I had a letter to the editor published in Maclean 's Magazine, August 22, 2011, issue. In this letter they let me say:
"Millions of Canadian manufacturing jobs have been transferred to China and other foreign countries. There is only one way to improve the economy of Canada, and that is to get the manufacturing jobs back..."
It is amazing that they let me say these things because there is a strong censorship in the United States, spilling over into Canada.
In the United States, the effect of the censorship is that the media will not publish anything that includes the above two statements, and politicians do not make these statements.
(There are a few U.S. politicians who do make these statements, but they are in minority and have great difficulty making their point with their colleagues.)
The measure of the manufacturing status of any country is the balance of trade calculated as follows:
value of exported manufactured goods MINUS value of imported manufactured goods
If a country imports more than it exports, the balance of trade is NEGATIVE.
In the United States, the NEGATIVE balance of trade in manufactured goods, with all foreign countries, is over 500 billion dollars per year. This is real physical money pouring out of the country, greatly impoverishing the country.
Mention of the negative balance of trade is another issue not allowed, under the censorship.
In Canada, the latest information I have found is that the NEGATIVE balance of trade in manufactured goods is 89 billion dollars per year. I am open to any further information on our balance of trade. If I receive or obtain better information I will be happy to revise my statement.
You can see that proportionally the Canadian NEGATIVE balance of trade in manufactured goods is GREATER than in the United States.
In an overall sense we are saved in that we have oil to export, while the United States imports oil. And, our oil industry including the oil sands creates a lot of employment.
But the "overall" situation does not trickle down well. For Canadian students graduating from high school, college, or university, and for Canadians generally of all ages, it is very difficult to find employment. We are missing great chunks from our manufacturing sector. It is the manufacturing sector with all its complexities that provides little nooks and crannies where people can find work. There is work for assembly line people, engineers, designers, machinery maintenance, purchasing agents, financial personnel, sales, liaison with distributors, and so on.
Canada also benefits from having materials and resources (commodities) other than oil to export. Superficially, sales of these commodities make the national balance sheet look good.
The great concern however is that there is no forward planning to see how much of these commodities we will need here in Canada in the future. We are selling commodities today at giveaway prices, whereas in twenty years we could be short of these commodities, and the value could be 10 to 20 times higher.
In the past in Canada there have been regulations that unprocessed logs could not be exported. The object was to create employment in Canada and I assume to reduce the wholesale denuding of the country. However, if I am not mistaken, for some incomprehensible reason these regulations have been removed and large volumes of raw logs are being exported.
Take another example: coal. Maybe it is OK to sell coal to China. But for heaven's sake don't destroy the Canadian landscape to find coal to sell to China, again at giveaway prices. Also, don't sell ownership in the company, land or processing facilities to China. Sell the company, the land or the processing facilities and you are on a downhill slope to national economic suicide. This statement applies to all other bulk commodities such as potash, salt, and metallic ore.
But now let's go back to the censorship issue. Who are the people imposing censorship in the United States? I believe the most likely suspect is the China Lobby. China doesn't want questions raised concerning the wisdom of United States or other western country pouring out its life blood to China, enriching China beyond imagination. China does not want talk about "getting our manufacturing jobs back from overseas".
Because people are not allowed to talk about the real causes and real solutions for the economic problems, writers and analysts who are prepared to sell themselves for money are inventing what I call fantasy explanations of why we have these problems.
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times says that the problem is that "the boomers have eaten through the abundance". This fantasy explanation is absolutely outrageous in several ways. First of all, it blames the ordinary citizen for the problem, rather than government and business "leaders" who actually created the problem. It is a "blame the victim" theory.
The boomers are the people of retiring age around the present time. Friedman says that these people lived extravagantly over the 40 to 50 years of their working careers, and this is why there is now so much government debt and so much unemployment. On its face this theory is ridiculous.
But add in the fact that Friedman conveniently forgets that the 50-year period 1961 to 2011 is exactly the period in which transfer of manufacturing employment to overseas locations began, and continued at higher and higher levels for 50 years. Doesn't it seem likely that tremendous loss of manufacturing employment, rather than normal behaviour of ordinary people, is the cause of the present grim situation?
Please excuse this lengthy explanation but I am getting to my point now! Believe it or not!
In the first part of 2011, Maclean's Magazine included a lengthy article about unemployment in Canada, and especially the greatly reduced prospects for young people.
And who did they quote in this article? They quoted Thomas Friedman and his outrageous theory!
Here we have a very strong example of censorship spilling over from the U.S. into Canada.
Then in the August 15, 2011, issue of Maclean's, page 12, Thomas Friedman's alleged wisdom is invoked again.
