In 1970 the defense budget was 94.7 billion dollars for everything, the whole ball of wax. In 1980 the defense budget had grown to 167.9 billion dollars.
1981- 193.6 billion
1982- 221.5 billion
1983- 246.6 billion
1984- 268.9 billion
1985- 295.2 billion
1986- 313.9 billion
1987- 320.4 billion
1988- 330.2 billion
1989- 343.2 billion
1990- 342.2 billion
The defense budget grew by $73.2 billion between 1970 and 1980. Between 1980 and 1990 it grew by $174 billion dollars, spending $2.73 trillion dollars in the decade while wage growth for the middle class was flat.
In 1980 the Dow Jones average hovered around 1000 by the year 2000 it stood at 10,000. All of this unfettered capital, this once and formally onerous tax revenue gravitated to Wall Street where it could be invested in our economy. Wall Street however, is a mixed metaphor more akin to a farmer than to a mason. It does not build like a mason it harvests like a farmer with a scythe and it's crop is money. They are not in the building business they are money business and money owes alliance only to it's owner.
As the factories built for WW2 aged and needed replacement there came a new movement south to build their progeny. South where the sun was bright, the taxes were lower, the standards were looser and labor unions were non-existent by law. These sun belt states anxious to lure industry began bidding wars, five years with no taxes or ten years with no taxes. Alas, the migration only paused for a moment, for there was a new movement afoot, a calling, a new messiah. Why, it wasn't tax cuts that would be our salvation after all, it was free trade! Tax cuts were still important though, because government was bad!
Yet government's one redeeming feature was it's ability to forge trade pacts. In 1980 our trade debt was a few hundred million dollars. Our leaders addressed us from high up on the battlements, good guys and bad guys held hands, smiled and waved and proclaimed. "Free trade is good, you'll like it!" A nave and ne'er-do-well, shouted from amongst the peasants, "What about our jobs? What about the environment? What about our laws?" Like Odysseus, they answered, "You'll get new jobs and better jobs. We will protect the environment and your laws. Would the left and right come together like this if it wasn't good for you?"
In the first five years after passage of the North American Free Trade act the number of Maquladora factories in Mexico grew by 86 percent! A Maquladora is a factory in Mexico owned by a foreign corporation. Many are owned by American corporations and many are owned by other foreign corporations anxious to take advantage of Mexico's position as Americas free trade sweatshop. By 1995 our trade deficit had reached $100 billion dollars, a tenfold increase in fifteen years. How did our leaders explain that? "Its temporary, we just need to tear down more trade barriers."
In chapter 11 of the NAFTA treaty, a corporation in a member nation can sue the government of any other member nation if it doesn't feel that its being treated fairly. Isn't that wonderful? They don't live here, they don't vote here and they don't pay taxes here yet they have legal status just like you or me. Unlike you and me they have lawyers and money. Mexican subsistence farmers competing against Archer, Daniels, Midland and American workers competing against a Mexican minimum wage of $4.00 per day. Plus all of this cross border trade is now tariff free so as not to inhibit corporate profits or to burden our treasury with unneeded tax revenues.
Our benefactors answer was simple enough, we the people just didn't understand that this was going on all over the world and we must expect some dislocation. Trust us, after China joins the World Trade Organization it will be so much better. America's trade deficit between 1995 to 2000 grew from $100 billion to $400 billion in just five years while most US wages didn't even keep up with inflation. But, you know what? For the answer to that problem our leaders explained the obvious, we needed more tax cuts!
Let's cut the top tax rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent. Then for those earning $500,00 to a million dollars per year, a cut from 36 percent down to 33 percent. For those struggling by earning only $75,000 to $500,000 let's cut their taxes from 31 to 28 percent and for $50,000 to $75,000 a cut from 28 to 25 percent. And tax rebate checks for everybody! Manna from heaven, so perhaps you won't noticed that you had been hosed yet again.
In 2001 after fifteen years of negotiations, let's see that would be 1985, China joined the World Trade Organization. US trade deficit in 2001 was $400 billion dollars and in seven years the trade deficit would rise to nearly $750 billion dollars. Visualize as each shipping container that is off loaded is filled back up with dollars bills. It is filled with your jobs and your industries. It is filled up with your children's futures and with your nation's economic strength.
From Market Watch March 30, 2006
"WASHINGTON -- U.S. corporate profits have increased 21.3% in the past year and now account for the largest share of national income in 40 years, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
Strong productivity gains and subdued wage growth boosted before-tax profits to 11.6% of national income in the fourth quarter of 2005, the biggest share since the summer of 1966.
For all of 2005, before-tax profits totaled $1.35 trillion, up from $1.16 trillion in 2004 and just $767 billion in 2001.
Meanwhile, the share of national income going to wage and salary workers has fallen to 56.9%. Except for a brief period in 1997, that's the lowest share for labor income since 1966."
In 2007 when the economic wheels came off, the US trade deficit fell in 2009 to less than $400 billion. An improvement in our situation perhaps? Sadly no, it fell because, America's middle class is broke and penniless and no longer has any money or credit to buy. Your jobs are long gone, your tax base is eroded and your military budget has risen to $982 billion annually. If wage growth had kept up with the growth of the defense budget the average workers wage today would be $37.67 per hour! What does the new leadership suggest is our best hope and change? Tax cuts! Tax cuts for new cars and tax cuts for new homes and a stimulus package that is made up of 35 percent tax cuts. Tax cuts for holding on to stocks, tax cuts for hiring workers and tax cuts just for buying things.
