XXII. Why Working Wages in US are flat

Here's an "old" Whack-O Theory I've dug up.  Still the case, a Whack-O Theory isn't true; pure fairy-land extravaganza!  So, on with the story.

I was in graduate school in New York City--with very little money.  For "entertainment," I'd attend the United Nations' meeting on 42nd Street off the River.  I'd watch the river traffic out the beautiful glass wall, when things got boring at the meetings.

Anyway, a theory floating the hallways of the UN building at the time--many decades ago--was the hostility building against the "have" nations among the "have-nots" members.  The rumor being that if the "haves" did not make concessions to those backward nations making up the Third World, there'd be war waging soon.  The "have-nots" were insisting on recognition and respect.  But to recognize their potential, the "haves" were adamant that standards of business transactions be in place throughout the world, e.g., adherence to GAAP in accounting practice.  This argument I believe was behind initiating trade agreements that has bloomed across the world in recent years.  (Incidentally, C-SPAN  is currently airing an excellent series on trade deals, including the illustrious and successful WTO.)  

But, if trade agreements became the way in which countries were to principally engage in commerce and trade, where would the equalization or parity exist in wages, since the "have-not" countries were low-end on the totem-pole of the wage scale.  When I went to Mexico, to examine how NAFTA would be implemented, I could only surmise an answer to that question--"Mexican labor unions would have to take up a fight to realize higher wages for their workers!  Such has not happened to any notable degree.

What has happened is an obvious stagnation in wages of workers in the "have" nations, while workers of the "have-nots" hardly pull greater than poverty-level earnings.  Who has benefited are companies that have moved their production facilities out of the US and installed abroad automated means of production and distribution.  That is to say--to a greater degree than could have been imagined--with the advent and implementation of automated systems, what with their artificial intelligence utilization and systems integration, the worker has been marginalized, and his productivity-quotient radically gone spiraling.  This same phenomenon is about to hit agriculture, too, making current farming techniques obsolete and out-of-date.

So, today, companies willing to keep technologically advanced and are in position to re-locate virtually anywhere in the world, can keep up-grading their operations even as they change addresses!

Workers of the world, recognize your plight!   There's worldwide human competition for available jobs, and there's computer-driven machinery capable of doing what only humans were capable of performing till such machinery has become available at lower cost than a worker's wages.  

XXI. Washington, DC--no longer the hub of the Federal Government

Please--this is Whack-O Theory land!  Tongue-in-cheek: okay?

Many persons who have prominent and powerful positions in the federal government do not prefer to live in Washington--either they don't want the conspicuousness or they want to raise their kids in a more normal environment.  Add to the reluctance of persons in power to move to Washington is the concern of government itself that no one place harbor the central core of governmental officialdom. These two factors led the government to parcel out its seeds of power throughout the country.  And, its altered the contour of government such that the various think-tanks and lobby groups, using the old model of the power-brokers of government centralized in just one locality, viz., Washington, DC and vicinity, are virtually talking to themselves, rather than the federal power-brokers of the world!
Oh yes, there's the Secretaries of the various federal Departments that act as liaisons to the public and Congress, but the actual decision-making and policy-formation activities may be thousands of miles away; and Washington offices function simply as a front for their operations.

I say this, not to discourage various ngo organizations to continue meeting with the Washington offices of the federal agencies and departments located there--in Washington, DC--but merely to point out that their effect on developing federal policy and legislation through that office of communication will have minimal effect, in my opinion.

Let's conjecture in Whack-O style.  Omaha, Nebraska may have a very large military installation and might be construed as a nexus of military operations at the Joint Chief of Staffs level.  The FBI LA Field office could even be considered no longer simply a field office but the centre of FBI world activities--along possibly with its Field Office in Las Vegas.  The number of conjectures just where the various federal groups perform their operations is virtually endless, making it far more difficult for any outside group to penetrate or disrupt.

That Hilary Clinton had her own computer server simply serves as a foretelling of how the federal government is seeking to keep its lines of communication free and open from foreign intelligence.

So, really, there's no need for the prices of housing in Washington, DC to go through the roof any longer.  There's some but little in Washington, DC to merit the increased numbers of organizations seeking to locate there.  
     



  

Tuesday, August 8, 2016

--The Whack-O Theories, containing fairy-tales, have done so much better than I had expected that I'll be digging around to see if there's more I can find worthy of the title!

--Globalization, as a separate theme, continues to be talked about in today's politics so I've tended to put my own thoughts to one side.  Might add an item or two in the near future.

(--Just a side comment: I've never seen the world progressing so fast as now.  Obviously, there's a lot of people of good will achieving their goals for a better world.)

--I've recently completed some introductory remarks on the "Christian Theology of Peace and Well-Being."  If there's particular interest in some aspect of the topic, I'll gladly follow up.

--Not much going on till the Fall, so I'll pick up then.

Organized labor in trade agreements

The current discussions by the two presidential hopefuls have netted so far a gaping hole in trade agreements regarding labor costs of goods produced in developing nations--which  result in a glut of goods produced abroad that don't equitably adjust at real wage standards (either because the poorer countries are using child labor or the items produced  are substantially below cost-of-living standards in these countries).

Clearly, organized labor should represent a just and living wage for labor costs in items produced wherever among nations in these trade agreements.  And, any discrepancy should result in penalties against nations who are simply dumping items, cheaply produced through unfair competitive means.  The penalties could go to subsidize education in these poor countries or in increased stipends to their workers