The GOP cannot seem to make up its mind whether he is a sulfurous clown, an actor, a fool or wise candidate to run as their candidate for President of the USA. Before you decide, allow me, if you are interested, to supply you some considerations to help you discern if a person is wise or a fool, based on the wisdom of King Solomon.
“We can vote wisely. We don’t have to vote for the best candidate to win the election. We can vote for the best person for the job”
I value Citizen Tom’s skeptical and conservative commentary because whether or not you agree with his views, you will soon know from reading his posts that he is a good man with a good heart and good intentions for the future wellbeing of our nation. He has many followers who agree and deservedly support him to add content to his posts.
However, Tom lives in Gainesville Virginia and I live in a suburb of Chicago Illinois, two very different manufacturing areas of our nation. If you check the difference in Wikipedia about the two different states you will understand that we are talking about two totally different cultures and lifestyles in a nation of fifty states in our union.
Why do I believe I am in a unique position to access Donald Trump?
It is because, I am a retired Purchasing Manager who spent fifty years in a working career in three manufacturing plants in the Chicago area, during a time when the Midwest was the largest manufacturer and consumer of steel products in the world, and is now considered the rust belt in the nation.
Not only was I a firsthand witness to the demise of US manufacturing over time as I witnessed one supplier after another shut down or resource to overseas sources, I met and worked with thousands of suppliers of goods and services. I also participated in management meetings and decisions about negotiations required for a 250,000 square foot plant with over 500 different types of machines. I negotiated anything from a two million dollar contract to purchase a unique machine as well as managed a department to obtain supplies required for energy, raw materials, services, and even toilet paper.
I purchased from both domestic and overseas sources as well and know firsthand how well planned overseas sources went about to obtain favorable trade balances. Trade balances helped to rebuild their countries infrastructures, plants and equipment as well. So well, they are far more advanced than our crumbling or even outdated plants, equipment, from the use and accumulation of US dollars versus US National Debt.
The people I met overseas are hardworking, good family oriented people too in the same boat as US workers. My point has nothing to do with hardworking people, it has to do with free trade agreements which are not fair to US workers.
For example, how can a US worker be expected to ever compete with labor costs of an overseas worker who is paid $200 a month wages when a US worker has to pay $800 a month rent? So does that mean the US worker living standards have to be adjusted to the foreign worker or should our government leaders have been comatose enough to realize and comprehend that moderation and intervention was required to prevent the decimation of US manufacturing jobs and wages for middle class workers.
To comprehend moderation and oversight that should have been considered to avoid what has transpired which is continued lower wages, lack of job opportunities, loss of hope, dependency of government subsidies, breakup of family relationships in order to become eligible for government subsidies, etc, etc. In other words, a travesty of greed along with the necessity of US corporations being forced by their competition to outsource their products, blueprints, designs, engineering expertise, even trade secrets, by both economic and foreign demands.
For example, if you do not build your plant in my nation, we will not allow your products to be sold in our nation unless our workers make the products. After all, why should we buy US products when we have lower labor costs? We will use your US dollars to buy something else from someone else instead of buying your products in return. If we make the products in the US, we will use the profits to improve our nation infrastructures and investment instead of you having the money to do in your country.
If you, as a US manufacturer do no compete price wise with a competitor who outsources their products, you will lose sales and go bankrupt. In other words, if you can’t beat them, you have to join them or give up.
What has this to do with Donald Trump?
I believe I know what he is trying to explain why he believes our negotiators of trade agreements were “not too swift” (putting it mildly) about the trade agreements they negotiated on our behalf. In my opinion, free trade is great only if it is fair trade for both partners
If you took the time to read the 50 plus comments that followed Citizens Tom’s post you may l understand the differences of opinions expressed is basically about economic theories versus first hand experiences. Donald Trump has a record of firsthand experience in negotiations, same as I have had. Sometimes, the best idealist ecconomic theory does not make pragmatic common sense even though it seems to imply logic..
King Solomon
King Solomon wrote this proverb three thousand years ago which I believe explains what we, Trump and I know better, because of our experience dealing with people who buy and sell goods and services, and specifically in regards to the existing trade agreements made by our inept US trade negotiators.
