midcan5
liberal / progressive
- Jun 4, 2007
- 12,747
- 3,522
Whenever certain words are spoken or written in modern America there is a group of people whose minds are so well programmed you'd think they'd just won something. Economics is the religion of many, be they free marketeers, libertarians, or supply side fanatics. Fifty years of corporate propaganda at the college level, and through the work of think tanks that do anything but think, has created a enormous group of puppet evangelicals. Paul Ryan may be the epitome of economic worshiper, Fox business the lectern, and a worship of the Rich the prayer of the people in the pew.
It used to be that being fair and responsible counted for something, now all that is required is 'do nothing' and the magical spirit of the market will take care of all. Funny how while that magical market of divine providence hasn't worked very well for the American working class, there is always government, or some regulation or some other witch - no offence meant to witches - that is the cause of the magical system not working its magic. When your economics is based on faith, argument is useless. For those with doubts check out the book quoted below. It is a topic that everyone is familiar with, an invention of America, and now an import of the magical (free?) market.
"Yet by 2011, the Chinese had taken over the market: by then, more than 50 percent of the solar photovoltaic panels installed in America were made by Chinese companies. Chinese solar imports jumped from $21.3 million in 2005 to $2.65 billion in 2011.
What happened? In the last decade, the Chinese government set out to capture the market for manufacturing solar panels. It pumped the equivalent of billions of dollars into the country's nascent solar industry in low-cost loans, subsidies to buy land, discounts for water and power, tax exemptions, and export grants. Government aid to subsidize an export industry is illegal under global trading rules, but the Chinese forged ahead and soon cornered the world market on solar photovoltaic panels. China's exports of solar cells and panels to the United States rose a phenomenal 350 percent in just three years, from 2008 to 2010.
As massive volumes of Chinese government-supported solar cells and panels surged into the United States, prices in the domestic market collapsed. The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing, in an October 2011 trade action, explained the consequences:
The resulting price collapse has had a devastating impact on the U.S. solar cell and panel industry, resulting in shutdowns, layoffs, and bankruptcies throughout the country. Over the past eighteen months, seven solar plants shutdown or downsized, eliminating thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania." Excerpt page 234, 'The Betrayal of the American Dream' Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele
"So traditionalists end up defending that ceaseless engine for change, capitalism. They portray the free market as spontaneous, giving a chance to the amateur inventor or aspiring amateur, when it imposes specialization and rewards expertise. They think of it as provincial, enriching a locale or the nation, when it is cosmopolitan, going wherever profit takes it. Thus big government and big business. which are partners more often than foes are seen through distorting lenses, with preachers like Pat Robertson damning the former as heartily as they praise the latter. These confusions are not the result of rigorous analysis but of the tendency of the anti-governmental values to cling together - take one and you are likely to end up with most or all of them. Or so I hope to demonstrate. using a wide variety of examples of the phenomenon." Garry Wills, Intro 'A Necessary Evil'
It used to be that being fair and responsible counted for something, now all that is required is 'do nothing' and the magical spirit of the market will take care of all. Funny how while that magical market of divine providence hasn't worked very well for the American working class, there is always government, or some regulation or some other witch - no offence meant to witches - that is the cause of the magical system not working its magic. When your economics is based on faith, argument is useless. For those with doubts check out the book quoted below. It is a topic that everyone is familiar with, an invention of America, and now an import of the magical (free?) market.
"Yet by 2011, the Chinese had taken over the market: by then, more than 50 percent of the solar photovoltaic panels installed in America were made by Chinese companies. Chinese solar imports jumped from $21.3 million in 2005 to $2.65 billion in 2011.
What happened? In the last decade, the Chinese government set out to capture the market for manufacturing solar panels. It pumped the equivalent of billions of dollars into the country's nascent solar industry in low-cost loans, subsidies to buy land, discounts for water and power, tax exemptions, and export grants. Government aid to subsidize an export industry is illegal under global trading rules, but the Chinese forged ahead and soon cornered the world market on solar photovoltaic panels. China's exports of solar cells and panels to the United States rose a phenomenal 350 percent in just three years, from 2008 to 2010.
As massive volumes of Chinese government-supported solar cells and panels surged into the United States, prices in the domestic market collapsed. The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing, in an October 2011 trade action, explained the consequences:
The resulting price collapse has had a devastating impact on the U.S. solar cell and panel industry, resulting in shutdowns, layoffs, and bankruptcies throughout the country. Over the past eighteen months, seven solar plants shutdown or downsized, eliminating thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania." Excerpt page 234, 'The Betrayal of the American Dream' Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele
"So traditionalists end up defending that ceaseless engine for change, capitalism. They portray the free market as spontaneous, giving a chance to the amateur inventor or aspiring amateur, when it imposes specialization and rewards expertise. They think of it as provincial, enriching a locale or the nation, when it is cosmopolitan, going wherever profit takes it. Thus big government and big business. which are partners more often than foes are seen through distorting lenses, with preachers like Pat Robertson damning the former as heartily as they praise the latter. These confusions are not the result of rigorous analysis but of the tendency of the anti-governmental values to cling together - take one and you are likely to end up with most or all of them. Or so I hope to demonstrate. using a wide variety of examples of the phenomenon." Garry Wills, Intro 'A Necessary Evil'
Last edited:
