The Daily Skunk

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested this morning at his north Chicago home. His chief of staff was also detained by the Fed’s. While details are still coming in, the most common reports seem to imply he finally got caught trying to sell an appointed position at his disposal. The people of Illinois have been waiting to find out who will be appointed to succeed  Senator Obama who is now the President-Elect. Apparently Gov. Blagojevich has been waiting for the highest bidder.

It will be a long drawn out court battle in the least but more likely will lead to swift impeachment hearings in the Illinois General Assembly. It was not long ago that Gov. Blagojevich narrowly survived a recall vote in the Illinois Senate. With former governor George Ryan already in federal prison, it seems we are starting a new tradition of a more taxpayer friendly retirement program for our past governors in Illinois.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich

 I wonder if Senator Dick Durbin will ask President Bush to commute Gov. Blago’s coming sentence also.

The sky is falling, right? Wrong, that is old news. This time the bottom is dropping out. Everywhere we turn someone has a new bailout request to help sustain our ailing economy. The squeakiest wheels are getting the grease. The taxpayers are getting squeaky about the greasing. We all know  we cannot borrow our way out of debt. What no mainstream media outlet is talking about here is the real problem at hand. Over the last fifty years we have went from a manufacturing and product exporting economy to a service based and product importing economy. Has anyone noticed that America does not really produce and export anything other than money, grain, and a few products here and there.

When I was growing up, there were several factories in my town. We made air conditioners, gloves, and bicycles. We even had a butcher block factory. We had three large printing companies.  Trucks pulled into town empty and left full. Trains brought in huge rolls of paper and hauled finished print products like books and magazines to distribution centers across the country. Today, we are a town full of fast food restaurants and chain stores. Trucks and trains do not load here anymore they just stop for fuel and snacks. Our large printing shops have now become warehouses. Our air conditioner factory moved to China and its building sits vacant. The bicycle factory has been converted into a storage facility. It is full of imported electronic gadgets and bottled tap water.   As a country, how can we come out ahead if we continue to let our manufacturing jobs leave? We can not really expect to lead the world economy by providing service and selling each other foreign made goods. We make money, but it is not new. It is only the same money traded back and forth among us.  A simple example of what I am talking about is found in a bottle of water at a convinience store. We bottle and sell tap water to eachother, drink the water and throw the bottle in a landfil. Money is exchanged, taxes are paid, but nothing new is brought into the country.   We have to manufacture products and sell them to the rest of the world. The only way to help our economy (for real) is to re establish our manufacturing base.

I am sure my town is not alone.  Millions of former factory and assembly workers from all across the country have had to find new ways to earn a living. 

How did this happen? Who is to blame? Some say government bureaucracy and a foolish tax code. Some will say big unions drove up labor costs, so the factories went where labor was cheaper. Still others will blame Wal Mart for driving out the mom and pop shops.  Politicians and trade agreements are easy targets for part of the blame also. If you asked many of our grandparents they would tell you that our generation is not willing to work hard as they had to.

 
The real question should not be who is to blame but how can we get it back. That is what really matters. To play on the analogy of spokes in a wheel, how many of our jobs are really producing something new for our country and how many are simply riding the wheel? I understand that every  job is a spoke that is part of  the wheel turning, but our turning wheel is growing while the axl that spins it is shrinking. All of these bailouts we keep reading about are simply grease easing tension on the squeaky axle. I am afraid that if we do not increase the strength and size of the axle very soon, it will snap.   Manufacturing has traditionally been the axle that turns America’s economic wheels. If we do not make and export more products than we import,  we will soon run out of a means to pay for it all.