Heads You Win, Tails I Lose

By Brad Snyder

For the past 24 years I've been enrolled at the University of Hard Knocks, majoring in getting screwed by corporate America. Rising to higher ranks on the corporate ladder for the most part isn't about what you know; how hard you work; or even how well you perform. Rather, it’s all about corporate politics, who you know, and who you rub elbows with, not to mention the use of other sensitive body parts. If you tell them what you think, or don’t pucker when they bend, more than likely you will find yourself in a rut, on a dead end path leading to nowhere.

I've experienced everything from downsizing and selling out to company bankruptcy on my road to make ends meet; including actually getting fired once. (I'm still sizzling about that one.) Time and again, my corporate masters have demanded my complete loyalty and dedicated 110% all, in return for…nothing really. I earn what I'm paid, so the slave drivers really give me nothing more than what I deserve. I expect great pay for my excellent work, and patented loyalty for my loyalty, yet not once have I encountered a loyal employer. Business in America is all about demanding the most from its employees while giving as little as possible, as sacrifice to the sacred bottom line.

On the other hand, I am vehemently against labor unions. So much so, that for the sake of our children, I call for the immediate breakup of the National Education Association. They are what is wrong with education in America. Period. Unions have aided in, and in many instances are responsible for, the decline of our manufacturing sector of America, such as our steel and textile industries. They produce and protect slothful workers while making compensation for poor production and pitiable work ethics.

It is no wonder America cannot compete with the rest of the world. Because of our high labor costs and back breaking governmental regulations, poor third world nations are beating the stuffing out of our American enterprising system. How can a company that pays it’s workers $10 an hour compete with a company, over yonder, that pays $1 dollar an hour? A ghastly $700 billion trade deficit is proof in the pudding. This deficit is impairing America of our manufacturing and production base. Pat Buchanan said, and I agree, “Manic consumption is a mark of a republic that has passed its apogee, and begun its long descent as the world’s mightiest industrial power.”

As a student of Keynesian economics, I concur with the president that free and open trade with our allies is conducive to our nation’s economy. However, what Mr. Bush doesn't seem to be taking into consideration is that our businesses are not competing on a fair international playing field. As the richest and most powerful nation on the planet Earth, we must insist on doing business by the “Golden Rule”. “He who has the gold, makes the rules.” In 2003, various foreign nations along with the World Trade Organization dictated that the U.S. repeal an anti-dumping legislation called the Byrd amendment. They called our legislation unlawful, and said that if it wasn't appealed the European Union, Japan, and six other countries would impose economic sanctions against the U.S.

The Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act was originally introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, of Ohio. When introducing the bill in 1999, Sen. DeWine commented: "It's time we impose a heavier price on dumping and subsidization.,, It will transfer the duties and fines imposed on foreign producers directly to their U.S. competitors. Under this bill, foreign steel producers would get a double hit from dumping: they would have to pay a duty, and in turn, see that duty go directly to aid U.S. steel producers. Our government has the right to impose such sanctions to make the playing fields level. Who is the WTO to call American legislation illegal?

Japan and China have some of the most restrictive trading policies in the world. They can ship their products tariff free to the U.S., but our exports get hit with penalties as rich as 30 to 100%. As far as I'm concerned they can take their Sonys, Toyotas, and Fuji Photos and shove them up their…. (Ok…be nice Snyder.) I have never subscribed to buy “American only”, because it is flawed economic reasoning. Fortunes are made by Americans through imports, just as much as exports. An open-free market is definitely the way to go. But countries who don't comply with our rules don't need to play in our game.

I can hear the free trader’s hissing, spitting and rumbling: “Protectionist”, “Isolationist”, “Nationalist”. All remarks I embrace, because I proudly believe in an America for Americans. Americans don't want to be integrated into world governance, where we lose our national identity to foreign bureaucracies. Alexander Hamilton wrote: “Not only the wealth, but the independence and security of a country appear to be materially connected with prosperity of manufacturers. Every nation…ought to endeavor to posses within itself all the essentials of a national supply. These comprise the means of subsistence, habitation, clothing and defense.” Basically Hamilton was saying that America’s political independence will not survive without economic independence.

George Bush, with his recent horse and pony manipulation of the notorious CAFTA agreement, is leading the way to globalizing and reshaping the western hemisphere to conform to the demands of transnational corporations. CAFTA and it’s big brother, the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) isn't about free trade at all, as Mr. Bush tries to sell. It’s about these multi-national corporations sending their raw materials to poor countries, where they can hire cheap labor and avoid U.S. regulations, and then bring the finished goods back into the states, duty free, to undersell U.S. companies that pay decent wages and comply with our laws. Now just how does this benefit America?

Along with his father and Liberal predecessor Clinton, George Bush is a Globalist. To these people globalization means political and economic integration. In 1997, Clinton said “Isolationist voices must be ignored as efforts proceed to fully integrate the political and economic future of the Americas.” Our president and his compadres have decided that globalization is unstoppable, and irreversible. How else can you explain his deaf ear of the public outcry to protect our borders with Mexico, and snubbing his nose at the minutemen, calling them vigilantes? Protecting our borders is not part of the plan for integration. Those things which are vital to national independence and sovereignty, are suddenly becoming verbotten.

To summarize, you can conclude that I'm losing heart with American Big Business; Big Government is never to be trusted; Big Labor is bad for America and the workers they presume to represent; I don't like other nations telling America what to do; and Democrats and Republicans are looking more and more alike all the time. That’s my point in a nut shell. No matter how you toss the dice or flip the coin, the American people are getting the shaft.

Brad Snyder

Bio: As a former collegiate football player, Brad graduated from Evangel College of Springfield, Missouri, in 1982, with a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration and Economics. His occupation has been divided between careers as a stock broker, Director of Business Development for a commercial insurance brokerage firm, and most recently financial management within the healthcare industry. While using the podium of various internet message boards, he discovered an appetite for engaging Liberals in the "warfare of words". Stemming from his sometimes overly zealous demeanor and passionate, "take-no-prisoner" approach, he has been labeled by some as angry and others a rebel. At present, as a contributing writer, his work can be read at TheRant.us and PeoplePolitical.org, among others. Website Link and Email Address