Trump proves he is completely clueless on what's the real reason behind the mass layoffs epidemic in big businesses and how to deal with it
Donald
Trump's response to recent General Motors' decision to close plants
and slash jobs, proves that he is completely clueless on what's the
real reason behind the mass layoffs epidemic in US big businesses and
how to deal with it.
The
media circulated what Trump thinks to do about it, including threats
against GM to impose auto tariffs, or, his most beloved action:
penalties on foreign cars.
Yet,
perhaps the most hilarious part in the whole story, is that one of
the key frontline tools of the global neoliberal capital immediately
published an 'in your face' article
to make Trump realize that he is completely powerless too, against
the forces of the markets. Here are some interesting parts:
...
market forces are tough to beat, even if you’re president. Trump
captured the White House thanks in large part to the story he told
-- that he could reverse America’s industrial decline. He
promised to bring back manufacturing and fossil-fuel jobs written
off as casualties of global trade and over-regulation.
But
almost halfway through Trump’s first term, divergences from his
“Make America Great Again” story line continue to pile up,
pushed along by technology, globalization and a changing climate.
[...]
It’s
unclear whether Trump has authority to revoke subsidies without
action by Congress. It’s also difficult, if not impossible,
for Trump to overcome the dynamics that are driving companies to
choose robots over humans, discontinue brands and close
plants. Some are choosing to build nearer to their consumers and
supply chains, including in China, while others are moving
production lines to lower-cost countries, like Mexico.
[...]
Market
forces, however, have proved too powerful. For Mary Barra, GM’s
chief executive, the plan to close a handful of older plants and
dismiss more than 14,000 employees came down to basic economics.
Consumers are shunning sedans like GM’s Chevrolet Cruze in favor
of pickups and SUVs. With some factories down to one shift a day,
GM said it needed to cut its capacity to make traditional
passenger cars and free up resources to invest in autonomous and
electric vehicles. It’s keeping lower-cost production in Mexico.
[...]
GM’s
restructuring comes less than two years after Trump praised the
company for promising to invest $1 billion in its U.S. operations.
It was one of many such pledges by large companies -- even though
some were reiterating existing plans -- meant to gain favor with
the new administration. The jobs GM promised, however, have
largely gone to Silicon Valley, where it’s developing autonomous
vehicles.
GM
shares are down 10 percent this year, compared with the S&P
500 Index’s 0.3 percent gain. The carmaker was up 0.4 percent to
$36.85 in early New York trading on Wednesday.
Like
GM, Ford Motor Co. said it will exit much of the passenger-car
market to focus on SUVs and trucks. It also has said it will lay
off workers as part of an $11 billion restructuring.
[...]
Jawboning
aside, Trump was unable to stop job losses at a Carrier Corp.
air-conditioning plant in Indianapolis. Soon after winning office,
he made a highly publicized visit to the factory in a bid to stop
Carrier from moving positions to Monterrey, Mexico. The company
kept the plant open after receiving millions in state subsidies.
But about 600 workers ended up losing their jobs anyway.
The
U.S. still is a manufacturing heavyweight, but companies
increasingly are choosing automation over human labor. Some
forces buffeting manufacturers are the result of other Trump
policies. He has worked to lower oil prices by cutting
environmental rules and pressuring petrostates. U.S. consumers
have responded by purchasing yet more SUVs and trucks, which
accounted for about 65 percent of new-vehicle sales in September.
Tariffs have also raised prices on aluminum and steel, forcing up
production costs.
|
The
neoliberal globalists (that Trump's supporters hate so much), even
gave Trump a hint on what's the real reason behind this mass-layoffs
epidemic. In short, it could be described as accelerating
hyper-automation, but it will probably fall on Trump's deaf ears.
Poor
Donnie looks like a tragic figure, squeezed by the ruthless forces of
the markets that himself rushed to protect from his first minute in
the US presidency.
He hired
Goldman Sachs banksters to run the economy, deregulated the system
even more, tried to lure the big capital with further tax-cuts and
generous subsidies. He was only asking for a few thousand jobs (under
any conditions) in return. But the big capital barons happily
received his gifts and now give him 'the finger', ignoring his
expectations. Welcome to the deregulated casino-capitalism Mr. Trump!
A brutal war is taking place right now between the corporate super-giants across the globe.
The car industry in Germany proceeds in mass layoffs too because the
robots are penetrating rapidly in every production process. Clueless
and powerless politicians like Trump are feeding the global corporate beast
instead of trying to figure out how they could control it.
Donnie
and his most faithful supporters must be wondering now 'how the hell
did that happened?'. They will turn against the usual scapegoats, one
more time: the immigrants 'who are taking the jobs'. That's all they
know. That's how far they can go to figure out what's going on. They
will never pay attention to the unprecedented technological
challenges to seek for an alternative answer. They will never blame
corporations, they will never blame capitalism.
And the
worst part is that most of them don't even realize that they are
doing corporate beast's job by directing the popular anger against
immigrants. And so, the corporate monsters are left completely
unscrutinized to play their games and maximize their profits at the
expense of the rest, in this ruthless global market arena.
One way to address this problem would be to pin tariffs to the country of manufacture. In other words, produce in China, pay tariffs on Chinese-made goods. Because they are.
ReplyDeleteToo little production. Too much immigration.
ReplyDelete