Disservice Done To "Service-Based" Economy by Doug Wrenn

Disservice Done To "Service-Based" Economy

By Doug Wrenn

May 07, 2008

I'm not one of those big-time, free trade kind of guys. In most instances, "free trade" in today's vernacular is not fair trade. It is a globalist policy, pushed by international bankers, and corporate fat cats, communist sympathizers and liberal elites, predominantly from the northeast, and from both bought-and-paid-for major political parties via the puppets called our government officials. Under the current definition, free trade favors trade for other nations while deliberately putting the US on an uneven playing field in terms of parity for regulations, access and tariffs. OK, go ahead and call me an isolationist. While you're at it, you can also call me an American. I frankly don't give a damn about the rest of the world. I don't live in it, and don't even like much of what I know of it. Generally speaking, the rest of the world is overrated. I also am neither impressed nor intimidated by the whims and fantasies of the "New World Order" crowd that has successfully hijacked so many ever-increasing numbers of haughty, lemming followers into thinking that this subtly veiled diabolical attack on national sovereignty, personal liberty, and yes, even prosperous capitalism is chic. And amazingly, they pulled it off without having to point a gun or pour any Kool-Aid.

Many purveyors of this increasingly abused myth pooh-pooh the fact that what little is left of our industrial base has one foot out the door and the other one precariously planted atop a banana peel left on a wet and highly waxed floor. I have talked to some of these elitists, whose noses and pinky fingers have this quirky, conspicuous attribute of always simultaneously pointing in a northerly direction. They tend to counsel me, "Don't worry, let the third world get their hands dirty, turning nuts and bolts on greasy machine parts. We're beyond that now. We're the United States. Our industry is white collar. We are progressive and technological. We are about cyber space and information technology. We don't need those industries any more. Besides, our economy is now service-based." Indeed, "service-based." Uh-huh. Let them eat cake. Yet, service-based also means in large part, the not-so progressive, snooty or technological industries of fast food and retail, and we're barely hanging onto them, too And now that we are above getting our hands dirty under our stiff, white, pretentious collars, who makes our weapons, tanks, ships, planes, bullets, bombs, and rockets in the next war, the "cake-eaters" of the peasant class in one of those third world countries? And what if that industry goes to the country we are fighting? Do we declare a temporary truce to (hopefully) conduct a little business, or should we just throw in the towel and permanently leave the white flag up where Old Glory once proudly stood?

"Service-based"? Arby's just bought out Wendy's. Never mind the beef, where's the money? At the rate mergers are occurring in the airline industry, we will soon have as few or fewer airlines as we do retail gasoline companies. Hopefully, that will at least mean that our luggage will be misdirected to fewer cities. Peter-Paul just recently left Naugatuck, leaving a big hole and lots of unemployed people behind in its wake, not to mention many a now unsatisfied sweet tooth. Home Depot is closing 13 stores in Connecticut alone. Linens & Things is closing 120 of its 589 stores nationwide. In North Haven, Quebecor World Northeast Graphics is shutting down and laying off 350 employees. The Canadian-based plant has graciously offered to try to find jobs for its laid off employees in one of its other 120 (presumably global) facilities. That's nice. I can hear the conversation now: "Gee, thanks, Fred, I'd love to take that job in Bangladesh, but the commute is just too much, especially now with gas climbing to four bucks a gallon, and I would hate to pull the kids out of school right now. Do you have anything a little closer to the New Haven area, like say, Montreal, maybe?" Like with many of these internationally-based and multi-national companies that are rapidly becoming more commonplace, the lone and unrealistic, if not unappealing and grossly burdensome option is becoming more the rule than the exception as the so-called "option" offered to laid off employees. That kind of option also exists on ballots in oppressive countries holding elections that are being "monitored" by Jimmy Carter. In both scenarios, that's pretty lousy "service," and hardly worthy of a generous tip.

A turd is just like a snowball. They can both roll down hill. The only difference is the snowball grows bigger before it hits the bottom of the hill. The turd doesn't have to. As much as we can blame the corruption and ineptitude for our abysmal and still-tanking economy on the federal government, down at the state level, here in the People's Socialist State Of Confusion, there is yet plenty more blame to spread around.

Our own state officials can't agree, or even come close to agreement on matters as concrete as mathematics and accounting. Just a couple weeks ago, Gov. Rell said our $50 million surplus was down to $15.7 million. The General Assembly fell back on a figure previously given earlier in the year of $160 million, down to a flat $15 million. Gov. Rell blamed the shortage on debts not yet repaid to the state. Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams, blamed the problem on overall mismanagement, and of course, it was the only the Governor's fault. Then, within days later, POOF! A $19 million dollar deficit! OK, who waved the magic wand? Now everybody suddenly seems to agree that the other figures were just "estimates," and they also agree that the problem is a loss $150 million loss in income tax revenue. Why? Because of the mass exodus fleeing the state because of the exorbitant cost of living and loss of jobs and job retention. Many of those fleeing are within the 25-35 age demographic. After graduation, our best and brightest are beating feet for bluer skies, greener grass and less leftist nanny-state pinkos dominating every waking moment of their lives. Then along comes state Comptroller Nancy Wyman, who throws another wrench into the money works. Yes, the loss is from lost income tax revenue, but the deficit numbers look more like $67.7 million now. Oops! The tarnished dome gang forgot to carry the one in their fuzzy math once again. Both Gov. Rell and Comptroller Wyman did agree that things could get worse before they get better. I like Nancy Wyman, and I hope my saying so isn't a kiss of death for her among her peers, but she ahs always struck me, partisan politics aside, as being a straight shooter, unlike, well…pretty much everybody else up there. As for Gov. Rell, considering she was mystified on Brad Davis's radio show by what the gross receipts tax in gasoline really is, her wide-eyed, open-mouthed, drool-on-the-chin cluelessness is deplorably more of a condition than a precedent for our so-called "Executive Leader." If such gross incompetence occurred in a bank, Rell, Williams, et al would have been "withdrawn" from their jobs and "deposited" out on the street in short order, and we, the customers, might have even taken our business elsewhere. Why then, can such flagrant inane ineptitude, if not outright corruption be tolerated of elected officials?