1981- 193.6 billion
1982- 221.5 billion
1983- 246.6 billion
1984- 268.9 billion
1985- 295.2 billion
1986- 313.9 billion
1987- 320.4 billion
1988- 330.2 billion
1989- 343.2 billion
1990- 342.2 billion
The defense budget grew by $73.2 billion between 1970 and 1980. Between 1980 and 1990 it grew by $174 billion dollars, spending $2.73 trillion dollars in the decade while wage growth for the middle class was flat.
In 1980 the Dow Jones average hovered around 1000 by the year 2000 it stood at 10,000. All of this unfettered capital, this once and formally onerous tax revenue gravitated to Wall Street where it could be invested in our economy. Wall Street however, is a mixed metaphor more akin to a farmer than to a mason. It does not build like a mason it harvests like a farmer with a scythe and it's crop is money. They are not in the building business they are money business and money owes alliance only to it's owner.
As the factories built for WW2 aged and needed replacement there came a new movement south to build their progeny. South where the sun was bright, the taxes were lower, the standards were looser and labor unions were non-existent by law. These sun belt states anxious to lure industry began bidding wars, five years with no taxes or ten years with no taxes. Alas, the migration only paused for a moment, for there was a new movement afoot, a calling, a new messiah. Why, it wasn't tax cuts that would be our salvation after all, it was free trade! Tax cuts were still important though, because government was bad!
In the first five years after passage of the North American Free Trade act the number of Maquladora factories in Mexico grew by 86 percent! A Maquladora is a factory in Mexico owned by a foreign corporation. Many are owned by American corporations and many are owned by other foreign corporations anxious to take advantage of Mexico's position as Americas free trade sweatshop. By 1995 our trade deficit had reached $100 billion dollars, a tenfold increase in fifteen years. How did our leaders explain that? "Its temporary, we just need to tear down more trade barriers."
In chapter 11 of the NAFTA treaty, a corporation in a member nation can sue the government of any other member nation if it doesn't feel that its being treated fairly. Isn't that wonderful? They don't live here, they don't vote here and they don't pay taxes here yet they have legal status just like you or me. Unlike you and me they have lawyers and money. Mexican subsistence farmers competing against Archer, Daniels, Midland and American workers competing against a Mexican minimum wage of $4.00 per day. Plus all of this cross border trade is now tariff free so as not to inhibit corporate profits or to burden our treasury with unneeded tax revenues.
Our benefactors answer was simple enough, we the people just didn't understand that this was going on all over the world and we must expect some dislocation. Trust us, after China joins the World Trade Organization it will be so much better. America's trade deficit between 1995 to 2000 grew from $100 billion to $400 billion in just five years while most US wages didn't even keep up with inflation. But, you know what? For the answer to that problem our leaders explained the obvious, we needed more tax cuts!
Let's cut the top tax rate from 39.6 percent to 35 percent. Then for those earning $500,00 to a million dollars per year, a cut from 36 percent down to 33 percent. For those struggling by earning only $75,000 to $500,000 let's cut their taxes from 31 to 28 percent and for $50,000 to $75,000 a cut from 28 to 25 percent. And tax rebate checks for everybody! Manna from heaven, so perhaps you won't noticed that you had been hosed yet again.
In 2001 after fifteen years of negotiations, let's see that would be 1985, China joined the World Trade Organization. US trade deficit in 2001 was $400 billion dollars and in seven years the trade deficit would rise to nearly $750 billion dollars. Visualize as each shipping container that is off loaded is filled back up with dollars bills. It is filled with your jobs and your industries. It is filled up with your children's futures and with your nation's economic strength.
From Market Watch March 30, 2006
"WASHINGTON -- U.S. corporate profits have increased 21.3% in the past year and now account for the largest share of national income in 40 years, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
Strong productivity gains and subdued wage growth boosted before-tax profits to 11.6% of national income in the fourth quarter of 2005, the biggest share since the summer of 1966.
For all of 2005, before-tax profits totaled $1.35 trillion, up from $1.16 trillion in 2004 and just $767 billion in 2001.
Meanwhile, the share of national income going to wage and salary workers has fallen to 56.9%. Except for a brief period in 1997, that's the lowest share for labor income since 1966."
In 2007 when the economic wheels came off, the US trade deficit fell in 2009 to less than $400 billion. An improvement in our situation perhaps? Sadly no, it fell because, America's middle class is broke and penniless and no longer has any money or credit to buy. Your jobs are long gone, your tax base is eroded and your military budget has risen to $982 billion annually. If wage growth had kept up with the growth of the defense budget the average workers wage today would be $37.67 per hour! What does the new leadership suggest is our best hope and change? Tax cuts! Tax cuts for new cars and tax cuts for new homes and a stimulus package that is made up of 35 percent tax cuts. Tax cuts for holding on to stocks, tax cuts for hiring workers and tax cuts just for buying things.
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