Democrats in denial over loss; globalization to blame

[portlander23]

Democrats in denial over loss; globalization to blame
CHUCK KELLY
The Charlotte Observer

Globalization has been a disaster for working class Americans. It is different from past international trade agreements because it is unregulated and untaxed. It means that corporations can now abandon American communities and their workers and go to countries that have pitifully low wages and few or no worker protections. Then they can sell their products back in the best consumer market in the world, the U.S., at a huge profit.

If you consider American workers as no more than machines or raw materials, then permitting corporations to leave the U.S. to go to low wage countries is economically efficient. However, if you consider American workers as citizens of our nation who deserve a decent standard of living, outsourcing just becomes a way to cut them out of the profit stream of our “free enterprise” system. The only reason it’s economically efficient to cut timber in the Carolinas, ship lumber to China, turn it into furniture and then ship it back to the Carolinas – is that labor is incredibly cheap in China.

It’s unrealistic to expect Hillary Clinton to actually have done this, but she should have pointed out to voters that NAFTA was Republican legislation and President Clinton made a horrible mistake when he didn't veto it. It was President George H.W. Bush who signed the NAFTA agreement with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas in 1992. In 1993, Congress ratified it. Only then did a new President Bill Clinton sign it into law.

Instead, Hillary Clinton tried her level best to convince voters that the economy of the 1990s was good for workers because of her husband’s presidency. It certainly was good for national debt reduction, lower unemployment and increased corporate profitability, but it was the beginning of a disaster for American workers, and those American workers know it.

[realmirage]

1. Any sensible person realizes the Democrats are paying the price

for not listening to people affected by globalization

[Adrahil]

13. Because the GOP gives a damn?

And here's a news flash. "Globalization" is not going to magically disappear. We must adapt or die. The old days are not coming back.

[RBInMaine]

15. But we do not even TELL them that the GOP doesn't give a damn. And they don't want to hear

jobs are never coming back. In fact, in some places in the country some jobs HAVE come back because of lower shipping costs with domestic production. They want to hear what CAN be done and what we are going to do.

Your message is exactly what NOT to say. It is why we LOSE. SHITTY SHITTY SHITTY MESSAGING and complete tone deafness.

[realmirage]

16. trump acted like he gave a damn and the rust belt handed him the presidency

[Adrahil]

20. He just lied to them.

Realistic solutions can't compete with his fantasyland lies.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. And we have the blame via

affinity. BTW,Bill Clinton later said I regretted signing this bill some twenty years later.

[Martin Eden]

3. IIRC he also regretted signing financial deregulation that ended Glass Steagall

When the Democratic Party moves towards the "center" to attract "moderates" and big corporate donors, it comes unmoored from its roots and reason for being -- to champion the economic interests of working and middle class Americans.

There were many factors that decided this election. The perception that the Democratic Party did not represent the interests of blue collar America was one of the biggest factors -- one that we ignore at our own peril.

[SidDithers]

4. Keep trying...nt

Sid

[spin]

5. Our next big problem with be robotics. ...

The Robots Are Coming for Wall Street
Hundreds of financial analysts
are being replaced with software.
What office jobs are next?
By NATHANIEL POPPER Photographs by JONNO RATTMAN
FEB. 25, 2016

***snip***

In late 2013, two Oxford academics released a paper claiming that 47 percent of current American jobs are at ‘‘high risk’’ of being automated within the next 20 years. The findings provoked lots of worried news reports about robots stealing jobs. The study looked at 702 occupations, using data from the Department of Labor, and assigned a probability of automation to each one, according to nine variables. The conclusions made it clear that this was no longer just the familiar (and ongoing) story of robots replacing factory and warehouse employees. Now software is increasingly doing the work that has been the province of educated people sitting in desk chairs. The vulnerability of these jobs is due, in large part, to the easy availability and rapidly declining price of computing power, as well as the rise of ‘‘machine learning’’ software, like Kensho, that gathers and assimilates new information on its own.

The Oxford study received plenty of criticism — understandably, given the patina of exactness that it tried to apply to a speculative exercise. Nevertheless, the financial industry is taking automation very seriously, both as an opportunity and as a threat. It is one thing to make a few analysts redundant, but automation could put whole business models in peril. Investments in what is known as fintech, or financial technology, tripled between 2013 and 2014 to $12.2 billion, and start-ups are now taking aim at nearly every line of financial business. Decisions about loans are now being made by software that can take into account a variety of finely parsed data about a borrower, rather than just a credit score and a background check. So-called robo-advisers create personalized investment portfolios, obviating the need for stockbrokers and financial advisers. Nearly every Wall Street firm has put out research reports on the tens of billions of dollars of revenue that might be lost to these upstarts in the coming years. Banks are trying to fend off the newcomers by making their own investments in start-ups like Kensho, which has raised more than $25 million so far.

The skilled industries that form the bedrock of New York City’s economy have so far largely avoided this sort of transformation, because the work of financial analysts, publishers and designers hasn’t been easy to automate. But to look at a company like Kensho, and the sort of conversation it generates across the financial industry, is to see the degree to which these trends are now confronting industries that used to be thought exempt from this sort of disruption. Last fall, Antony Jenkins, who was dismissed a few months earlier as chief executive of Barclays, the giant British bank, gave a speech in which he said a coming series of ‘‘Uber moments’’ would hit the financial industry.

‘‘I predict that the number of branches and people employed in the financial-services sector may decline by as much as 50 percent,’’ Jenkins told the audience. ‘‘Even in a less-harsh scenario, I expect a decline of at least 20 percent.’’ This process could, in at least some cases, help do away with some of the expensive bloat in the financial system, providing more transparent services with fewer hidden fees. It could also be seen as a satisfying blow against the titans of an industry that only recently almost crashed the world economy. But so far the burden of job losses is stopping just short of the executive suites, even as the gains in efficiency are worsening already troubling levels of income inequality.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/the-robots-are-coming-for-wall-street.html?_r=0

Most people feel robotics poses a problem to unskilled workers with little education such as hamburger flippers and factory workers but the bottom line is that it can also endanger jobs currently held by highly educated people.

I wonder if eventually everybody will have to have a minimum guaranteed income if they are working or not. How will so many people with so much free time effect our society?

[bettyellen]

6. The polls said voters favored HRC on economics, Trump on terrorism and immigration... but

Keep shoveling the propaganda. Haven't seen you post anything but nonsense skewed to make Sanders look like the messiah.

[SidDithers]

8. Yup. Pretty transparent, eh?...nt

Sid

[bettyellen]

9. And so constant, must be searching for links all day

[triron]

7. screw this crap.

It's the FBI, the Russians, and Republican vote suppresion, etc.

[uponit7771]

10. No, I'm numb at how much this mutha fucka was stolen... fuck all the rest of this shit

[mcar]

12. Did you notice the day's news?

Guess not.

[JI7]

14. poster has been downplaying the russian support for Trump

[LaydeeBug]

18. that's an understatement. All c&p too. nt

[LaydeeBug]

19. bullshit.

nt