It's time to look behind the curtain

All right I am sick and tired of the economic shell game. Everybody Republicans and Democrats alike are scrambling to come up with reasons for our economic woes. Some say that healthcare costs incurred by smokers and obese Americans is placing a strain on our economy. Excuse me, but last time I checked it was my constitutionally protected right to have a smoke and a Twinkie if I want to.

Why are we ignoring the 14 to 22 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States. In 2004 the annual uncompensated cost of medical care for illegal immigrants in California was $1.4 billion. That is just California. It's estimated that California houses nearly a third (31%) of the nations illegal aliens. If you extrapolate based on those numbers that means the total estimated cost of healthcare for illegal immigrants is approximately 4.2 billion dollars per year, much more than the approximated 80 million dollars incurred by smokers and obese Americans. Why then I ask are we not doing something about these criminals? How can I say that all illegal immigrants are criminals, well it's sort of implied in the name "illegal" immigrant.

This is just healthcare costs, add to that the expenses incurred for financial aid, as well as education, and these criminals are robbing the American taxpayers of tens of billions of dollars every year. Do I feel sorry for the disenfranchised citizens in other countries? Yes I do, I also feel it is their responsibility to stand up and work for change in their own system. You can,t just go where the grass is greener, or eventually you will trample all the grass.

I like to break things down to their simplest form. Lets say I lose my job, and my family is in financial trouble, but my neighbors are doing fine. Would it be acceptable for me and my family to sneak over and move into my neighbors house? Of course not, it would be my responsibility to find work and support my family. Why can we not seem to apply this common sense on an
international level. Take the people of Iran for example, they are not happy with their situation, but they're not fleeing to greeener pastures they are trying to affect change. I applaud them for that.

Another favorite target are American businesses, they are too greedy, they are being mismanaged. I'm sorry but as ugly as it may be greed is an inherent part of capitalism. The
solution is not for the government to step in and help protect the monopolies these companies have on their services and products. We already have a system of checks and balances to protect against greed and mismanagement, it's called the American consumer. If a company gets overly
greedy, or is being mismanaged consumers stop using their services or products. At this point the company in question has a choice, either make improvements to win back their consumers, or fail and be replaced.

The fact is these supposed issues are nothing more than a smokescreen to hide the real issue, the unfair trade practices our government has promoted. Here are some stats on trade for the last five years.

China:Exports to:
2004: 34,744,053,000
2005: 41,925,281,000
2006: 55,185,707,000
2007: 65,236,121,000
2008: 71,457,073,000
Total: 268,548,235,000

Imports from:
2004: 196,682,034,000
2005: 243,470,105,000
2006: 287,774,353,000
2007: 321,442,867,000
2008: 337,789,782,000
Total: 1,387,159,141,000 (176,574,278,000)* (1,210,584,863,000)**
Trade deficit: 1,118,610,906,000 (942,036,628,000)**

Japan:Exports to:
2004: 54,243,120,000
2005: 55,484,472,000
2006: 59,612,714,000
2007: 62,703,458,000
2008: 66,579,152,000
Total: 298,622,916,000

Imports from:
2004: 129,805,199,000
2005: 138,003,696,000
2006: 148,180,776,000
2007: 145,463,343,000
2008: 139,248,199,000
Total: 700,701,213,000
Trade deficit: 402,078,297,000

Germany:Exports to:
2004: 31,415,882,000
2005: 34,183,656,000
2006: 41,319,095,000
2007: 49,650,956,000
2008: 54,732,310,000
Total: 211,301,899,000

Imports from:
2004: 77,265,574,000
2005: 84,750,871,000
2006: 89,082,049,000
2007: 94,164,096,000
2008: 97,552,900,000
Total: 442,815,490,000
Trade deficit: 231,513,591,000

Britain:Exports to:
2004: 36,000,233,000
2005: 38,587,772,000
2006: 45,410,107,000
2007: 50,228,663,000
2008: 53,775,110,000
Total: 224,001,885,000

Imports from:
2004: 46,273,823,000
2005: 51,032,621,000
2006: 53,513,018,000
2007: 56,857,542,000
2008: 58,619,220,000
Total: 266,296,224,000 (16,372,304,000)* (249,923,920,000)**
Trade deficit: 42,294,339,000 (25,922,035,000)**

France:Exports to:
2004: 21,263,284,000
2005: 22,410,379,000
2006: 24,217,407,000
2007: 27,412,546,000
2008: 29,186,901,000
Total: 124,490,517,000

Imports from:
2004: 31,605,739,000
2005: 33,842,058,000
2006: 37,039,632,000
2007: 41,552,711,000
2008: 43,997,090,000
Total: 188,037,230,000
Trade deficit: 63,546,713,000

Italy:Exports to:
2004: 10,684,740,000
2005: 11,524,325,000
2006: 12,546,042,000
2007: 14,149,624,000
2008: 15,478,613,000
Total: 64,383,344,000

Imports from:
2004: 28,097,275,000
2005: 31,009,260,000
2006: 32,655,071,000
2007: 35,027,630,000
2008: 36,143,410,000
Total: 162,932,646,000
Trade deficit: 98,549,302,000

Canada:Exports to:
2004: 189,879,866,000
2005: 211,898,689,000
2006: 230,656,014,000
2007: 248,888,145,000
2008: 260,914,364,000
Total: 1,142,237,078,000

Imports from:
2004: 256,359,836,000
2005: 290,384,293,000
2006: 302,437,859,000
2007: 317,056,763,000
2008: 335,555,269,000
Total: 1,501,794,020,000 (176,574,278,000)* (1,325,219,742,000)**
Trade deficit: 359,556,942,000 (182,982,664,000)**

Total exports to G7 countries 2004-2008: 1,796,277,639,000

Total imports from G7 countries 2004-2008: 3,262,576,823,000
(369,520,860,000)* (2,893,055,963,000)**

Trade deficit: 1,466,299,184,000 (1,096,778,324,000)**

* Amount of cost attributed to crude oil
** Excludes crude oil purchases

Now I understand that some international trade is necessary, but look at those deficit numbers that is money that will never make it back into our economy. Once again I would like to break this down into it's simplest form. Let's say there are only two people left on earth me and joe, and joe and I own the last two restauraunts on earth. If joe eats at my restauraunt once a month,
but I eat at his place every day there is no way I can prosper.

Another thing that bothers me are the products we are importing. We are importing billions
of dollars worth of produce, grains, and meats. How can we possibly justify this when American farms are failing on a daily basis, and in a political climate where "green" industries are being touted as the salvation for America. I don't think you can find a "greener" industry than agriculture.

Another import we are spending billions per year on is iron and steel products. You only have to look at Pennsylvania to see the insanity of this. You have cities reduced to virtual ghost towns by the closing of steel manufacturers. This isn't because these companies were poorly managed, it's simply that they couldn't compete with unchecked foreign suppliers.

In the late 90's I was working for a fastener manufacturer, at the time they were buying steel from a mill in Dong Bu Korea. The price they were paying for their steel was the same price we were getting for our scrap metal, granted we were scrapping nearly half of what we purchased because of damage and defect, but when you're paying only a quarter of the normal price you can afford to throw away half the product. Also when they scrapped the material they were making back their money anyway.

Now you can't blame businesses for buying these products, they will do whatever they can to increase their bottom line, and that's how it should be. It's up to our government to say enough is enough, it's time to level the playing field for American businesses. Reduce trade set higher tariffs, I don't care how they do it, but we need to stop hemmoraging money or we will never stabilize our economy.


The Stranger