Or
I'm
out of work! Who can I blame?
There is
this stupid little ditty that has circulated long before anyone was
even on the Internet. It's been circulated via fax machines and has
even been in a magazine or two.
it is thus:
DOWNSIZING
AND LAYOFFS
Joe started
the day early, having set his alarm clock (Made in Japan) for 6am.
While his
coffeepot (Made in Germany) was perking, he shaved with his electric
razor (made in Hong Kong).
He put
on his dress shirt (Made in Sri Lanka), his pants (Made in Singapore),
and his shoes (Made in INdonesia). After cooking his breakfast in his
new electric skillet (made in India), he sat down with his pocket calculator
(Made in China), to see how much he could spend today.
After setting
his Swiss watch to the radio (made in China), he got in his Japanese
made car and continued his search for a Good AMERICAN JOB!!!
At the
end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe decided to relax
for a while.
He put
on his sandals (Made In Brazil), poured himself a glass of French wine,
turned on his TV (Made in Korea), and wondered why he couldn't find
a GOOD AMERICAN JOB!!!
KEEP THIS
CIRCULATING PLEASE
Most of
you can already see the stupidity of the above ditty, right? It is not
the sleezy greedy companies like Monsanto, Enron, and General Motors,
its us! WE are to blame because we shop at WalMart and buy products
not MADE IN AMERICA!
And if
that's not us, then surely its that son of a bitch next door who drives
the Honda!
-An Overview-
Back in
the 1980s, Hughes Aircraft in Tucson, owned by General Motors at the
time, had 8x10s of DOWNSIZING AND LAYOFFS plastered on every wall that
surrounded their mazes of cubicles. If the walls were rather long, TWO
of the 8x10s. Did management put them there? Maybe, maybe not: But management
and all the business associates they brought to tour the plant nearly
every day were certainly aware of its ubiquitous presence. Flyers and
cartoons were not allowed anywhere outside one's personal cubicle and
even then the company had people watching the various cubes for anything
that might be "ill-advised". So even if the Hughes company
didn't put them there, the flyers remained with management's blessing.
Some of management, it must be said, drove Mercedes Benz.
General
Motors, who themselves bought their Hughes manufacturing machinery from
overseas and who were also, at that time, moving American jobs by the
thousands (and giving themselves raises and bonuses
by the millions) overseas and across the border. The majority
of vehicles under the name General Motors (and
its companies like Chevrolet and Pontiac) are made outside of
the U.S. Never-the-less, GM wanted its underlings to know why they may
lose their jobs, because OTHER people were buying products from UN American
companies! For more on this, rent the movie ROGER AND ME. Why wait?
Rent it tonight!
While
this was going on, GM and a few other "American" companies
were touring with George Bush senior throughout the asian world, trying
to impress on the East how important it was NOT to compete with the
half-assed American car companies that couldn't design a decent car
if someone held a gun to their Mother's head.
At
this very same time, GM was ALSO moving thousands of jobs overseas
to these very same countries, thanks to Trent
Lott and his jockeying and lobbying to use U.S. tax dollars
to fund "Welfare" U.S. corporations into moving American jobs
overseas in the first place (Trent
Lott has a long history of kissing up to foreign nationals at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer,
but let's not get sidetracked here).
ALL OF
THIS was happening while, at this very same time, GM was having new
machines installed in their various buildings. Large, monstrosities that
all had Asian names! Well, two-faced, backstabbing hypocrisy is nothing
new to General Motors. See a fictional account of their real-life shenannigans
in TUCKER: The Man and His Dream (starring Jeff
Bridges). Also see Michael Moore's documentary, ROGER AND ME (1989),
for the full story. For a follow-up (more or less),
See THE BIG ONE.
Back in
the early 90s the Republicans pushed the hell out of Bill Clinton to
sign their NAFTA Agreement. Then, when he crossed party lines and supported
and passed the agreement, the Republicans all acted like the whole thing
was Bill's fault in the first place. Those idiots should have listened
to Rush Limbaugh. (Read Rush Limbaugh's "See
I Told You So!" Read the paperback, it has updates). He
TOLD them it was a bad idea!
With NAFTA,
American companies by the hundreds moved their manufacturing across
the border into Mexico, creating jobs that paid poverty wages even by
Mexican standards and created Maquilladora towns that are run by whole
new crime families. 300 young Mexican women, nearly all of whom work
for U.S. companies, have been raped, tortured, and slaughtered in the
town of Juarez alone (Border town to El Paso,
Texas) in the past few years and the Companies and Police do
nothing (learn more about this from abcnews.com).
On another
note, WalMart became one of the largest chain stores in the U.S. strictly
because nearly all of their products are made in China and other non
U.S. markets. Even the products in WalMart that are specifically labeled
Made In America aren't always true.
So remember,
good Americans never shop at WalMart.
Remember
also that Made In America is the name of a Chinese owned company in
Taiwan.
And thank
Christian Coalition member and Dixiecrat, Trent Lott for pushing more
than any other politician, the removal of American jobs from the U.S.
So let's
lay the blame, not on you and me, the consumer, but on the American
Corporations. They who have moved millions of American jobs overseas
and across our borders then cry and wail like a virgin being deflowered
when U.S. citizens buy products from foreign companies. This is how
that missive should appear:
DOWNSIZING
AND LAYOFFS 2002
Feo started
the day early, having set his General Electric Alarm Clock (American
owned but MADE IN TAIWAN) for 6am. He looked everywhere for one made
in the U.S. but after the Corporate Welfare plan of the 1980s, and the
NAFTA Contract With America of the 1990s, which was to ship out as many
American jobs as humanly possible to overseas markets, he couldn't find
one anywhere.
While Feo's
Mr. Coffee coffeepot (U.S. company but MADE IN KOREA or MEXICO depending)
was perking, he shaved with his Shick razor (MADE IN CHINA).
He put
on the dress shirt he bought at WalMart (MADE IN INDIA), his Levi dress
slacks (U.S. company but MADE IN SRI LANKA), and his dress shoes (U.S.
company again but MADE IN INDONESIA under heavily armed and roving guard
- rent the documentary, THE BIG ONE). After cooking his breakfast in
his new Westinghouse electric skillet (MADE IN KOREA), he sat down with
his Texas Instruments calculator (MADE IN MEXICO), to see how much he
could spend.
After setting
his Timex watch (Which, by the way, is NOT a U.S. company), to his Phillips
radio (MADE IN JAPAN), he got in his Toyota car (which actually IS made in AMERICA!) and continued his search for a good American job!!!
At the
end of another discouraging and fruitless day, Feo decided to relax
for awhile.
He put
on his Nike sneakers (owned by a U.S. company but resolutely made under
armed guard in INDONESIA), poured himself a glass of wine (French wine
stinks so he bought a bottle of Frey Vineyards Red Table Wine - no sulfites
doncha know), and turned on his Phillips Magnavox TV (MADE IN JAPAN)
and wondered how large a pay raise his congress and senate, Republican
and Democrat alike, were going to vote for themselves today.
KEEP THIS
CIRCULATING PLEASE (You bet I will!)
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