Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.
Thomas A. Edison
Obama's 'Lazy America'?
How About--Lazy President(s)?
QUESTION: I think one related question, looking at the world from the Chinese side, is what they would characterize as impediments to investment in the United States. And so that discussion I'm sure will be part of whatever dialogue you have. And so how are you thinking about that?
OBAMA: Well, this is an issue, generally. I think it's important to remember that the United States is still the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world. And there are a lot of things that make foreign investors see the U.S. as a great opportunity -- our stability, our openness, our innovative free market culture.
But we've been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We've kind of taken for granted -- well, people will want to come here and we aren't out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America. And so one of things that my administration has done is set up something called SelectUSA that organizes all the government agencies to work with state and local governments where they're seeking assistance from us, to go out there and make it easier for foreign investors to build a plant in the United States and put outstanding U.S. workers back to work in the United States of America.Ah, yes! The problem is that America lacks enough slick-talking sales people knocking on doors overseas; that must be it. We need high pressure sales tactics to sell foreign businesses on the idea of setting up operations in the world's largest, most diverse economy with abundant natural resources, the largest pool of open-minded consumers with discretionary income, and a deep supply of high quality, experienced local managers and employees. America is one of the best places in the world providing a real opportunity for your entrepreneurial dreams to come true, and local operations have the natural advantage of cheaper, quicker logistics to target customers and are buffered from the daily fluctuations of the foreign currency exchange.
No doubt Barack Obama has government positions available for Fuller Brush men, used car salesmen, and snake oil salesmen looking to make a change... Let's see; there was this 2008 politician whom famously said, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."
The pig is not America or its individual citizens; it's slacker politicians worried more about the right sound bites, short-term fixes, and their next election; they don't have the testicular fortitude to make any necessary changes in spending other than to defer the painful decisions until they are out of office and rely on little more than accounting gimmicks like the kaleidoscope economics of ObamaCare and offsets to planned baseline budget increases. It's a protected, entitled government bureaucracy whose primary goal is its self-preservation and growth for its own sake. Pushing-on-a-string regulation is but one means used to rationalize an unsustainable, costly, inefficient, ineffective, increasingly unmanageable, privileged bureaucracy.
The President can't understand why his schmoozing and personal charm haven't worked as well with foreign political and business leaders as they did with gullible voters in 2008, trusting an inexperienced, telegenic, inspirational politician, whom had never met a payroll and had no meaningful track record in the public sector, with the keys to the White House in the aftermath of one of the most significant economic events in recent history.
No, the President has decided that the problem isn't with his own performance. It's because, unlike him, other Americans have been lazy, lacking his considerable communication skills, unable or unwilling to extol the virtues and wisdom of investing in America. Everyone knows that the real reason foreign companies invest millions or billions to expand in the United States is not for intrinsic business and economic factors, but so executives can go home and tell their children and grandchildren, "President Obama likes me; he really likes me." Oh, give me a break!
Maybe there are other reasons foreign companies haven't been investing in America:
- When foreign companies see how the Obama Administration has been siding with its crony union interests against companies setting up plants in right to work states and against bondholders in bankruptcy proceedings,
- when they see no end in sight to skyrocketing deficits which must be financed by crowding out private-sector investment,
- when they see a nearly $2T yoke of business regulation, which is a hidden add-on cost of the most globally noncompetitive tax brackets among the developed economies,
- when they see a President whom has more faith in industrial policy than the free market, constantly bashes the economically successful, sees improvements in business productivity as a mixed blessing, and signs protectionist buy-American legislation into law,
- when foreign students at our leading universities earning valuable doctorates in the sciences and engineering cannot stay to start their own businesses here because the President is holding immigration reform hostage for political reasons to union interests worried about sustaining compensation levels with temporary workers and to Latinos whom make up the largest percentage of unauthorized resident aliens
- when Asians and Asian-Americans see their cultural emphasis on early academic success and hard work penalized by misguided affirmative action policies which contradict the very essence of traditional American values of initiative, hard work, diligence and self-reliance
I was a corporate DBA for the American subsidiary of a Japanese company which manufactures and services computer chip testing equipment; we had a skeleton IT staff (remarkable considering the company's revenues). I was not only the DBA: I did the Unix system administration on the database servers, and we didn't have any developers (programmers) on staff, so when it came to fixing relevant code and reports, I ended up doing it; I also served as the de facto project lead on multiple projects. I found working for a Japanese parent company very intriguing (although I've never personally gone to Japan); I was left behind to mind the store, and the American CEO knew me by sight and name. The point I'm making here is that I had to be very flexible in my role, and it never crossed my mind to complain about unpaid overtime, tasks not in my job description, etc. The company valued respect, hard work and initiative.
But the Slacker-in-Chief needs to look at the man in the mirror. His total interest in business seems to involve two things: a cash cow for generating money to fill government coffers; and employers whom will employ workers they don't need and are willing to accept without complaint even more taxes and mandates.
Empathy is something not in Obama's genetics. He doesn't want to seriously consider how businesses are adversely affected by vacillating tax and regulatory policies, additional taxes to fund his picking and choosing tax-favored companies and industries, a declining dollar, foot-dragging on expanding free trade agreements, etc. Why did a recent World Bank survey show that we don't even place in the top 10 of countries which make it easy to start a new business? Why does the Index of Economic Freedom show most English-speaking countries of the world ranked ahead of us (e.g., Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Canada)?
While the President plays yet another round of golf or goes on more vacations and campaign trips, the Oval Office lacks true leadership; leadership requires more than divisive, dishonest excuses, finger-pointing at the political opposition or businesses, apologies for predecessors' actions, and class warfare.. "Lazy" Americans like you and me have to pick up the slack.
Combating Union Thuggery in Our Pursuit of Taxpayer Justice
Political Humor
"Cain’s only real foreign policy experience is from when he ran the National Restaurant Association and had to deal with the manager from the International House of Pancakes." - Jay Leno
[Well, customers did start complaining when IHOP, citing concerns over Federal Reserve easy money policy, demanded payment in euros or Swiss francs. Then there was that nasty battle when the German restaurants, which bailed out the Greek restaurants, demanded that the Greek restaurants drop gyros from their menus in favor of wiener schnitzels. Cain disagreed with Donald Trump's attempt to end unfair cooking practices, especially in preparing food with MSG.
The Chinese in turn argued that the American restaurant owners do not treat their offerings fairly, like crickets on a stick, baby nestling sparrows, snakes, mice or scorpion soup. However, they understand that America is not the right market for their dog and cat entrees...
Then, of course, there was that contentious buy-American-state resolution that member restaurants purchase exclusively Idaho potatoes, Washington apples, Texas Gulf shrimp, Louisiana crawfish, Maine lobsters, Georgia peaches, Vermont maple syrup, California wines and Wisconsin cheeses.
A lot of the hamburger chains complained about too many patrons like Barack Obama whom kept promising "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today".]
"People attending a Rick Perry event in New Hampshire had to prove they were American citizens. They asked a math or science question and if you get it wrong, you were born here." - Jay Leno
[Donald Trump demanded that Chicago voters present copies of their death certificates.]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Boston, "Don't Look Back". Hands down, my favorite Boston song--and song to play while driving with the car windows down. (I usually disdain people whom impose their generally atrocious taste in music on the rest of the world--but these glorious guitar licks, infectious melody and soaring lyrics were meant to be shared: it's like Boston captured joie de vivre in a single song...)
