Heads up on the contrived (fake) nature of the alleged "labor shortage"

When I was a kid I used to spend my summer with relatives who were quite wealthy. (and progressives, but they lived in very wealthy communities. Because they were busy they used to just set me freeso I was on my own. I made lots of friends there and spent lots of time with friends families. Even as a child I was a bit of a futurist and one of the subjects that fascinated me was "the future" so I had lots of discussions about this subject including with friends parents. This would have been in Newport Beach or Marina Del Rey. (If you know LA) (or possibly Topanga Canyon (but thats much less likely- but I did spend a lot of time there.) This was in the 60s and early 70s.

Two subjects of relevance that I remember coming up were the future arrival of the Baby Boom and its need for "entitlements" (and their determination to get out of paying them) if availability of jobs was slim. They were in control. Basically my friends parents all expected a huge windfall for them (as the employers and business owners) when wages plummeted (they saw this as inevitable due to the labor saving technology and the demographics of the Baby Boom, due to alleged "oversupply" of labor (the so called "reserve army of labor"). "Because people have to eat, right" (I heard that so many times!)

A few years later (I think from Chinese students demonstrating in support of the students in Beijing) and also from a Canadian trade negotiator who carried such a heavy weight from knowing about it all.. I learned about the GATS trade deal where peoples lives were all poker chips being traded..the (GATS and TISA) trade in services deals were set up to import labor and in return get intellectual property protections. (make drugs and patents of all kinds more profitable for big corporations) In exchange we trade away our peoples jobs. The PR spin now is that bour people dont want their jobs at the ever lower wages being offered in the ftermath of COVID, whose timing was suspicious given the two huge trade deals coming due now. . We were supposed to give eqivalent market access to our market for "services" of other countries. Often ultra cheap labor is the only real export they have that we want. In exchange public services like healthcare and education will be outsourced. They will be under the WTO's jurisdiction if tax money is involved (subsidies) We'll have to deregulate everything public to make it easy. ( if subsidies are involved.) Public services are only defined as ones that are completely noncommercial showing how this has been awell coordinated war on services like Medicare and Social Security which are in great danger (offshoring so much work will pull the economic rug out from underneath Social Security because a huge slice of jobs that currently pay into it will be lost to overseas temp firms and their allegedly "high skilled" workers.

You can bet that the wealthy really want that labor which is as little as a tenth or a twentieth of what is paid now for jobs located in the US. Given the assiduous care that has been shown to concealing what amounts to a new global Constitution for everything involving money and trade I think the chance is zero that the restrictions oin foreign workers working here (requirement that they bet work visas in addition to jobs- the L1 visa work is officially defined as intra -company-transfer) "movement of natural persons" under the GATS fourth mode of suppply. This is defined in the first Article of the GATS agreement. So we cannot say we did not see it. They have been planning for this conflict to steal the jobs legally, for a very long time. Obviously we cannot tell foreign firms that pay their employees overseas into their overseas bank accounts, what to pay them if its been oput into a treaty and is payment of a debt we incurred in the 90s by creating IP and making drugs and vaccines so profitable. Americans have been getting rich. They say or workers are spoiled and don't want those millions of good jobs. Indian staffing firms do, but dispute our right to reguklate work because its a trade deal and is permanent. As USTR admits "there is no expiration date" We make foreign companies pay "high" US-legal wages if workers are located here. But they figure out ways to get that money back. They will pay what they want because jobs are so scarce in India and the US being what it is. People would even work for free for the entry in their resume of having worked in the USA, I was told.. . Some have insisted to me when asked about paying to work here, - They defend paying what are essentially bribes to be placed here in the US. The bribery is common in much of the world, its seen as natural. They claim the money paid by parents to employers for US placement is a good investment and is made back and even totally nullified by having a lower dowry (bride price) if the groom in an arranged marriage has a US job nailed down. Then they get to pay the wife's family much less because its understood that the job may lead to us citizenship. Their workers basically have to take it or leave it and remain at home if they cant compete with the other would be US workers. (its only because they have these corporate jobs that the skilled workers get top work in the US for five or six years) Women are also vulnerable to sexual harassment if they have invested so much in one job, and the reference they may get from it.