Can't Maclean's find any Canadian experts, to the extent that they have to rely repeatedly on the completely corrupt Thomas Friedman?
In any case, maybe the Canadian experts are also obeying U.S. censorship!
At least in this blog there is no compliance with censorship!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
What nonsense!
Maclean's Magazine, August 8, 2011, page 13. Paul Wells column about Canada-China relations.
The first part of the column provides to the reader a general impression that high-principled Canada has not been dealing with China, due to the human rights situation in China.
Canada is a tiny, ineffective and inconsequential mosquito compared to the giant elephant that is China. Does anyone believe that China is concerned about Canada's views on human rights in China?
Suppose Canada really refused to enter into any economic dealings with China. Do you think that China would be concerned in the slightest? China has huge volume dealings with United States, Australia, and every other western country. Do you think that China would be concerned if Canada were not on this list?
The politicians of Canada, starting with Prime Minister Harper, and his Cabinet Ministers, seem to be totally out of touch with reality. They don't seem to know what every ordinary Canadian knows, and that is that our stores are filled with goods made in China.
I went into a wholesale plumbing store and a staff member told me that every item in the store is made in China.
So despite the pretense that Canada is not dealing with China due to the human rights situation in China, the fact is that we ARE dealing with China. We are buying huge volumes of manufactured goods from China.
Millions of Canadian manufacturing jobs have been transferred to China and other foreign countries. Successive Canadian governments have allowed this transfer process to occur. In fact, Canadian business and government "leaders" in the 1960s approached a tame think-tank, a think-tank that will say anything the client desires if there is enough money on the table, and arranged for the production of a report on economic trends.
The report stated that we no longer need old-fashioned "smokestack" industries. We don't need to manufacture anything. Where the manufacturing of ordinary consumer items is done is immaterial. The Canadian economy will grow and thrive on "knowledge-based" activities. So the Canadian government had its rationale for allowing the "hollowing out" of manufacturing in Canada.
I have taken the phrase "hollowing out" from an excellent letter to the editor written by an ordinary citizen in the 1980s. Amazing how the ordinary citizen's understanding is so much more profound than that of whole armies of politicians and government bureaucrats!
The results of the 50-year process of transferring manufacturing employment to China and other foreign countries were entirely predictable and are now apparent to everyone, except those politicians and bureaucrats:
+ Simplification of the economy, eliminating many "niche" job functions where people formerly could find employment. Now Canadians at all levels of education cannot find employment. A frightening column by Thomas Walkom, Toronto Star, July 30, 2011, page A6, describes a dog-eat-dog employment future where the working career is a continuous scarmble for the next short-term employment contract, with no guarantee that wages will be paid, with no benefits, with no security.
+ Perpetual government deficits at all levels, because so many Canadians have no employment or employment at lower wage levels than in the past, with the result that there is less tax revenue going to governments. Politicians and bureaucrats forgot that workers in factories in China don't pay Canadian taxes! Business "leaders" forgot that Canadians who don't have employment can't buy!
+ Impoverishing of the Canadian economy due to loss of the critically-important value-added effect of manufacturing.
+ Evaporation of the claimed "knowledge-based" benefit to the economy, as it became all too clear that knowledge-based employment can also be transferred to low-wage countries.
There is only one way to improve the economy in Canada, including the top priority of increasing employment, and that is to get the manufacturing jobs back from China and other foreign countries.
Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet Ministers and all other politicians at all levels of government should be taken on a tour of stores. They should pick up the packages and look on the back and see the phrase "Made in China". Maybe if they would spend several days doing this it would penetrate into their brains that too much manufacturing has been lost to overseas locations, causing too much damage to the economy. Maybe it would penetrate that this destructive process has gone too far and has to be reversed.
Fortunately, costs of manufacturing in China, and associated costs of doing business in China and other low-wage countries, are going up. A recent U.S. study showed that manufacturers for a number of years have been overestimating the "savings" associated with overseas manufacturing. So even without intelligent action by governments, manufacturing activity is gradually coming back.
Intelligent actions that could be taken by the Canadian government include:
+ Tariff or foreign sales tax on manufactured goods from foreign countries that don't buy from us in approximately equal amounts.
+ Reduction in taxes for business organizations, incorporated or not, that do their manufacturing in Canada.
+ Encourage small business, incorporated or not, by eliminating tax on first $50K of profits, each year.
+ Extreme caution and re-consideration before going ahead with a trade agreement with EU. It is very unlikely that EU will buy manufactured goods from us.
Why do politicians and government theoreticians think it is a good idea to get into a free trade agreement with an entity such as EU with a population 20 times greater than ours? The larger entity in a free-trade arrangement always demolishes the smaller partner.
