National Security & Outsourcing
We've had a good look lately at the problems of being dependant on an unstable part of the world. If we didn’t need their oil, we wouldn’t be sending billions of dollars their way. If they weren’t drowning in money, they wouldn’t be able to fund the terrorists.
We have a similar problem coming up. We are sending our manufacturing capabilities to other countries. When a factory leaves the country, we don’t just lose jobs. We lose the ability to make something. What would happen if China decided to stop selling us components for our cars? Our cars would be useless, no matter what the price of oil is. What good is a weapons system if vital components are made by our rivals?
Not only are we exporting the ability to make things, we are also exporting the ability to design new things.
We are funding governments that are as corrupt as the ones in the Middle East. We give them our factories. We give them our technology. We stop buying our own products because theirs are cheaper. Then we borrow money from them in order to buy their products. If they decide to limit supply, or raise prices, we won’t be able to stop importing products any quicker than we have been able to stop importing oil.
We export raw products such as timber and cotton. We import manufactured goods. We are on our way to becoming a colony again.
posted by Cheryl @ 10:09 AM
3 Comments:
Cheryl, you understand and explain the *big picture* as well as anyone I've ever heard. I wish more journalists had your clear vision and the inclination to use it in their writing.
There may be times when I'd like to quote you if that would be ok?
After those kind words, how can I say no?
Seriously, I don't mind at all. This is my message in a bottle. I hope it lands somewhere it can do some good.
Some of the lessons that EU countries learned from WWII:
* Never be in the position where the country cannot survive if it is cut off from the rest of the world.
* Build all structures to last a thousand years, those that last only a hundred do not stand up well in times of war.
* Bury electric lines. It makes it much harder for an enemy to destroy a country's infrastructure.
* Develop self-sufficient villages. If one area is hard hit, neighbors who are close by can take up the slack.
* Civilization can never be every man for himself, in times of war and hardship people will always be dependent on the collective group that makes up that society.
These lessons, whether the planners knew it at the time or not, have created systems whereby EU countries (esp. northern EU) maintain a quality of life that shares the wealth more evenly, encourages protection the environment, creates an aesthetic environment, and focuses on the "greater good" for their countries.
Many times I have heard that western EU countries are socialist, but that is just merely propaganda. What these countries realize is that for commodities that all citizens use the best way to ensure the stability of those commodities is for the people to collectively own them. Business will always err on the side of greed; government, on the other hand, must exist within the boundries set by the collective whole. This does not make the countries "socialist", for there are richer and poorer in these countries and capitalism is alive and well. It is a better system than what we have.
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