The Fiscal Times
. . . "What happened? Clinton had hardly neglected Michigan. She made the water crisis in Flint a particular focus of her attention, sending daughter Chelsea to head up relief efforts in the beleaguered city. At the same time, Clinton dropped what she must have expected to be a devastating blow on Sanders – his vote against the automaker bailouts during the financial crisis. In Michigan, where the automobile industry has dominated state politics for decades, that attack could easily have been considered fatal to even the thin hope Sanders had of gaining delegates in the proportional-allocation primary.
"Sanders fought back nonetheless. " . . .
. . . "That may have had a significant role in yesterday’s upset. Esquire’s Charles Pierce spent a few days in Flint and discovered the depth of Clinton’s miscalculation. Calling it “one of the more interesting examples of unintended consequences that I'd heard in a while,” Pierce reported that Flint voters found Clinton’s attack offensive and cynical.
"Exit polls showed that the problems ran deeper than just the question of bailouts. Clinton’s accusation opened her up not just on the bailout issue but also on her support for free trade agreements that autoworkers believe left them unfairly vulnerable to foreign competitors." . . .
"The lesson this week is that voters want not just a fight, but potentially a trade war. If they can’t get that from the so-called establishment, then they’ll look to outsider populists like Trump and Sanders—hoping they can deliver on their promises. We may have reached the limits of American engagement in globalized markets, and a new era of incremental protectionism, mandated by voters who are determined to overturn all of the apple carts. Free-market conservatives may find themselves searching in vain for a chair when the music stops in a Trump-led GOP. "
We should fear a movement such as this; while there is good reason to fear what global competition will-and has- done to our economy, the fact is that the US has virtually priced itself out of the world market.
With higher and higher taxes imposed on US manufacturers and the efforts to artificially raise the minimum wage, the left has done much to harm our economy.
I was a construction electrician in the 1960s and our wages were quite high because of union contracts - again: artificial, non-market-imposed wages. Soon we lost many of these jobs and non-union contractors moved in to replace us until the union set up a two-tier wage structure; Residential work had to pay less because of free market forces.
Now government mandates, corporate taxes and movement protests from the left are hanging these same anchors on our economy.
The Tunnel Dweller
