1. The slow, painful death of sears (no capitals, remember?) is not a result of incompetent management. It is a shrewd plan to wring every last cent out of an operation and then close it, making sure to take every allowance and write-off so as to keep as much as possible and have nothing to show at the end when the pension guarantee boards come looking for assets.
2. THIS IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CAPITALISM HAS TO COMPETE WITH COMMUNIST SOCIALISM. First of all, businesses flourish under socialism. They have next to no worries about employee benefits. Taxes are high, but everyone is taken care of. Communism is not the same as socialism and totalitarianism is what is usually branded as communism. Capitalism is NOT having to compete with any of these forms of national governance. Capitalism is reaching its inevitable peak in that capital amasses more and more money over time and eventually controls government to the point where labor has no voice or power or wealth. Then revolutions happen. American capitalists are working hand in glove with communist governments to get dirt cheap labor and resources of dubious quality in an effort to save wealth. They don't care what happens to this nation because the corporations are MULTINATIONALS so the Uberwealthy can jump this ship before it founders completely and enjoy their ill-gotten gains in some other land. The markets this week showed that even China Mart is suffering because of poor sales. Even their cheap shit is too expensive for people who do not have decent paying jobs. People in this country further down the economic scale are still not doing well. I know that is not a news flash. When the economy is increasingly based on consumer spending, what is going to happen when consumers further restrict their spending?
On a related category of ripoff, most of our oil is now produced domestically, yet our gasoline prices are going up because the world price of crude increases over tension in the Mideast. If our crude is pumped out of our ground, why should our gasoline prices increase because of events in east bumblefuck? It's because our oil, which is pumped out of American soil with lots of government subsidies is sold back to us at world prices because Big Oil is Multinational so they don't owe the citizens of the United States a damn thing. Unlike a couple of decades ago, we are no longer a net importer of oil; we are, in fact, an oil exporter, but there is, at least here, unlike in the lands that finance terrorism, no cheap oil for our citizens. Furthermore, instead of the oil wealth being shared like in Alaska and the terrorist nations, we not only pay high prices, but part of the tax money we pay is going to help the multinational oil companies which are nominally headquartered here, but hold much of their wealth offshore so that it is not taxable. The only place a petroleum lubricant is not being used financially is in our screwing by the oil companies and other corporations and banks, another case where capital has so much power that it tells the government how it wants things done. Why do you think the Koch Brothers' lobbying operation has written legislation to force people with photovoltaic panels on their roofs to be penalized by power companies in the form of a monthly tax? It's because solar-generated electricity chips away at the amount of coal, oil and gas that is used for power generation. They have the money to get governments to do what they want. It has already been signed into law in one state where the government is totally in the hands of Republicans.
2. THIS IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CAPITALISM HAS TO COMPETE WITH COMMUNIST SOCIALISM. First of all, businesses flourish under socialism. They have next to no worries about employee benefits. Taxes are high, but everyone is taken care of. Communism is not the same as socialism and totalitarianism is what is usually branded as communism. Capitalism is NOT having to compete with any of these forms of national governance. Capitalism is reaching its inevitable peak in that capital amasses more and more money over time and eventually controls government to the point where labor has no voice or power or wealth. Then revolutions happen. American capitalists are working hand in glove with communist governments to get dirt cheap labor and resources of dubious quality in an effort to save wealth. They don't care what happens to this nation because the corporations are MULTINATIONALS so the Uberwealthy can jump this ship before it founders completely and enjoy their ill-gotten gains in some other land. The markets this week showed that even China Mart is suffering because of poor sales. Even their cheap shit is too expensive for people who do not have decent paying jobs. People in this country further down the economic scale are still not doing well. I know that is not a news flash. When the economy is increasingly based on consumer spending, what is going to happen when consumers further restrict their spending?
On a related category of ripoff, most of our oil is now produced domestically, yet our gasoline prices are going up because the world price of crude increases over tension in the Mideast. If our crude is pumped out of our ground, why should our gasoline prices increase because of events in east bumblefuck? It's because our oil, which is pumped out of American soil with lots of government subsidies is sold back to us at world prices because Big Oil is Multinational so they don't owe the citizens of the United States a damn thing. Unlike a couple of decades ago, we are no longer a net importer of oil; we are, in fact, an oil exporter, but there is, at least here, unlike in the lands that finance terrorism, no cheap oil for our citizens. Furthermore, instead of the oil wealth being shared like in Alaska and the terrorist nations, we not only pay high prices, but part of the tax money we pay is going to help the multinational oil companies which are nominally headquartered here, but hold much of their wealth offshore so that it is not taxable. The only place a petroleum lubricant is not being used financially is in our screwing by the oil companies and other corporations and banks, another case where capital has so much power that it tells the government how it wants things done. Why do you think the Koch Brothers' lobbying operation has written legislation to force people with photovoltaic panels on their roofs to be penalized by power companies in the form of a monthly tax? It's because solar-generated electricity chips away at the amount of coal, oil and gas that is used for power generation. They have the money to get governments to do what they want. It has already been signed into law in one state where the government is totally in the hands of Republicans.