Therefore I think people should recognize that whats being woven is a trap we cant escape from that no politician or our votes could save us friom also that promises it might improve are empty because we've incurred ths debt and this treaty makes our escape virtually impossible as far as finacial services like Medicare and Social Security's loss. Its been planned out meticulously over a 30
web of deceit that comes at the expense of the whole US middle class. The world's oligarchs are launching a sort of surprise attack or Pearl Harbor on the very existence of a middle class. . The politicians are setting up a scam which replaces the US workforce and saves trillions in what they all claim are over high wages,compared to the M-economies (where the rich and poor are numerous but there is no real middle class due to concentration of wealth in a small elite. Isnt the US becoming more and more like that rapidly. Its a neoliberal takeover, and neoliberalism is all about locking in corporate rule..At least it seems to me that is what neoloiberals want and that it is is inconsistent with democracy.. Dani Rodrik's Trilemma of global capital shows that. Mainstream economics..The next few years will see wages for American workers plunge towards global norms in the labor-supplying countries. Considering who rules our country, the major corporations and what we stand for overseas, as far as trade policy (its not for what they say we do, ) If people examine our position on trade in services it will become obvious that were being cheated out of democracy in what amounts to a huge theatrical performance.

There is a huge PR campaign to manufacture fake consent for this theft which nobody would ever vote for. The neoliberals consider the only way wages can go is down because jobs as we know them are rapidly vanishing because of new labor saving technology. This is just what happens when machines do the labor. The next few years will see a huge explosion in labor saving technologhy. This will radically change the world of business and people would be best positined as innovators, not as wage earners. This country is optimized to maximize profits for thye entrepreneurs and monopoly owers. Especially financial services, which produces no actual wealth it is parasitic. Read up on the GATS agreement which makes public services illegal, unless a service sector is completely noncommercial.

Healthcare in Canada can continue public but in the UK it cant, because it has never been completely public, they sell health insurance. It wont be FTA-legal for the UK government to provide healthcare to all without restricting it to the destitute only, after they have spent down their assets. The same here. Because since the US committed healthcare thats been prohibited. For them to help people with incomes would be framed (its been this way since the 90s) as a theft from corporations of their property.

So as you see our DNC and GOP oligarchy's leaders are so very dishonest to the people of this country. They should come clean on this surprise attach, under the radar stealth privatization war by trade treaty they are waging on us and how they created global non-democratic economic governance to protect the investments of monopolists.. We have no standing in this setup, no votes matter.

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ggersh's picture

it also has an effect in regards to the shortages of goods everywhere. This is a planned effort by tptb

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Pluto's Republic's picture

All regulation set in place by FDR was completely reversed by 1999. The recent trade agreements — the TPP and the TTIP — were the ugly culmination of that plan. They were mega regional agreements that would suppress China and Russia, and give the neoliberal corporations empire rule over the world. Like modern US trade agreements, they would have depressed US jobs and wages. That trend remains strong and can be measured in the US rate of suicides and murders, along with the growing dystopian blight of the nation's infrastructure. Trump killed the TPP and the TTIP to save American jobs (in the short term). Then turned around and started a trade war with China that the US has lost badly.

At least it seems to me that is what neoloiberals want and that it is is inconsistent with democracy.. .... If people examine our position on trade in services it will become obvious that were being cheated out of democracy in what amounts to a huge theatrical performance.

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Does the term democracy really fit here? The US has never resembled a democracy. It has no political party for the worker class or the political Left, which makes voting meaningless. A democracy exists when the people are the masters of the nation and their will is reflected in all legislation. A democratic government is one that continuously acts to protect and improve the lives of all the people. The US government has always been a greedy, bloodthirsty corporation. It sees the people as disposable.

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
snoopydawg's picture

@Pluto's Republic

No not so much.

A democracy exists when the people are the masters of the nation and their will is reflected in all legislation. A democratic government is one that continuously acts to protect and improve the lives of all the people. The US government has always been a greedy, bloodthirsty corporation. It sees the people as disposable.

Well said as usual.

