Luke_Wilbur

I wish our leaders would not candy-coat the truth. Our labor force is 20x more expensive than the Chinese worker class. Removal of taxes, environmental and safety standards will not bring the giant box retailers back. http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/commentary/us-worshipping-at-the-walmart-altar-is-only-a-sound-economic-policy-for-china You can get nearly 20 hours of labor (if not a lot more) out of a Chinese worker for an hour's worth of time for a U.S. worker. One can see the obvious benefit of the Walmart paradigm, one that made Sam Walton's family the richest in the world nearing the combined worth of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

I think the U.S. Chamber is understanding it. http://www.freeenterprise.com/2011/01/unleash-the-power-of-small-businesses-to-create-jobs/#comment-948 I put my two cents in. The choice is consumers. American needs to better market Small Business that give jobs here in the States. Consumers want to know that there are other choices. I want Made in USA, but most of the times I do not have a choice. Everything is outsourced. We are becoming the Epilogue of the Roman Empire. We pay attention to the environment and wildlife, but we do not understand ourselves. We all need to think verify source of where the product is made. Be more bold and tell the employees and managers of these giant box companies we want Made in USA. We need to tell our government leaders we want made in USA. Think local first and global second.

This is great news. If enough Americans believe that we should be making jobs in the United States it will happen. Patriotic peer pressure. http://online.wsj.co...2618821224.html U.S. manufacturing, viewed as a lost cause by many Americans, has begun creating more jobs than it eliminates for the first time in more than a decade.As the economy recovered and big companies began upgrading old factories or building new ones, the number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. last year grew 1.2%, or 136,000, the first increase since 1997, government data show. That total will grow again this year, according to economists at IHS Global Insight and Moody's Analytics. Among others, major auto makers—both domestic and transplants—are hiring. Ford Motor Co. announced last week it planned to add 7,000 workers over the next two years. The economists' projections for this year—calling for a gain of about 2.5%, or 330,000 manufacturing jobs—won't come close to making up for the nearly six million lost since 1997. But manufacturing should be at least a modest contributor to total U.S. employment in the next couple of years, these economists say. After a steep slump during the recession, manufacturing is "the shining star of this recovery," says Thomas Runiewicz, an economist at IHS. He expects total U.S. manufacturing jobs this year to rise to about 12 million. Currently, manufacturing jobs account for about 9% of all U.S. nonfarm jobs; the average pay for those jobs is roughly $22 an hour, or nearly twice the average for service jobs, according to government data.

GS says only foreign investors for FB. Sorry but United States investors not allowed. Isn't Goldman Sach's an American Bank? Isn't Facebook an American company? But, Americans cannot invest in it? What is wrong with this picture?

Letting politicians use these tools are quite dangerous too. Look the special treatment from Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage got even though he admitted that he leaked out that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. http://articles.cnn.com/2006-09-08/politics/leak.armitage_1_novak-and-other-journalists-cia-officer-valerie-plame-patrick-fitzgerald?_s=PM:POLITICS Instead of going to jail for endangering an agent, he gets treated like a hero and receives the Department of State Distinguished Honor Award. Now he serves on the Board of Directors of ConocoPhillips, ManTech International Corporation and Transcu Ltd. This set a bad precedent and was one of the factors that got President Obama in office. People in power are still subject to the same laws as everyone of us.

China has made a big move to expand its currency globally by offering Yuan denominated accounts at its bank branch in New York city. http://www.bocusa.com

I am with you. This right wing, left wing, yin, yang, kung foo insanity has to stop. The next trade meeting our leaders need to watch the Green Hornet and do a comparison study on the movie's similarity to the real world. We are completely wasting our potential. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Y_rLBIxOM

I am also not worried that the Chinese have a new Stealth jet or a carrier missile killing system. I am worried who they plan to sell it to and we are losing more and more power to do anything about it.

I would like to know what happened to Beijing's promise of a peaceful rise. Reading what Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, had to say about China makes me think peace is not part of the plan. http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201012270241.html How can we do business with a nation that is looking like it is preparing for war?

This behind the scenes video reveals the real John Boehner. With family members phrases, "Hey John. How are Ya! Hey, Whew!!! He will be always John. John was the third parent." Or Speaker Boehner soft stating, "I was the Authoritarian I was the organizer." How can you not trust a large family that all worked at a bar where everyone knows your name. I am actually excited to see what he does. He might convert me back to the GOP.

Speaker Boehner, May God bless you. trim the fat, bring back more jobs, & individual freedoms and wealth to our Nation. MADE IN USA

I think the Speaker understands that the fate of the Nation rests on the fate of respecting the wishes of the independent majority. I believe that he wants to trim the fat, bring back more jobs, and give back more individual freedoms. I also believe that he supports and understands that American small business is the backbone of the nation. The business environment is no different from the physical one. Diversity breeds innovation. Less competition leads to either fascism or socialism controlled by interests groups and think tanks.

