General Motor's long day's journey into bankruptcy might be summed up by a San Francisco Bay Area city. In 2008, Vallejo, a city east of San Francisco, declared bankruptcy with the aim of breaking its union contracts and retirement plans.
What's at the source of this mess is basically two things: the United States has become a sort of colony to world finance, especially the quarterly subsidies of countries like China and Japan. These two countries top the list of those investing in our treasury bonds. The second, as I has pointed to over and over without hyperbole, is the US belief system in the aura that is Ayn Rand.
Of course one would expect Ayn Randism to pervade the business class, given their belief in themselves and capitalism. It is quite disturbing Rand seems to have passively penetrated the working class who would empty their pockets of $30 billion to fund a bankrupt company, like GM.
Or, like declaring bankruptcy, taking public funds (which seemed in short supply for homes, education, infrastructure, public health) and then forcing an end to collective bargaining contracts.
The masters of the universe badly maneuvered the United States into a country with a low savings rate, high cost of living, and hospital bills being the number one engine to personal bankruptcies. They also maneuvered us into a familiar arrangement: export raw materials and buy back the manufactured goods.
When I heard of the export/import data from the number one shipping port I knew the country had come full circle. Long Beach Port exports mostly raw materials and imports manufactured goods. My basic history directed me not to the first world but the third, to the colonies, from whence the US started.
Exporting cheap raw materials and having a captive audience to consume expensive manufactured goods was the whole point in attaining and fighting to the death by the UK's, Frances, Belgiums, Germanys, ad nauseum.
High wages are over. As long as our export/imports run at this level, the jobs created will be more low-wage jobs. This does not mean we cannot protect workers rights, cannot have decent schools, public housing, and universal health care. These needs can be met when the ghost of Ayn Rand, the doctoress of Frankenstein, is sent permanently to Hell. We must lose all faith in these masters in the business class, their doctrines about "competition," and force a rational distribution of our precious resources.
Workers of the world, beware.
For more information: The Day the American Empire Ran Out of Gas * BBC Story of GM * Countdown to Collapse (UK Guardian)
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