked permitting for existing structures won't create construction jobs? Voodoo, really? Have you seen the numbers on unemployment in the construction trade? There are journeymen swarming around willing to work for 1/4 of what they made 5 years ago and only a fraction of them are getting hired.

You say #4 messes with the EPA? Not on existing structures. Existing structures are exempt from many ordinances that new construction has to abide by in most areas. You don't need heavy permitting to refurb. You just have to meet modern standards for engineering. All that means is more construction jobs. If Uncle Sam was going to put his dime anywhere, refurbing old factories and turning them over to proven small business owners to expand would've and would still be the best bang for the buck.

 

Until American consumers choose to purchase American made product, most of this is pie in the sky stuff

 

So, create a supply and the method of producing it? Do all of this with the hope of demand?

 

If you build it, they will come. They will buy. If given the choice, people will buy American. If given high enough tariffs on imports, people will definitely buy American.

Been in any store lately? Turn over the items and look for "made in" stickers. When none are left that say "made in USA", it's hard to choose to buy "made in the USA".

If we build it, they will come...

 

Yes, everybody would win, but you're leaving out something very significant and that's why there are so many abandoned factors that need retooling. Textiles are largely imported because US labor and regulations made them to expensive to complete with foreign markets. Dido with the big three US auto giants and the US machine shops that supplied them. Even the new wind generator industry, parts are largely manufactured overseas, only the assembly and installation is done here. And the new solar boom, we can't complete with China.
It took years to disassemble the idea of American greatness and exceptionalism and it'll take more than a few revamped plants to regain them.
So, although I share your passion, the proposals you're putting forth are far from achievable given the current state of affairs because to even have chance of success, first there would need to be a huge swing in ideology and policy. Do you really see any indicators of that? If so, please share them because I'm not seeing any. In fact, unless I'm missing something, I see more indications we are shifting farther away from the ideals that favor a stronger, more independent economic nation.

 

Then we raise tariffs on Chinese imports until we can compete. They won't like that, but then again dying as a nation from fiscal death isn't a savory idea either. I choose the former.

 

Is this your idea of a free market solution? Just because you rebuild a factory doesn't mean it will be able to compete. In a free market, you don't just make things and hope they will come. You must first have the desire to purchase an item, then you produce it.

Look, if there were a market out there, you'd be seeing many of the things you suggest.

 

Read #5, the buildings go to ESTABLISHED tradesmen to EXPAND and create more jobs. This isn't about new startups, it's about expanding what already is working and selling.

 

When you do that you reduce demand proportionally.

The empty factories you refer to will be busy soon enough ramping up for WWIII. We are seeing a world wide economic downturn similar to the 1930's. I'll leave it open to discussion who the major players will be, I think you are going to see an Imperial China similar to Imperial Japan during WWII in the east. However, their manufacturing capacity is second to NONE. The best we could do is try to play catch up.

 

Wrong. People will still need new clothes. People will still need new tools. People will still need new toys for their kids, containers, home decorations, utensils, widgets and gadgets of all descriptions. They just buy the cheaper ones made here thanks to tariffs. China can sell her crap to the rest of the world. Just not to Americans. She'll be just fine with that right? The world is a big place of consumers...I mean...the ones whose economies aren't in the toilet and who aren't scrimping just to keep a roof over their heads.

 

This sounds ignorant. Tariffs are stupid, and businesses must calculate expected return to substantiate an investment.

 

The buildings are irrelevant. The activity in them is important.

 

If the banksters don't want to buy into it, there is another way to finance it.

The capital gains tax goes back to pre-Reagan levels but with a healthy investment tax credit.

The Federal government sells re-industrialization bonds at a fixed but low interest rate. All funds put into RIBs is tax-deferred.

The Small Business Administration makes loans from procedes of RIBs at an interest rate that just covers administrative costs and interest payments to bond buyers.

You just signed a $50 million contract to play football. You know you are not going to make that much for too many years, and income tsax is going to take a big bite out of you. Stick all that you don't think you will need to live on in a RIB, and pay no income taxes until you cash out a bit at a time after your knees go out, theoreticly at a lower rate than you will on the $50 million.

The local funiture maker is back in business and you have a whole bunch of people paying smaller amounts in taxes to make up for the deferred tax revenue.

Anybody see a fault in that idea?

 

Oh, really? How has our manufacturing sector been doing since we cut them back?