I had some time on this holiday to share some simple number crunching with information I gathered with everyone. According to the CIA the United States has a workforce of 156 million. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics we are at a 9.8 percent unemployment rate. So we have roughly 140 million people currently working. According to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan organization, the average American pays an average tax rate of 12.60% percent on their income as of 2008. According to the figures released from the 2007 US Census the median earnings of men who worked full time, year-round were $45,113 and women were $35,102. Average Tax for Men: $5684.24 Average Tax for Women: $4422.85 Average Tax mean = $5000 According to Bureau of Labor Statistics the average federal worker earned an average salary of $67,691, the average state government employee earned an average salary of $47,231, and local government employee earned 41,000. So, I estimate it takes 13 private sector workers to pay for one federal employee and 10 private sector workers to pay for on state employee, and 8 private sector workers to pay for a local employee. Now double this amount for public sector compensation (health insurance, pensions, and other benefits) The federal civilian workforce is estimated 2.15 million workers. This means it takes 56 million private sector workers to pay this expense. The 50 state workforce is estimated 3.8 million workers. This means it takes 30 million private sector workers to pay for this expense. The national local government workforce is estimated 10.9 million workers. This means it takes 87 million private sector workers to pay for this expense. Add another $1.8 for state and $3.5 billion for local part-time workforce. That equates to another million workers. Using my simple calculations we are already at 174 million average working people have to pay the expense for the full time public sector workforce. Deducting the taxes $84 million dollars paid by the 16.85 million full time public sector workers we are come to 157 million tax payers are needed to just pay for the the public sector work force. Now this does calculation does not include all the other expenses and revenues that occur within our federal government. I do not have the time or resources to undertake such a monumental task. But, I think you get the picture. Entitlements are going the way of the Dodo. http://www.census.gov/govs/apes/ http://www.fedscope.opm.gov/ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

Here is a thought. Start a campaign to nurture new American manufacturers to create more jobs. Part of the condition of the incubation program is that the company must promise to stay in the region where it started or give a 50 percent share of its stock to the state.

The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, says American companies have created 1.4 million jobs overseas this year, compared with less than 1 million in the U.S. The additional 1.4 million jobs would have lowered the U.S. unemployment rate to 8.9 percent, says Robert Scott, the institute's senior international economist.

This video humor video is not funny at all. Rather it shows disrespect for the greatest tragedy since Pearl Harbor.

This article makes total sense. People abroad are just not in touch with our reality. Company reverses outsourcing to grow By Gulf Coast Business Review - Tuesday, December 21, 2010 Several Gulf Coast-based manufacturers have gone away from outsourcing production work overseas in recent months, concerned about quality issues. The trend could now spill out to customer service-focused companies that do most of the work over the phone. At least that's the case with Vengroff, Williams and Associates, a Sarasota-based commercial debt collections and management consulting firm. In fact, the company recently won two new debt collection contracts with Fortune 500 companies through a business pitch that included replacing jobs in India with Sarasota-based employees. "In reality, the performance [in India] just wasn't there," Vengroff, Williams and Associates CEO Mark Vengroff tells Coffee Talk. http://www.review.ne...ng-outsourcing/

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved new rules, known as net neutrality, for regulating how information and traffic flow on the Internet. Jeffrey Brown talks to Washington Post reporter Cecilia Kang for more.

Our family debate whether going out in the cold weather when you are sick could actually make you worse off. Interestingly enough a new theory that has been put forward to explain the seasonality of colds and flu, and this theory puts forward the idea that our noses are colder in winter than summer and that cooling of the nose lowers resistance to infection. If the weather is freezing outside we wrap up in winter clothes but we still leave our nose exposed to the freezing air. Every time we breathe in we cool the nasal lining and weaken our local defences against infection. If this theory is correct then covering our nose with a scarf in cold weather could help prevent colds. Eccles R. An explanation for the seasonality of acute upper respiratory tract viral infections. Acta Otolaryngologica (Stockholm) 2002; 122:183-191. Exposure to cold has often been associated with increased incidence and severity of respiratory tract infections. The data available suggest that exposure to cold, either through exposure to low environmental temperatures or during induced hypothermia, increases the risk of developing upper and lower respiratory tract infections and dying from them; in addition, the longer the duration of exposure the higher the risk of infection. Although not all studies agree, most of the available evidence from laboratory and clinical studies suggests that inhaled cold air, cooling of the body surface and cold stress induced by lowering the core body temperature cause pathophysiological responses such as vasoconstriction in the respiratory tract mucosa and suppression of immune responses, which are responsible for increased susceptibility to infections. The general public and public health authorities should therefore keep this in mind and take appropriate measures to prevent increases in morbidity and mortality during winter due to respiratory infections. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17705968

I think by now everyone know that business and union leaders find themselves at odds with each other. This division is one of the reasons so much manufacturing has been outsourced. Both need to come to grip to the fact that our economy is getting cannibalized sector by sector by foreign competition. The first thing that should be discussed is the ITC report that our foreign competitors are stealing our ideas and making money off of them. They use American companies marketing power to gain interest on a particular good and then take them out. The second thing should be discussed is how this is going to effect our military in the future. We no longer have the arsenal for democracy. We do not even make light bulbs anymore. How can we expect to defend our interest in the future. The third thing is how the government should not be penalizing industries with regulation enforcement. Instead they should be researching and implementing solutions that take care of the problem at little to cost of the manufacture in accordance to the amount of jobs that may be lost. The fourth thing is excess. Workers and Business leaders both need to take a reasonable pay cut to compete with our foreign competition. The fifth things is to review historical documents of past American business strategy. Just go to Hershey Park or Disney World and see what the company vision has done for the community that surrounds it. Please feel free to add on.

My friend now makes toys in China. He tells me they are much more festive with Christmas there. It is hard for me to believe. But, it could be true. I do not think he would he lie to me. News media stories say they oppress human rights and religion. The only conclusion I have is that they celebrate the Chinese New Year. What gets me is American companies that deliberately lie about there products being made in the USA and they are not. Take the latest GAP story. http://www.brandchan...e-In-China.aspx How does our government let them get away with stating their goods are made in the United States. They deliberately misinformed the consumer to buy their goods.

As the Rolling Stones say "You can't always get what you want. You sometimes get what you need." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toiM1B6E2ww I hope we see more bipartisan support and less extremism. Divided We Fall. United We Stand.

I can't believe it took them that long. I will definitely spread the word. Thanks

No need to mud-sling. The elections are over. I just heard that a tax relief deal is close at hand. Let's not blow it again.

We are humans. Not robots. No Country is perfect. We just need to reboot and move forward making America great again.