A marriage broken up

Dear Editor:Has America forgotten how to multiply? Once upon a time most of our consumer goods were manufactured in America, not China. During recoveries manufacturers, that is Mr. Manufacturer, hired new workers in the USA, not China and the workers spent their new earnings in the USA, not China. Thus the "magic multiplier," a dollar spent in the USA was spent again in the USA, which was spent again in the USA, and on and on. Since the consumer Mrs. Consumer, was 70 percent of the economy, common sense says the magic multiplier was very important. Working hand in hand, Mr. Manufacturer and Mrs. Consumer, in a happy romance (well, maybe that's pushing the analogy too far) helped each other recover from recessions. Now, Mr. Manufacturer has moved to China, where he found someone cheaper than Mrs. Consumer to work in his factories. Mrs. Consumer is abandoned and the magic and the romance are gone. While the painful recovery drags on, ever faithful Mrs. Consumer waits for the Chinese to share the magic and spend dollars back in the USA. Then she can spend them back in China, and on and on. For some strange reason that our government, who lets all this happen, can't figure out, the Chinese want to spend their dollars in China and make China a nicer place. The magic and romance have left Mrs. Consumer for China. The story can go on and on but obviously Mr. Manufacturer and Government have sold out Mrs. Consumer. Meanwhile, back at home, as Mrs. Consumer struggles mightily to make ends meet, Government is trying even more mightily to sell her a very expensive health insurance plan (that she probably can't afford) and tax the very air she breathes (it contains that bad carbon dioxide). Love those insurance salesmen and tax collectors, oops Government, who are telling Mrs. Consumer that a new insurance policy and the air she breathes out are most important issues in the world, even more important than trying to bring Mr. Manufacturer and the magic back from China. While this doesn't make a lot of sense, Government tells Mrs. Consumer "trust me;" after all, she did help elect them. - Scott Ramey, Downey

********** Published: October 16, 2009 - Volume 8 - Issue 26