The Experiment Has Failed

2010-05-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

The experiment has failed and it’s time to go back to what built the strongest and largest middle class in world history. From the 1940’s to the 1970’s our government set the rules of the economy in favor of America and its citizens. The rules were set up so companies would reinvest capital back into the American economy, technology, and its workers. America was the manufacturing superpower and had a blue-collar middle class that could survive on a single-income home. With this single income we could afford to own a home, have health care, send our kids to college or trade school, take vacations, and have a pension for retirement with relatively low debt. Today two-income homes can’t afford many of these things and are waste deep in debt, and an increasing number of people are over their head in debt. It is all about the incentives, which changed in 1981 with the economic strategy of what was called Supply Side or Trickle Down economics.

This new economic strategy promised to bring more investment into the American economy and jobs. The first step was to cut taxes for the investment class (top 1%), allowing them to keep more of their money so they could invest back into the economy creating more jobs: the trickle-down effect. The next step was to deregulate or stop enforcing rules, to allow more efficient production and help increase the supply of goods. In this sense, supply-side theory has worked. Productivity in America has steadily increased over these 30 years. The theory went on to suggest that excess goods would then drop the prices, creating more demand by having more affordable goods.

What has happened is the capital that was originally reinvested back into the American economy, technology, and its workers have gone to a few administrators and CEOs. In 1980 a CEO made on average 40 times as much as the company’s lowest paid worker. Today that number is well over 500 to 1, and in some industries this ratio can be 5,000 to 1. The executives then invest the money into Wall Street for quick short-term personal profits instead of where the capital was created, in their company and workers. This results in bubble economies of boom and bust cycles. It also created a new very wealthy and powerful class in America that has corrupted our government. In 1980 there were about 500 lobbyists in Washington, D.C., and today there are as many as 40,000 lobbyists donating to campaigns and legally influencing/ bribing elected officials.

Ross Perot was correct in 1992 about the “Giant Sucking Sound” of American jobs leaving the country because of Free Trade Agreements.

In the 1990’s, with the new rules of economics, CEO’s and their lobbyists influenced our government to openly embrace Free Trade in the guise of America companies selling their goods to the world market. What wasn’t mentioned to the American people in these trade agreements was that the U.S. handed over its economic sovereignty to mediators such as the World Trade Organization. We no longer can set our own tariffs or protect U.S. jobs because of these agreements, and that is why our jobs are leaving the country. When this happens American workers are forced to compete with Communist China and their oppressed work force and other oppressed third-world countries that don’t have the external costs of adequate work conditions, living wages, health care, pensions, and most of all, environmental standards.

The result of our shift from demand-side to supply-side economics created a wage/ productivity gap. In the United States’ strong middle-class era, wages created demand and productivity increased as the demand went up. As wages went up so did demand, and this created more jobs. Wages in the U.S. for 30 years have remained stagnant while productivity has increased, creating a huge gap of too many goods and not enough money to buy them. It was filled with easy credit and low interest rates. The Federal Reserve has kept interest rates amazingly low for this entire period, creating an economy based on credit, not wages. In the last few years the credit bill has come due with interest, and the American economy has become a house of cards with no way of paying it back.

The experiment of supply-side economics and free trade has failed miserably and created monopoly capitalism. We need to go back to sane economic and trade policies that protect America and its jobs.

For the People for a Change: A Ballot Box Revolution

2010-02-19T09:32:00.000-08:00

Ben Emery for U.S. Congress, California 4th District
For the People for a Change: A Ballot Box Revolution

"From the nature of things, every society must at all times possess within itself the sovereign powers of legislation." — Thomas Jefferson, 1774

Why am I running?

For too long we have been represented by politicians who are seeking higher office, and in the process make financial deals to advance their goals. The last 30 years have been no exception, and in fact have accelerated the process to astronomical proportions. We no longer have a government that is of the people, for the people, and by the people of the United States of America but instead we have a government that is controlled by entities that have no loyalty except to those who will increase their bottom lines. We no longer have a Democracy, but have a corporatacracy in its place. Before, we had politicians bought off by campaign donations and special treatment, but in the last decade we have allotted them a seat at the legislative table. Who writes our energy policies, the oil companies? Who writes our Health Care policies, pharmaceutical and insurance companies? Authors of our Environmental policies are industrial polluters of the air, water, and soil. Transnational corporations and their CEOs shape our Trade and Tax policies, which allow our jobs to move out of the country while providing the executives with multimillion dollar bonuses. This has to stop, and only people who are not in the pockets of these corrupters of democracy can do it. I’m someone who will serve the people, not the corporate interests. Our democracy is in the jaws of death, and we need to snatch it out before it is too late.

We can do this by promoting and supporting the following:
Public Financing of campaigns, progressive campaign spending caps, and instant runoff voting
A restructure of our tax policies on the top earning 0.5%
Reinstatement of selective import tariffs to protect and support good paying jobs in America
Breaking up companies that are “too big to fail” by enforcing Sherman Anti Trust laws
Development of strong local economies and governmental agencies
Small business protection (small businesses create 60% of American jobs)
Infrastructure and development of Green technology to be at the forefront of the new industrial revolution
Solvency of Medicare and Social Security
Access and affordability of Health Insurance and Health Care
A United States that spreads peace around the globe instead of a Military Industrial Complex
Balancing budgets by reducing the size of the federal government and its spending
Reduction of national debt
A long-term sustainable economy that does not depend on foreign resources to function

The United States of America is at another crossroads, and it will take patriots to rise to the occasion once again to put their country before their ideology and political party. Join me by sending a message to Washington D.C. and to the two major parties by electing a third-party candidate who will speak for the people’s interests, not those of the corporations and ruling elite.

Thank you for your support. I look forward to representing you in the 112th Congress.

Sincerely,

Ben Emery

Time for Change

The Experiment Has Failed

For the People for a Change: A Ballot Box Revolution