‘A bad, bad bargain!’ says a buyer, but as he makes off he congratulates himself. (Proverb 20:14)
You can tell which nation is the better buyer nation in the Proverb by the amount of the nation’s favorable trade balances. The US presently has been running a consistant yearly one half trillion dollar trade deficit balance thanks to our poor and even inept trade agreements.
Yet somehow, according to the comments made to support an economic theory, this is a better deal. Better only if our dollars become worthless or inflated in my opinion. That means your 401 savings buying power becomes worthless too.
Citizen Tom
Tom apparently became surprised at my comments when he made this comment.
“ Jeff
scatterwisdom makes a practice of being as congenial as possible. However, he obviously has strong feelings on this subject. Why? I don’t know, but the folks in certain parts of this country have been badly hurt by our economic policies.
Anyway, I think of scatterwisdom as an friend and ally, someone who I can trust to correct what he thinks are my errors.
Thanks for taking the time to type that Milton Friedman quote. Very interesting and appropriate.”
Yes Tom I am passionate about this subject.
Why? Because over the fifty years of my working career, I met thousands of people, both fellow workers and vendor workers. These people by large were hard working good family people who woke up every morning and went to work to support their families, pay rent or mortgages, buy cars and boats, pay college for their kids and support their local churches and charities..
They very seldom wound up in jail, and many depended on their employer for family health insurance and advanced education. In other words, good hard-working people, maybe not brain surgeons, many even who spoke in broken English but had obtained a machine skill as a youth before they legally immigrated and worked in a plant, standing long hours by their machine, making manufactured products.
Yes there is satisfaction for a successful brain surgeon. However, not everyone has been blessed with the talents or financial resources to be able to afford the necessary schooling to become a brain surgeon. There is also satisfaction in doing an honest day’s labor to make a close tolerance machine part in a precision manner and the opportunity to help duplicate quality using better more efficient means learned by actually making a widget. When the widgets are no longer made, the skill and expertise vanishes for the future of manufacturing skills with it. Also no reason to train a youth the skills in schools when the only jobs they will ever obtain is to stock shelves with imported widgets.
Many in a support position such as a material handler, inspector, accountant, customer service, human resource, manager, or plant or machine maintenance. All their services no longer needed after they helped pack up their machinery when their plants shut down, many machines sent to overseas sources.
When their plants and machines shut down and were outsourced, the displaced workers no longer have the opportunity to use their skills to made widgets near their homes. Instead, they now stock shelves with imported products in large box stores while they work for minimum wages that also qualify them to receive food stamps, rent subsidies, free health care, food stamps, etc.
What frustrates me most is when an economic theorist tells me that this is better for them. Better because they can now buy a TV, cellphone, or electronic play toy to amuse them, or own ten T shirts they will never wear out instead of only two. What the theorist overlooks is the fact they may not prefer to buy imported less costly items, but they no longer have a choice because nothing is made in the USA to choose and if it was they no longer make a livable wage to afford to buy anything else.
To add to the travesty is the fact that they no longer buy US made T shirts, we no longer make vital y vital parts and equipment to maintain our planes, tanks, ships. Etc. They now have to depend on overseas sources to supply the needed components.
I won’t go into the fact that we cannot even build a rocket to go back to the moon if our trade partners refuse to sell us the components we need for our rocket ships or war missals.
How Many Manufacturing Jobs Were Outsourced?
Estimates range since 1983 when the NAFTA trade agreement signed into law by Clinton, that the USA has outsourced upwards from 8 million to 30 million US manufacturing jobs. When you hear a theorist reply by asking you in return how many new jobs are a result of lower price imported goods and the logistical jobs to transport the products, consider this. What are the import jobs holders being paid, not a livable wage, according to government statistics which report the highest number of Americans receiving subsidies because the no longer have an opportunity to earn a livable wage..
In my next post,
I will explain why I now believe Donald Trump may be not only the best choice of candidates running to lead the US, he is running at the right time when we need his talents the most.
Keep in mind that some of his GOP critics call him an actor while at the same time they idolize a previous GOP candidate who was a Hollywood actor before he became President.
What we need to determine in my opinion, is if Donald Trump a good or bad actor. Or in other words is he wise or foolish, a good or bad leader for his family or nation, or is he as Citizen Tom states, the one we should vote for because……
.. “We don’t have to vote for the best candidate to win the election. We can vote for the best person for the job”
Regards and goodwill blogging.
Reference Source
The Significance of Your Vote HERE
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