Reich - American Competitiveness, and the President’s New Relationship with American Business

[Donnachaidh]

http://robertreich.org/post/2863461038

Whenever you hear a business executive or politician use the term “American competitiveness,” watch your wallet. Few terms in public discourse have gone so directly from obscurity to meaninglessness without any intervening period of coherence.

President Obama just appointed Jeffry Immelt, GE’s CEO, to head his outside panel of economic advisors, replacing Paul Volcker. According to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, Immelt has “agreed to work thorugh what makes our country more competitive.”

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post announcing his acceptance, Immelt wrote “there is nothing inevitable about America’s declining manufacturing competitiveness if we work together to reverse it.”

But what’s American “competitiveness” and how do you measure it? Here are some different definitions:

More at the link --

[notadmblnd]

1. "competitiveness" means Americans working for 3rd world wages

When the standard of living and employment conditions for us has gotten as bad as those in countries who exploit their labor, American jobs will return.

[Capitalocracy]

6. When you compete with sweatshops,

even if you win, you lose.

[lonestarnot]

7. and working 3 or 4 jobs to eat, 2 hrs sleep and do it again.

[msongs]

2. US politicians elected by the middle class to serve the needs of the wealthy corporate class nt

[somone]

3. “American competitiveness” means "Your CEO's salary must be world-class"

and time to update your resume, or go back to school to learn something high-tech so you can get a high-tech job until your high-tech job is outsourced.

[WinkyDink]

12. Ha! Reminds me of teaching, when Admins said we couln't ask for salary "parity" with

bordering districts.
ONLY THEY COULD.

[ThomCat]

4. Yes, what is good for American people is Not the same as

what is good for American corporations.

It is amazing how that always gets ignored in all the high level commentary, deliberately, when all the new policies and plans only help the corporations and not the people.

[moondust]

5. Excellent as usual.

Professor Reich gets it. He belongs in a command position where he can save the U.S. economy from self-serving Wall Street profiteering.

[lonestarnot]

8. I certainly agree with you on this.

[moondust]

9. I sensed that Obama got it.

He campaigned on "bottom-up" economics. What the hell happened to that?

:smoke:

[lonestarnot]

10. The 1%ers overruled his equitable econ intellectual property.

[WinkyDink]

11. Extremely low wages, gutted safety regs, no health bennies, temp jobs: Voila'! COMPETITIVENESS!