The Lies We Hear....Still!!!

Isn't it funny how we are currently being told that things are getting better? When was the last time you heard the truth about our economy? Search your memory deeply!! How about the experts in finance and what the media puts in our faces? NO? Yea me neither!
It is so funny how the media will compare our current gas prices to a couple months ago, but will compare housing costs to years ago! It is all to lull us into a false sense of security and give us that warm fuzzy feeling!
Well I for one am saying "NO MORE". Perhaps most of you don't believe the BS, but where are your voices? I should be able to open my door here in the country and hear the moans of the people who are in dire need. But no I do not! I try to understand the passive attitudes of the millions who are struggling in this world and I still do not understand. Ok. This entire blog will be dedicated to bringing out how we are lied to, and treated as nothing more than sheep that can be used for the wool!
I will now scrutinize the Free Trade Bulletin #36 by Daniel Griswold. People like Mr. Griswold is why most people still hang on to the hopes that things will get better. For the the things that I know first hand, he says is not so. He mentions in the beginning of his article About the Campaign promise of Barack Obama the he will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas and start giving them to companies that create good jobs here in America".
Then he goes on to explain how these US companies only created affiliates in other foreign countries to reach new customers that otherwise would be impossible without being in that part of the world. My response to that would be... Then how did we do business with the rest of the world in the last century?
He also says " Contrary to popular myth, U.S. multinational companies do not use their foreign operations as an "export platform" back to the United States. Close to 90% of the goods and services produced by U.S. owned affiliates abroad are sold to customers either in the host country or exported to consumers in third countries outside the U.S." And he also says "customers in the U.S. account for only 17% of sales". HUH?!!
Having worked in Engineering for the last 18 years, placed me in the unique position of seeing nearly all sides of how a company "creatively" does business when they have "divisions" of their companies overseas. Yes, Divisions and not affiliates! I am here to tell you that these type of companies I have worked for, do indeed leverage the "export platform" to return foreign made products for sale in the U.S. Just go to any store, pick up any product and look for where it is made and you will be hard pressed to find anything that says "Made in the USA".
One such company I worked for had divisions across the globe. They also had operations in China and Mexico. The U.S. divisions of this company were, at the time, in the northeast U.S., Silicon Valley in CA., Colorado and a few others. As their facilities grew in China and Mexico, the U.S. facilities disappeared and layoffs ensued. I went to an Engineering Design meeting at the corporation's home office in NJ and had breakfast with the owner of the privately held company.
We talked about U.S. jobs disappearing and going to these facilities overseas. He expressed his concern as an American. However he also pointed out that, he was a business man whose main concern was his investors and his own pocket. He told me about the import/export game and how he could have a 75% failure rate of his products from China and still make a profit. Not only because he had lower wages to pay in China but also because of the tax breaks and incentives he received from the U.S. He said he could not even have a 25% failure rate in the U.S. facilities or he would be out of business. Kinda makes you think!
Currently, the investors have successfully ousted him from control of the company and there are only 2 divisions left in the U.S. Their main manufacturing facilities are in China and Mexico. Because they still maintain their headquarters in New Jersey, They still receive the tax breaks and incentives that our politicians so generously give them. The other facility is now for prototypes. It gives the impression that they are manufacturing here in the states but those products are only used for testing, and in some cases those products have been tweaked to perfection by the engineers and technicians and given, yes given for free, to a potential customer for them to test, and then that customer will buy the inferior product that is made outside the U.S.
Oh yea, where did the couple thousand jobs go, that this company had here in the U.S.? They went to China or to Mexico!!!
This is only one example, the other companies I worked for are the same. The only reason they have manufacturing facilities in the U.S. , is for building Prototypes and for testing, that will eventually go to their China, Mexico, or India Divisions for manufacture and sold not only in those countries but also to U.S. customers.
I say to Mr. Griswold, "you are either an idiot or you do not know what you are doing". As I stated before, I worked in Engineering, I designed, built, and specified parts to be used in designs. I worked with the customers and manufacturing facilities. I touched everything that a company does because I am very thorough in my job and I know the reasons for every step a company makes to put out a product. I wrote the ISO procedures for the company that were tailored for these foreign facilities. I wrote "books" of instructions that would allow someone who never even touched a wrench, to build the products we designed.
Mr. Griswold does not think that taking away the tax breaks and incentives will change anything here in the U.S.!!??? Then how about we give it a try? Give companies tax breaks and incentives to keep and grow jobs here in the U.S. and then tell me and everyone else in 5 years how it did not make a difference in the U.S. You will not be able to.
Another question for Mr. Griswold - "Where do you invest YOUR money?" I bet it is with the very corporations that receive these tax breaks and other incentives.
And as I state in the purpose of my blog, Do not throw your education at me. Just because someone can commit their schooling to memory and graduate at the top of the class means nothing to me. Produce results and not just methane!