I don't get why our powers that be insist on buying oil from overseas.
Besides the waste of energy and pollution produced from these ships, those countries don't have the stringent environmental restrictions that we have here.
It all doesn't make sense. And when something doesn't make sense, you can bet someone is lining their pockets.
Consumers are lining their pockets by buying the cheapest stuff they can. When I was young you'd go to Wal-mart and see signs that said something like "this toaster oven created 17 jobs in Bumbleton, AR" or some such. Then those signs went away because toaster ovens were cheaper to build in China and customers were more than willing to save $2 to put their neighbors out of work. Wal-mart grew into the behemoth we knew today (hey kids, Wal-mart used to close down, didn't sell groceries, and there was no such thing as a Super Wal-mart) and continued to hammer suppliers for cost cutting and more sent the labor overseas. The manufacturing economy started to die as we were told how great it was we were becoming a 'service economy' instead. Wal-mart overtook GM as the largest employer in the nation. Companies like GE quietly moved manufacturing abroad for some products and consumers didn't even pay attention that the item that used to be built in Louisville was not built in China because "GE is an American brand". Unions were demonized, actual wages for blue collar workers dropped, those with less money gravitate to cheaper products, Wal-mart keeps gaining power, the cycle perpetuates.
Then...NAFTA. Politics are forbidden here, but economically a disaster for the US and one that continues to haunt blue collar workers without delivering on the promises made. Shocking, but Perot warned us of the giant sucking sound that was Mexico taking jobs under the new rules.
Then...Amazon and the entire Internet economy, again putting downward pressure on suppliers. Why would I buy a sleeping bag for $150 when I can get it for $145 from a different website? It's not like the old brick & mortar world where I had to spend the money and time to drive to a less convenient store, if I even knew it existed, or call around for prices, etc. Now I can use automated searches to get the best price for a product.
Our politicians and heads of industry hold much of the blame, but if we as consumers didn't buy them then no "powers that be" could mandate imported goods. But we're not going to, so the cycle will continue.