Much worse is free trade with China. Population is 40 times greater and wages are one-tenth. So we are suffering a 400-fold disadvantage. It is completely insane to be in a free trade arrangement with China!
The first part of the column provides to the reader a general impression that high-principled Canada has not been dealing with China, due to the human rights situation in China.
Canada is a tiny, ineffective and inconsequential mosquito compared to the giant elephant that is China. Does anyone believe that China is concerned about Canada's views on human rights in China?
Suppose Canada really refused to enter into any economic dealings with China. Do you think that China would be concerned in the slightest? China has huge volume dealings with United States, Australia, and every other western country. Do you think that China would be concerned if Canada were not on this list?
The politicians of Canada, starting with Prime Minister Harper, and his Cabinet Ministers, seem to be totally out of touch with reality. They don't seem to know what every ordinary Canadian knows, and that is that our stores are filled with goods made in China.
I went into a wholesale plumbing store and a staff member told me that every item in the store is made in China.
So despite the pretense that Canada is not dealing with China due to the human rights situation in China, the fact is that we ARE dealing with China. We are buying huge volumes of manufactured goods from China.
Millions of Canadian manufacturing jobs have been transferred to China and other foreign countries. Successive Canadian governments have allowed this transfer process to occur. In fact, Canadian business and government "leaders" in the 1960s approached a tame think-tank, a think-tank that will say anything the client desires if there is enough money on the table, and arranged for the production of a report on economic trends.
The report stated that we no longer need old-fashioned "smokestack" industries. We don't need to manufacture anything. Where the manufacturing of ordinary consumer items is done is immaterial. The Canadian economy will grow and thrive on "knowledge-based" activities. So the Canadian government had its rationale for allowing the "hollowing out" of manufacturing in Canada.
I have taken the phrase "hollowing out" from an excellent letter to the editor written by an ordinary citizen in the 1980s. Amazing how the ordinary citizen's understanding is so much more profound than that of whole armies of politicians and government bureaucrats!
The results of the 50-year process of transferring manufacturing employment to China and other foreign countries were entirely predictable and are now apparent to everyone, except those politicians and bureaucrats:
+ Simplification of the economy, eliminating many "niche" job functions where people formerly could find employment. Now Canadians at all levels of education cannot find employment. A frightening column by Thomas Walkom, Toronto Star, July 30, 2011, page A6, describes a dog-eat-dog employment future where the working career is a continuous scarmble for the next short-term employment contract, with no guarantee that wages will be paid, with no benefits, with no security.
+ Perpetual government deficits at all levels, because so many Canadians have no employment or employment at lower wage levels than in the past, with the result that there is less tax revenue going to governments. Politicians and bureaucrats forgot that workers in factories in China don't pay Canadian taxes! Business "leaders" forgot that Canadians who don't have employment can't buy!
+ Impoverishing of the Canadian economy due to loss of the critically-important value-added effect of manufacturing.
+ Evaporation of the claimed "knowledge-based" benefit to the economy, as it became all too clear that knowledge-based employment can also be transferred to low-wage countries.
There is only one way to improve the economy in Canada, including the top priority of increasing employment, and that is to get the manufacturing jobs back from China and other foreign countries.
Prime Minister Harper and his Cabinet Ministers and all other politicians at all levels of government should be taken on a tour of stores. They should pick up the packages and look on the back and see the phrase "Made in China". Maybe if they would spend several days doing this it would penetrate into their brains that too much manufacturing has been lost to overseas locations, causing too much damage to the economy. Maybe it would penetrate that this destructive process has gone too far and has to be reversed.
Fortunately, costs of manufacturing in China, and associated costs of doing business in China and other low-wage countries, are going up. A recent U.S. study showed that manufacturers for a number of years have been overestimating the "savings" associated with overseas manufacturing. So even without intelligent action by governments, manufacturing activity is gradually coming back.
Intelligent actions that could be taken by the Canadian government include:
+ Tariff or foreign sales tax on manufactured goods from foreign countries that don't buy from us in approximately equal amounts.
+ Reduction in taxes for business organizations, incorporated or not, that do their manufacturing in Canada.
+ Encourage small business, incorporated or not, by eliminating tax on first $50K of profits, each year.
+ Extreme caution and re-consideration before going ahead with a trade agreement with EU. It is very unlikely that EU will buy manufactured goods from us.
Why do politicians and government theoreticians think it is a good idea to get into a free trade agreement with an entity such as EU with a population 20 times greater than ours? The larger entity in a free-trade arrangement always demolishes the smaller partner.
Much worse is free trade with China. Population is 40 times greater and wages are one-tenth. So we are suffering a 400-fold disadvantage. It is completely insane to be in a free trade arrangement with China!
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