MB Civic

Go to article
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11943112/the_low_post_how_the_media_lies_about_china

Taibbi gets at the fallacy of the “liberal” NY Times argument that US workers just need to try harder.

Protectionism conveniently shifts the blame for trade-related hardships to foreigners, which is easier than adapting homegrown business practices to make America more competitive.”
— New York Times editorial, “Curing the Debt Addiction,” Oct. 2

Well, that makes sense. According to The New York Times, what we need to do to compete with China economically is adopt commensurate “homegrown business practices” that will enhance our performance.

What do they have in mind? Eliminating the freedom of speech? Outlawing free trade associations? Legalizing child labor? Eliminating all environmental regulations and letting workers roll around in hazardous chemicals for fifteen hours a day for ten cents an hour? Ending all forms of corporate transparency?

Then there are these gems:

I remember Vermont’s Bernie Sanders explaining to me how that whole deal works. “I’ll ask a company like GE why we should give them money, if they won’t promise to stop moving American jobs to China,” he told me. “And they’ll say, ‘Look, we’re going to China, one way or another. But if you don’t give us the money, we’ll move there faster.’ They’re very honest about it.”

and…

These companies would love to be able to dump raw thallium in the Mississippi River, pay even skilled Americans pennies and get local cops in Little Rock and Peoria to arrest troublesome union leaders. And one good way to get there is to move overseas and then insist that America needs to “try harder” to compete. And we know what they mean by “trying harder.”

I think Taibbi is fast becoming our most potent new populist voice … if only he’d stop writing about 911…
-MAB