Ok, then I guess this is a short discussion.

Well played.

And Brit Hume is a goddamn lackey.

I loke that Blood capitalized the words pharoahs and rock stars in that post.

Someone explain to me the argument against outsourcing... please? When an american company faces competition from foreign companies, and their cost to manufacture is a fraction of ours because workers elsewhere don't unionize and demand $60 and hour plus bennys, the US company would seem to face two choices... get that cost down and compete or pull up and fold.

I'm missing something. How can people stump on this?

I guess after you enroll in business school, they hand you your Republican talking points?

Go to a place like High Point, NC where all the furniture jobs have gone away. Go to oldbulee's stomping grounds, and see what Vietnamese shrimp and oysters do to a community, or just drive over to DE-Troit and look at downtown.

I'm not saying the businesses are wrong, I am saying that stumping on this is easier than stumping on God, Guns and Gays down here in Alabammy.

If you read enough Hunter Thompson books enough times, you start doing shit like that without even thinking about it.

I like being called "Blood" instead of "Bloor"

Kinda like Major Bludd (sic)

I always have and still do get the Heartstrings part of the argument, and my question isn't really about whether Heartstrings works or not... it clearly does. I just don't see how it can be argued logically. I see how Ford is JUST NOW beginning to think about getting a good, working relationship with its trillion different parts suppliers, when Toyota et al figured out from the beginning that if you have just a few, and you pay them well instead of pitting them against one another, you will have cars that don't fall to shit after 60,000 miles. I guess my point is, I don't want anything handed to me, I don't want a free ride. If I can make a better Whatever, then more power to me. If I can't, I can't. Guaranteeing my way through aggressive legislation is only a short-term fix.

I'll go ahead and say the businesses are wrong in many outsourcing instances.

There are issues of worker safety and environmental regulation that we could debate until the cows come home, but essentially these businesses get massive tax breaks from the federal government and local municipalities under the guise of "promoting jobs." Is it right then to move offshore, not only taking those tax breaks, land grants, and low interest loans, but also depriving the local government their tax base? Seems like fraud to me. But many local politicians get hoodwinked by the promise of new jobs--I shouldn't even say promise because there are rarely guarantees.

And I'd love to know how many skilled tradesmen (probably not a lot on this board, granted) make $60 an hour. Are you factoring in 15 hours of overtime, which is taxed at a higher rate than your base pay? Because it doesn't end up as $60 takehome pay, even if anyone is actually on the books as making that much. While some labor unions have seriously overplayed their hands, thus leaving their membership in jeopardy because of bullshit powerplays, don't believe the hype that laborers are taking home phat cash while drunk at work. It's a myth.

Local politicians don't get hoodwinked by the promise of new jobs. They are selling that shit to build up their own resume and legacy so that they can move onto the next level.

Local politicians are just as powerhungry as the big boys in DC, they just aren't as charismatic or good looking.

The taxation issues, both on the incentive side and this idea of "multinational" corporations that are somehow exempt from both taxation and tariffs is part of the problem.

On the other hand, I wish the "Big 3" automakers would go away. You suck and you will NEVER be able to pay your pensions, which means just one more Federal bailout (like the fucking dipshit airlines)

We need to organize a one time payout to theese leeches to just go the fuck away.

Insightful...

Oh, and Yail...I too am a HST disciple. We should get some Chivas and talk.

Union auto workers are up around 60-80 an hour, with seniority. That just got out of hand.

Taking the breaks and running IS wrong, for sure. It's misleading and dishonest. Any time a company has a choice and decides maybe it's better to go overseas without really having to, I think it's wrong.

I just talked to some heavies a few weeks ago about this, and they stressed it from the get-go... Running to China is not the answer. My concern is that what made us the dominant force in the world 60ish years ago was that we innovated, not that we shut out competition. The game has changed a shitload. Outsourcing manufacturing was a response to price wars, where margins got whittled down to nothing, and something had to give. Now, that push is largely overwith, and people are having to trim fat in their supply chains. I recognize that it hurts communities here when they lose their factories, I really do... but nothing's guaranteed. Somewhere else, somebody just got a new factory. Shit happens. It sucks that it wasn't in this country, but not for that country. And one day, that plant will close down, and if they're not lucky, nothing will take its place. Then the guy in India can bitch when his job gets sent to Nigeria.

Then how will dudes like homeboy yo daddy know that rep PTC in Congar send out direct mail to all his constituents saying how he "SAVED THEIR PENSIONS" when asshats like him woulda caused Delta to leave Georgia YEARS ago?

See, politics isn't supposed to make sense, kids, its Politics. You know this much is TRUE.

Blow it out your ass. I work for a fucking newspaper that has opened up a fucking cannon on the city's administration for their closed dealings with a well-known gourmet grocery and the city's worthless venture into commercial real estate. Guess what--the whole fucking thing has blown up into a ridiculous mess thanks to some two-bit politicians thinking they can wheel and deal like LBJ.

Add onto that the rampant development without an infrastructure or property traffic studys and improvements, which the city and county are pushing straight on ahead with at least 5 massive new developments despite studys and plain ol' common sense saying that the city cannot possibly function with the extra cars and people in such a small space.

Oh, and imagine this: an alderman is running against an incumbent mayor and the outgoing county executive is rumored to be mulling over a run for U.S. Senate on the longshot, or likely a state General Assembly seat.

Do you honestly think in your sensitive little brain that Governor Parris Glendenning wanted to build a football stadium in Baltimore with taxpayer money because of the promise of new jobs and tax revenue? Or could it possibly be because he could point the finger at himself for bringing pro football back to Baltimore?

Despite you're being a complete asshole, THAT was actually an insightful post (unlike your previous post, which is what I was commenting on). Are we a little too sensitive today?

Sensitive? Nah. Just don't cotton to having some two-bit Jim Croce wannabe acting like I don't know shit about fuck because I don't spend all day trying to write a song about injustice and unfairness.

Have fun with Finch Platte in killfile.

If only knew what that meant...I'll bet it's hilarious around the "newsroom."

Oh, and you "don't cotton" to something? Who are you, Mark Twain?

i'm ducking out of this now because i'm goin home soon, but count me in on the chivas.

Easy Killer, that's just the way some folks talk.

True, but it was the only funny thing he said in his post so I had to grab onto something.

Sure, as long we gots room for that full-on Lecter rig that I'm required by law to be transported in.

Touche..funnily enough, I only posted that cos my candidate actually just said "I don't cotton to anybody up there in Montgomery telling me how to run my office, or prosecute cases."

you can batter my name all you want, but leave jim croce out of this, damnit. i drive by his house ever damned day.

I missed this, but yeah, a fine chivas snow cone would be great, and I'll transport Bloor up to those parts as long as you have a 50000 watt cattle prod, and a couple of mature billies.