The stock market goes up — when American workers lose

27 November 2018

Today, I use minor business news — to make a symbolic cultural point

What seems idiotic on my part, may not be.

Amid our crumbling national infrastructure . . .

. . . and our inability to manufacture much of anything importantly basic — comes this fine news:

General Motors confirmed news of a major restructuring underway Monday, announcing that five North American plants will be closed, while up to 15 percent of its salaried workforce will be slashed.

It marks the end of the plant that makes the Chevrolet Cruze in Ohio, the death of the Chevrolet Volt hybrid and the closure of the iconic Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant.

[In typically US monkey-gibberish:]

[I]t’s all part of an effort to continue “Transforming the global enterprise to advance the company’s vision of Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions, Zero Congestion.”

GM’s stock price was up 7 percent on the news.

Meanwhile . . .

American Fred Reed wrote the following about his recent trip to China:

Judging by email from readers, many do not realize the scope and scale of China’s advance. Neither did I.

The Chinese passengers seemed no more impressed by the [180 miles per hour] train than by a city bus. . . . As an American, I was internally embarrassed.

On another day we rented a car and driver . . . . The highways were up to American standards, when America had standards. The astonishment began when we reached the mountains.

[The Chinese] go through mountains.

We crossed [valleys] on bridges or elevated highways. The result was that a heavy truck would not have to gear up and down.

There may be a long list of things the Chinese can’t do. Building stuff won’t be on it.

Almost everybody uses WeChat . . . an app . . . that . . . lets you pay bills electronically. . . . People go out at night without cash, which may cease to exist in a few years.

Obesity does not exist.

[Pandas] were thought to be on the way to extinction when apparently the government decided extinction wasn’t a good idea. Boom, the panda zoo appeared. As my friend in the city says, when the government decides to do something, it happens.

[T]his is a very serious and competent country and not to be underestimated.

The difference between the United States and China — is not just PRC authoritarianism

It is cultural inclusiveness:

The Chinese, misguidedly by US standards, are trying to build a society that somewhat works for most people.

In the United States, we have intentionally built a culture that fosters parasitic blood-sucking. The 1 percent profits at the 99 percent's expense.

This explains why the stock market gloats, when American workers lose their jobs. Short-term profit is rewarded by making predatory extraction more efficient.

Yay?

In the United States, what is good for Establishment, Wealth and Corporatism is what is (evidently) desirable. Workers, Hamtramck and the United States be damned.

The moral? — Sense of community is not a basic American concept

China's broader view, in being able to harness most of its population's substantial energy, is probably going to win out.

Notice that, even today, China can build pretty much whatever it wants, complicated or not. Try that in the United States:

Ford and Chrysler cannot even build ordinary cars anymore. And GM, in this latest news, is not far behind in voluntarily losing that ability.

Yes, CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards — as well as the "crossover-SUV-truck" tricks to evade the more stringent of those — have something to do with this trend. But keep in mind that foreign manufacturers have to cope with CAFE, as well.

To my main point, just try looking for day-to-day products that are still manufactured in the United States.

We fool ourselves (about our declining abilities) by saying that we have moved on to more challenging "informational" and "tech" things.

That's bullshit, of course. Most of the American worker economy depends on "service" and aspects of militaristic imperialism. The latter also taking place at ordinary humanity's expense.

And, with regard to Empire, if someone (with access) looks hard enough, we will probably discover that even our uber-profitable defense industry cannot reliably build armaments, without first outsourcing critically important parts, or material constituents, to one or more of our geopolitical adversaries.

Strategically speaking, unlike the "People's" Republic, short-sightedness is a bedrock American characteristic.

My historical guess is that handing over US destiny to the most rapacious and morally despicable elements among our population constitutes a long term survival mistake.

In this regard, community morality may be the single biggest difference between China's concept of competent leadership and ours.

Given the frequent ugliness of China's capitalistic communism, and its reportedly rampant corruption, does this create philosophical paradox?

But let's not strain ourselves. The abilities to think subtly, objectively and non-ignorantly are also not particularly American societal traits.

Is McDonalds's hiring?

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The stock market goes up — when American workers lose