In bcarlson33's "Where do NH Democrats go from here", he raises a key question:
"How do we put New Hampshire in the Democratic column of the Electoral College in November?"
In my opinion, everything hinges on jobs and the economy.
Workers had the luxury of buying into Republican ideology when they had a good paycheck. But now they come to find out that freedom isn't just freedom from taxes. No one cares about the income tax rate when they don't have income.
Democrats need to hit these points over and over with every voter they come across:
- Every time you hear the phrase "tax and spend", think of the Republicans. No one knows how to spend the public's money like Republicans. They spend the money and then leave someone else holding the bag. Think about the Republican presidents you know about. Which ones left us with a balanced budget?
- The reason the government has so many welfare programs is because people aren't paid a living wage. Someone who's paid a living wage doesn't need government support to pay for health insurance. They can afford it out of their own salary. The same with retirement. If you want to get reduce taxes, you have to raise wages.
- Opening up the job market to everyone on the planet is not going to help anyone except corporate owners. It depresses wages and makes domestic jobs harder to find.
So what is the Democrat platform?
Simple:
- Raise taxes on the wealthy to pay down the deficit, but otherwise hold the line on spending.
- Raise the corporate taxes on any company not paying a living wage enough to give them incentive to just go ahead and pay living wages.
- Either alter NAFTA and other trade agreements to require other countries to pay our level of wages or get out of those agreements. Make a new policy that says if you sell it here you have to pay U.S. wage minimums. Phase this policy in over 7 or 8 years to give the economy time to respond.
- Eliminate policies that encourage population growth. This means, for example, getting rid of the global gag rule. Overpopulation in third-world countries is our problem because in a global economy we can't help but compete with all these workers.
I realize that dealing with overpopulation will require real soul searching for Democrats. But I assure you, the worst is yet to come if we don't change course. For every worker in the United States there are approximately 29 more out there who could compete for the same job. If the supply of workers suddenly multiplies many times and the demand drops at the same time, what happens to the price of labor? It doesn't take an economist to tell you that the laws of supply and demand will depress wages.
Wages in the U.S. are not supportable in a global economy. We either give up on the minimum wage (and watch our wages drop through the floor), or we support it by insisting on some kind of government intervention (staunching the flow of blood and giving the economy time to react).
Don't believe anyone who says that losing jobs in, say, high tech, is okay because we will just create new jobs. The world population is growing at roughly 50,000,000 a year. There is no way to create that many new Wal-Mart jobs, let alone innovative, well-paying jobs.
We can't completely stop jobs leaving the country, nor should we be so selfish. It's a question of how fast. Right now, there are no real barriers to outsourcing these jobs, and they are draining away as fast as people can build facilities outside the U.S. But if we make sensible demands on the minimum wages paid in other countries, the ones that ship goods and services here, we can give incentive to move more of those jobs to the U.S. Why should clothing, steel and cars be made in other countries and shipped here when we have unemployed people here to do the work?
This is my answer to what Democrats need to do to get elected. The number of workers in the U.S. far outweighs the number of corporate bigwigs. Mr. Democratic Candidate for President, give those people a reason to vote for you and they will put you in the Whitehouse.