The sage adage reminds us to be careful of what we wish, lest we might get it. Our state income tax won fruition by one vote, and the people certainly didn't want it, or at least not the estimated 90,000 of them protesting at the Capitol back then. The income tax was bad enough. Now we have evolved our economy into an anti-business environment. We're on all the short lists for lack of job growth and job retention, high cost of living, high cost of oil and gasoline, high cost of food, high taxes, and stifling regulations. Add the incompatible components of income tax and a fleeing populous and what do you get? Qubecor closing and laying off 350 employees. It's all a vicious cycle, and Quebecor is only one of a myriad of such examples.

Meanwhile, the socialists we elected can't afford $10 million for a watered down crime bill, despite the rash of violent and even grisly home invasions, such as in Cheshire and New Britain, and another two that occurred this past week in Northford and New Haven. The dim-bulb dwellers under the dome were apoplectic at the proposal of a 10-cent gas tax holiday, but they want to give hundreds and probably thousands of tax cheats "amnesty." And of course, add to the honey-do list the various other wastes of legislative time and the taxpayers' dime, light bulbs, clothes lines, plastic bags, billboards, idling cars, soda in vending machines, etc.. You have to give credit to Nero. At least he fiddled while Rome burnt. To the credit of these utterly worthless and inept socialist buffoons in our executive and legislative branches, at least they are paying us the compliment of not insulting our intelligence by publicly and rhetorically asking why everybody is leaving the state, as if nobody knows. And of course, that unasked question translates into one less committee that the Chief Executive Nanny, so often profoundly incapable of rendering a decision herself, has to appoint.

My gallows humor forces me to make whimsy at that which is so otherwise insidiously appalling. And come Election Day, the majority of the equally clueless lemmings in this state will re-elect every one of them, so nothing will change. The Democrats are so vitriolic against Republicans that they are blind to the fact that the hapless, liberal GOP (which has no written platform of principles for apparently good reason) in this state sides more often with them than against them, but despite the takeover of their party from the extremist "Moveon.org" faction, they will shut up, suppress their discontent like good little lemming Democrats soldiers and suffer through it, thus completely abandoning their civic conscience and duty for the bastardized mutant now known as a political party, which has trumped citizenship as a predatory monster of unquenchable thirst for power, rather than a conduit to forward an ideology and an agenda.

The GOP is no better. Liberal candidate after liberal candidate will come before town committees and delegates at conventions, seeking endorsements, and few, if any hard questions will be asked of these many spineless empty suits who often espouse few, if any Republican principles, but their equally timid ranks will rubberstamp them because they met the ultimate qualification: they had an "R" in front of their name. Heaven forbid any of these "Democrat-"Light" candidates espouse socially conservative views, but many of them are equally liberal and politically impotent on fiscal views. What we need to save our state, in this "service-based" industry we have created via the backdoor, is an aggressively gutsy and more friendly businesses environment, and real cuts in the socialist pork and entitlements that is choking this state to death, and driving our taxpayers, individual, as well as corporate, across the border to greener pastures in droves. I don't ever want to hear, ever again, another one of these Republican dandelion clowns tell me how he or she is going to "hold the line" on taxes. Too many people have "held the line" already. Cut the damned line, already! "Hold the line?" Thank God these wolfing butterflies didn't fight with Patton, or you would be reading this column in German right now while nibbling on your schnitzel. Be careful, when walking out of the room, Republicans, and make sure to look down, lest you don't trip over that "really high" bar you have obviously set for yourselves, your party and your state. And enough of the "big tent" pabulum. As Rush Limbaugh said, the big tent is fine, as long as you persuade the other side to see your point of view, and then bring them over to our side to enter the big tent. The big tent does not mean compromising our principles (for those of us who have any, written or otherwise). A principle worth having is one worth fighting for. Life is not about big tents. Every organization, company and club has rules and regulations, while the Connecticut Republican Party has a "big tent" with an "Open House" sign in front for their Democrat adversaries, 24/7. Then they scratch their heads and wonder why they have perfected losing into a science. No guts, no glory, and rightfully so. Nobody likes to follow a loser except Red Sox fans! Oops! I sure hope the better half doesn't read this one! (Sorry, Honey!) Harry Truman once said that when given the choice between voting for a Democrat, or a Republican who just sounds like a Democrat, Democrats will vote for the Democrat. So, at the end of the day, Connecticut Democrats, for the most part, will still reject Republicans, who haven't gotten that memo yet, and among that wide amoeba that the Connecticut GOP dares to call its "base," its zeal is understandably tepid at best.

As for the so-called "unaffiliated" voters of this state, who still make up the majority, my guess is that most of them are still predominantly liberal, but either too disgusted, apathetic or lazy to register as Democrats. I see little hope among them, either, at least, not while "American Idol" is still airing on TV and the Yankees keep making spectacles of themselves. (That one was for you, Honey! Forgive me now?)

Omission is still commission, but just by a slower route. If not actively, then at least passively, citizens, CEOs, and government officials have all colluded into creating the debilitating and corrosive economic mess that we have made, and sooner, rather than later, we will all pay the piper for our actions and even for our inactions. Such is the difference, as many will soon learn the hard way, between the dim sleeper and the grim reaper.

Doug Wrenn