There was a sad story on “60 Minutes\u201d\u00a0about the employment plight of the citizens of Wilmington, Ohio.\u00a0 Seems that the area’s biggest employer\u00a0DHL, a company owned by Germany’s Deutsche Post, closed its doors and moved its operations off shore.\u00a0 A little searching on the web reveals that the local trade unions and DHL were having running labor battles.\u00a0 That fact coupled with the multi-whammy of additionally losing a reported $ 3 billion on its US operations and the failing American economy were probably the reasons that the company closed down.\u00a0 The move to foreign shores has resulted\u00a0in the loss to the local economy of thousands of jobs.\u00a0 60 Minutes reported on the beginnings of all this a year ago … this was just an update.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0TV show featured several personal stories about the impact of all this on their plight and some of the other 10,000 local people who are\u00a0now unemployed.\u00a0 The people in the story, being good Americans, are trying to help one another;\u00a0some are growing gardens; others are volunteering in the hospital; some are working the soup kitchens and some are doing\u00a0social work.\u00a0 Many of those who haven’t given up are diligently looking for work.\u00a0 The show was a frightening piece.<\/p>\n
But there is a far more serious specter on the horizon.\u00a0 To date, most of the people in Wilmington are still receiving un-employment compensation, but that will\u00a0run\u00a0out very soon.\u00a0 With their money gone, a large number of people are losing their homes to foreclosure.\u00a0 The forecloses are, in turn, depressing real estate values, which is further depressing the local economy.\u00a0 Schools and local government are cutting back on services because tax revenues have dropped precipitously.\u00a0 The much vaunted Federal and State stimulus programs are ridiculously inadequate — some 100 jobs for the 10,000 unemployed.\u00a0 And ominously, no one in the private sector is hiring.<\/p>\n
What is the answer?\u00a0 The same as always — jobs.\u00a0 Any logical reflection would tell you that spending dollars taxed away from “somebody else” to pay for these people’s unemployment compensation is not going to cut it.\u00a0 This time, nation wide, that “somebody else,” is in nearly as dire straits as the people in Wilmington.\u00a0 This time there is no “Golden California” for the “Joads” to load up their truck and go to, as in the depression era novel, “Grapes of Wrath.”\u00a0 California is bankrupt.\u00a0 The big “robber barons,” the banks, insurance companies, the steel mills, the mines, the fabricators, the manufacturers, the lumber industry, the farms are all broke or nearly so.\u00a0 Think about how many people you know that are just one or two paychecks away from their own bankruptcy.\u00a0 It is apparent that this tragedy is just beginning.\u00a0 The people of Wilmington have nowhere to go.\u00a0 Soon no one else will have anywhere to go, either.<\/p>\n
The people of\u00a0Wilmington are service workers.\u00a0 The service industry, lets face it, is parasitic; it depends upon other industries for sustenance.\u00a0 Production of raw materials from the farms, fields, mines and forests, are now as always, the real engine of wealth.\u00a0 Without the raw materials, nothing can be built, there is nothing to eat; nothing can move; there are no products for sale, there is nothing to cook, there is no heat and there is no money.\u00a0 Without the basic industries, there is no need for any of the service jobs, no reason for accounting, or business, because there is nothing to look after.\u00a0 By restraining these businesses, government meddling is killing the goose that laid the golden egg.\u00a0 Farming has been greatly hindered, heavy industry has been all but eliminated, lumbering essentially stopped, mining is nearly at a standstill and the automobile industry crippled\u00a0for nebulous governmental safety or environmental reasons.\u00a0 Reason would tell us that government interference and regulation is not only eliminating these industries, but is, because of its actions, likewise attacking, be it indirectly, the service sector.<\/p>\n
For someone outside looking in, the plight of the people of Wilmington is easily explained.\u00a0 It is almost a cinch that DHL left because their expenses were too high.\u00a0 Labor costs were probably the major expense and it is a good bet that the unions were asking (maybe striking) for more. (That part was left out of the story.)\u00a0 DHL went where they could get along with labor, find a friendly\u00a0atmosphere and control costs.\u00a0 DHL not only left the anti-business climate of\u00a0Wilmington, but that of\u00a0the entire USA.\u00a0 Wilmington is a typical American city that is situated in mid Ohio.\u00a0 Ohio is not only in the breadbasket of, but is\u00a0also in the industrial hub of the USA.\u00a0 Nevertheless, Wilmington’s citizens are not in industry, they are service employees.\u00a0 When there is no manufacturing or commerce, service employees are not needed, they are out of luck.<\/p>\n
Ah, you think … they just need to start their own businesses.\u00a0 Not possible!\u00a0 For over a century now the unions and their allies, the Progressives and Socialists,\u00a0have been lobbying very responsive\u00a0local,\u00a0state and federal politicians and governments to make sure that only licensed\u00a0 \u201cjourneymen\u201d can work at meaningful\u00a0jobs.\u00a0 It is probably against the law for you to do anything but menial work, regardless of your competence.\u00a0 Consider — why would anyone who has money, risk it in a new enterprise when he reflects upon the confiscatory taxation that will be incurred or the absolute reams of government regulation to be complied with, not to mention the exposure to probable fiat edicts coming down endlessly from government?\u00a0 What about possible criminal liability for infractions, either accidental or intended?<\/p>\n
And make no mistake, what is happening is revolutionary and it is being orchestrated. \u00a0\u00a0 If you smugly think that you or the rich or anyone else will be protected from harm, you are wrong … all Americans are in this together and none will be immune from the consequences.<\/p>\n
What remains to be seen is … will the American people suffer the injury …\u00a0 or react like wounded lions or … will they just cower and continue … leading lives of quiet desperation?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There was a sad story on “60 Minutes\u201d\u00a0about the employment plight of the citizens of Wilmington, Ohio.\u00a0 Seems that the area’s biggest employer\u00a0DHL, a company owned by Germany’s Deutsche Post, closed its doors and moved its operations off shore.\u00a0 A … Continue reading