This is just pathetic.
At his townhall events, House Rep Joe Barton (R-BP) had to deal with some people who were pretty upset. One man confronted Barton on America's failed free trade deals like NAFTA that have sent our jobs overseas, and Mr. Barton's response can only be described as EPIC FAIL.
Constituent: "My point is that free trade is a farce, okay. . . .
~snip~
. . . anybody who moves the means of production to a different country for an absolute advantage is a traitor to their country.
My question is, when you go back to Washington, will you talk to your people about bringing our jobs back here?
Rep. Barton: "If we're going to have a free society and a free market you have to give people the option to locate outside the United States.
~snip~
We're in a world marketplace, and if you want the United States to be competitive you have to give the manufacturing sector all the options . . .
Constituent: "We want jobs!"
What would you rather have? Free markets for multinational corporations to exploit, or jobs in America?
Yes, in a free society where gay people can't marry, women can't make decisions about their own bodies and workers don't have the right to collectively bargain, at least we can take comfort in the fact that we have free markets! Hallelujah, Lord be praised! Watching our jobs get shipped overseas is worth it as long as markets are free. Corporations are people, my friend, and their freedom trickles down to you in the form of cheap products at Walmart that you can't afford because your Walmart wages are so low you need foodstamps to survive. But you are supposed to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, so this shouldn't be a big deal, because the bootstrap company you used to work for closed down their plant in America and moved to India, and now the bootstraps you need are available at Walmart for a low, low price. Too bad you don't earn an income anymore, because you missed out on a hell of a deal, but if you did have an income, you'd be grateful to our Godly "Job Creators" for the economic freedom you would have enjoyed if Walmart didn't ship economic freedom to a factory in South East Asia last year.
It's like robbing you and then telling you how great it is to have the freedom not to worry about money anymore.
I demand smarter supervillians.
That increase in the income inequality gap, where you got poorer and your boss got richer, that's a good thing. Ask your doctor if eating shit is the right choice for you.
It's not a global class war where the rich exploit everyone else, lowering their standard of living to increase their own profits, it is free market freedom, a shock doctrine fantasy land where freedom is being spread, one lost American job at a time.
And what is Joe Barton's answer to the question of if he is going to ask his people to work to bring jobs back to America? NO! You see, outsourcing your job is a good thing, because free market ideology is more important than your job. Just read Ayn Rand, and if that doesn't work try stuffing a broomstick as far up your ass as it will go, the net result is all the same, and after a while you don't even notice the broomstick anymore. (Plus, think how much more efficient all of those underpaid janitors and undocumented hotel workers will be when they can sweep the floor with their ass while mopping the floor with their hands! I mean, you have no more income so you can't actually go to those hotels, but the joy rich people have when they stay at luxury hotels will trickle down to you because they love economic freedom, the better to eat you with. Team America, fuck yeah!)
The moment that corporation moves American manufacturing jobs overseas America becomes LESS competitive. Sure, exploiting slave wage labor overseas is great for a companies bottom line, but does that help the working class guy who just lost his job? Does losing your job and having less disposable income help create demand in America which will spur our consumer based economy? Of course it does! The money that corporations save when they ship American jobs overseas will trickle down, right into Joe Barton's campaign contributions.
You see, corporations are people my friend, very greedy people who act like sociopaths that don't like to pay people decent wages for labor, and they would outsource those jobs to Mars if they thought the Martians would be willing to work for less than the 3rd world wage slaves they currently employ. But that is a good thing to the Joe Barton's and Mitt Romney's and Paul Ryan's of the world, because free markets are more important than anything else. So what if America has the largest prison population in the world, at least our markets are free, and as soon as we can import cheap foreign laborers to build our for-profit prisons the better, because all spending is bad, especially spending on wages. That is money that could be going to corporate profits. Now don't you feel better now that you know that pitting American workers against low wage 3rd world slave labor in a race to the bottom to see which peasants are willing to work for the least crumbs is good for America's competitive advantage, and by America, I mean the corporations that buy our politicians like Joe Barton.
At no point in Representative Barton's rambling, incoherent response was he even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. What is good for Walmart is good for you, it will trickle down, promise! That is not your jobs being shipped overseas, that is freedom being spread around the world. And the good news is Walmart now has even lower prices to suit your decreased standard of living! Just think of all the savings.
I award Representative Barton no points, and may whatever God you prefer have mercy on the fools who keep voting for him. They know not what they do.
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