American-owned? Think again

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-am20.html

WASHINGTON -- The furor over efforts by an Arab company to buy U.S. port operations has focused attention on a little noticed economic fact of life: America increasingly is foreign-owned.

From the ritzy Essex House hotel in Manhattan, owned by the Dubai Investment Group, to the nationwide chains of Caribou Coffee and Church's Chicken, owned by another company serving Arab investors, foreigners are buying bigger and bigger chunks of the country. snip

GIs eat French food

Consider that for more than a decade, French tire maker Michelin has been the exclusive supplier of tires for NASA's space shuttles. DSM, a Dutch company, makes body armor for U.S. troops, while French-owned Sodexho provides meals for the troops at a number of military installations.

Nearly one in five U.S. oil refineries is owned by foreign companies. Foreign companies also have a sizable presence in running power plants, chemical factories and water treatment facilities in the United States.

[Ian David]

1. Run out and buy the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/imageDB.cgi?isbn=0553293354

Foundation (Foundation Novels)
by Isaac Asimov

ISBN: 0553293354

Publisher Comments:

For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Sheldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future--to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire--both scientists and scholars--and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for a fututre generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.

But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. Mankind's last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and be overrun--or fight them and be destroyed.

More:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-0553293354-1

[KharmaTrain]

2. American Companies Are Also Becoming Less American

I'll have to hunt around, but there was an excellent report this weekend that despite the "image" of American multi-nationals taking it on the competitive chin, it's the opposite. Profits for the largest American-based corporates have never been higher and their marketshares have increased. Now the fact that they've outsourced much of their labor and are only U.S. in name-plate only and that the only Americans who benefit from this "boon" in business are the stockholders. But this is America...ain't it grand :sarcasm:

I'm making plans to go to New York and originally wanted to stay at the Essex House. I wanted to be right on Central Park and had a sentimental spot in my heart from all those years of promotions on Saturday Night Live. Well, when I investigated the hotel and saw it was foreign owned (besides the $400+ a night room rate) I decided to look again. Problem is except for the Holiday Inn at the airport or a Hilton, there's not many American owned hotels in Midtown Manhattan.

[Iris]

3. kind of ironic given that we're being ruled by the "business" party.

What are all the mid-level suburban husbands of soccer-mom managers thinking when they vote Repug. thinking they are "business friendly"?

[KharmaTrain]

5. They're My Neighbors...And Just Starting To Wake Up

I think it took all those "For Sale" signs in the neighborhood...or maybe it was the loss of all the high-tech jobs that were all over the place 10 years ago but long since outsourced since the booosh cabal came in. Yet, these people are still stuck on the talking points...that Democrats will "raise your taxes" or "teach homosexuality in our schools" and so on...years of lies and bromides they've grown comfortable with and now aren't sure how to react now that the the bills are coming due.

The answer to your question is simple: They voted for their selfish interests. The Repugnicans were and are good at stirring up the fears and phobias and then mix them with the flag waiving and chest thumping that makes their combination of ignorance and arrogance so potent at the ballot box.

Many of those mid-levels are just coming to the reality that they just missed the gravy train. Unless they were vested or part of the investor class, they really didn't have a real stake in the "business" of either the country or the party.

Cheers...

[vptpt]

4. Remember those ads they ran on tv

a little while back that said if you buy a bag of weed, you're giving financial aid to the terrorists? Sounds like buying most anything now is giving financial support to...well, anybody but Americans.

[LaurenG]

6. Caribou Coffee? darn it

They are an organic, free trade brand. America is no longer America as we knew it.

[The2ndWheel]

7. There are no countries

The world is the corporation's playground. We're all basically in the way, and they do a good job of dividing people. If you stand in the way of civilization and progress, as we've seen time and time again, you die.

Today(and really everyday if you think about it) is all about production and efficiency. You might be able to live a different way for now, but progress will get you(there would be no America without it). It's like the sun; eventually it's going to burn out, but before it does, it'll expand and engulf this planet.