Thanks Zed for laying it out so clearly.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

zed2's picture

I recently read the book "Globalists" by Quinn Slobodian. He has many talks on Youtub as well. Many people use the word neoliberalism but few people understand what the ideology is or what it leads to. "Globalists" does a good job of explaining what the ideology is what the groups pushing this anti-democracy ideology are working towards and why. I've also posted a lot of links here attempting to explain what these treaties do. They want to regulate governments so they cannot regulate corporations. Locking out any acts that reduce their profits. Ellen Gould does a very good talk about GATS in the video I am linking below. Its one of the best speeches on GATS Ive seen, and even though its now 20 years old its all still true. I added a more recent video. Listen to her closely.

[Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CxoBbCSyfc]

Why are public employees ignoring the fact that their jobs will be outsourced to Third World countries workers (thats not to help them its to give the theft a false legitimacy it doesnt deserve. ) Workers who likely wont be paid a decent living wage, even if the people who they are replacing were.. (Imagine being asked to train your own replacements for your last three months of work. This is happening all over. People who do it are made ineligible for retraining benefits and there being registered as having lost jobs because of trade deals is prevented. In other words its a racket..They have their scheme down to a system. An Indian IT firm even tried to patent this.)

Instead the young would be techies - the indentured workers may not even be paid, their parents may be asked to pay.. bribes, merely to get them jobs here. Because this is the United States.

Basically this is a huge scheme set up by the rich all around the world, to take maxximal advantage of a horribly unequal situation.

Its going to take away all the gains of nonwhite Americans and its intent sems to be to destroy the decent middle class jobs, and fulfilling jobs and wages.

There is a lot thats being asserted abiout this scheme thats not true. There is a lot thats obvious, some of the best writing was done by the American Friend Service Committee in a now defunct publication called Trade Matters that no longer exists..This publication is worth seeking out.

At the gist of it is the fact that whats being set up is a guest worker system that needs to be compared to modern slavery. In that its quite similar to the Middle Eastern "kafala" system. Migrant workers are kept in a marginalized state of limbo.

Big Four tech companies with a history of wage rigging and bad employer practices have come under fire for making extensive use of this system to replace their American workers. Some of their workers stuck in this rut have even committed suicide. They are working young people whose lives hang in the balance of these firms and schemes, working people to death.

Part of the goal of these scheme is labor arbitrage. who will be paid a fraction of a living wage? Teachers, potal workers, health workers, all will be offshored and their employers are known for pursuing policies that deprive workers of a fair wage. This is why the politicians are trying to bankrupt government. To create a fake crisis so that services of all kind can be decimated in their global theft agenda.

Its not a coincidence that all this is happening. They are getting government out of the business of protecting people from corporations.

People are kind of the meat that they plan to consume. The DemoGOPs wont protect us. Corporatism is their religion now.

"Gotta go to freedom" DEVO! sung..

I really like Trevor Noah's comedy.

[Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5fOUgKwCYM]

Trevor Noah really gets it. But I hope he continues to do comedy.

whats a good job?
You know it when you see it.

The world is really entering a new era. I think Jesus really got the following. We're going to be living in a world where the necessities of life are plentiful. There will be NO DEFENSIBLE REASON anybody should suffer things like hunger or curable diseases. What the hell are they thinking.

Our government is on some other planet as far as their cuddling up to the corporate greed agenda. They are going to break this country. Maybe thats what they want, out of their obligations to govern?

There is no reason we have to be the way we are becoming. Peoples lives are too precious, our lives too short to spend them in bad workplaces doing things so boring they cripple peoples spirit and steal what should be the prime of their lives.

We still have not evolved beyond slavery, it seems. If you find yourself in a dysfunctional workplace or with dysfunctional management, Consider leaving. Doing something you like for work, or quitting.

As jobs vanish, lots of new jobs are being created. Some are really worried that people are wising up. Are we? There needs to be a far better balance struck.

Thats it.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@zed2

Ellen Gould was particularly eye-opening.

The anti-communist obsession building over the past century in the West now makes perfect sense. The neocons and neoliberals would be forced to crush modern egalitarian civilizations so that no comparisons can be made between them and modern slavery regimes that are powered by consuming human lives.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato