Exporting American Jobs Is Indeed Exceptional !!!

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Since we are following ad hoc procedures for the Aug 6th meeting, this is the only other traditional bulletin-board section being provided.
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Pat
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Exporting American Jobs Is Indeed Exceptional !!!

Post by Pat »

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Foreign aid is a topic that is incredibly misunderstood by the national news media!!!

For example, there follows a Washington Post article by media-superstar Ezra Klein twitting the American public for its alleged ignorance about U.S. foreign aid based on a 2013 Kaiser Family Foundation survey showing that the average American thinks that the total amount of U.S. foreign aid is equal to 28% of the Federal Budget when Ezra Klein and the Kaiser Family Foundation think that the total amount of U.S. foreign aid is only equal to 1% of the Federal Budget.

The problem is that Ezra Klein and the rest of Washington “intelligentsia” fail to recognize the horrendously-large export of American jobs and American capital as de facto “foreign aid” that should be included in the “total amount” of “U.S. foreign aid”!!!

In his movie “America” Dinesh D’Souza seemingly-unintentionally (in terms of actual meaning) elicits two amazing statistics in an interview of a Columbia U. Economics Professor who specializes in studying the economic growth of China and India.

Why “seemingly unintentionally”???

Because Dinesh D’Souza is trying to extol the virtues of capitalism!!!

The two amazing statistics???

(1) Capitalism has lifted “out of poverty” 400 million – 500 million of China’s 1.36 billion people (July 2014 http://www.cia.gov total population estimate).

(2) Capitalism has lifted “out of poverty” 200 million of India’s 1.24 billion people (July 2014 http://www.cia.gov total population estimate).

The real situation???

The cause* (please see first footnote below) of virtually all of this third-world growth is --

“U.S.-based multi-national companies (US-MNC’s) export American jobs while capturing virtually all of their worldwide profits in tax-haven subsidiaries (principally non-resident Singapore subsidiaries) which contracted with factories in such low-wage countries as China to manufacture the US-MNC’s products using the US-MNC’s technology to the US-MNC’s specifications under the US-MNC’s supervision.” ** (please see second footnote below)

Our “Six Degrees of Separation E-mail” entitled “2/12/2014: Renewing Exec Order To Halt Amn Job Exports” (which is the second posting in the first section of this bulletin board) implores President Obama to “use his pen” to eliminate American unemployment completely and cause the American standard-of-living to resume its upward spiral BY RESTRICTING THE FREE FLOW OF CAPITAL (AND RESULTING UNRESTRICTED EXPORT OF AMERICAN JOBS) BY SIMPLY RENEWING 1968 EXECUTIVE ORDER 11387 (WHICH WAS PROMULGATED 1/1/1968 AT THE BEGINNING OF PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON’S LAST YEAR IN OFFICE AND CONTINUED FOR ANOTHER 5 YEARS BY PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON UNTIL 1/29/1974).

Until then, America will continue its “exceptionalism” of exporting American jobs at the expense of its unemployed and at the expense of its poorest workers!!!

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* [Please see in the first section of this bulletin board our “Six Degrees of Separation E-mails” entitled: (A) “2/12/2014: Renewing Exec Order To Halt Amn Job Exports”, (B) “11/14/2012: $5 Trillion Reductions in Amn Payrolls > Meltdowns”, and (C) “5/11/2011: Taxing The Profits From Exporting American Jobs.”]

** The quotation comes from the third paragraph of our "Six Degrees of Separation E-mail" to Economics Prof. & NY Times OpEd Writer Paul Krugman which is contained in the first section of this bulletin board in a posting entitled "11/14/2012: $5 Trillion Reductions in Amn Payrolls > Meltdowns."

Pat
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Ezra Klein’s Washington Post Article

Post by Pat »

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The Washington Post – 11/7/2013

The Budget Myth That Just Won’t Die: Americans Still Think That 28 Percent Of The Budget Goes To Foreign Aid
By Ezra Klein

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Ezra Klein’s article begins with a table illustrating the answers to a Kaiser Family Foundation Survey Questions put to Americans August 6-20, 2013 --

Survey Question = Just your best guess, what percentage of the federal budget is spent on foreign aid?

Survey Answers =

0-1% = 4%
2-5% = 12%
6-10% = 13%
11-20% = 15%
21-30% = 14%
31-40% = 7%
41-50% = 8%
51% or more = 12%

Average guess = 28%

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For years, the example budget wonks turn to when they want to underscore the public's ignorance about the budget is the baffling, but persistent, belief that foreign aid is bankrupting the country.

"Foreign aid is the only program that [people] consistently favor cutting," said Bruce Bartlett with a sigh, "perhaps because of grossly overestimating its share of the budget." He went on to list poll after poll showing the public's wildly incorrect opinions about how much the United States spends helping other countries.

And yet the perception persists. A new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that Americans think 28 percent of the budget goes to foreign aid. That would make foreign aid pricier than Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or all defense spending.

Of course, foreign aid isn't that pricey. About 1 percent of the budget goes toward foreign aid. And the Kaiser poll found that when you tell people that fact, it changes their opinions:

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Ezra Klein’s article then contains two pie-chart graphs illustrating the answers to two Kaiser Family Foundation Survey Questions put to Americans August 6-20, 2013 --

Pie-Chart Title = Information Can Change Perceptions About Amount Spent on Foreign Aid

Survey Question No. 1 = Do you think the U.S. is now spending too much, too little, or about the right amount on foreign aid?

61% = too much
18% = about the right amount
13 % = too little
7% = don’t know or refused to answer

Survey Question No. 2 = What if you heard that about 1% of the federal budget is spent on foreign aid? Would you still think that the U.S. is spending (too much/too little/about the right amount) on foreign aid, or would you now say that the U.S. spends --

30% = too much
31% = about the right amount
28 % = too little
11% = don’t know or refused to answer

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But as of yet, budget wonks haven't had a shadow of success at convincing the country that foreign aid is a tiny sliver of federal spending.

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