Back in the 80's I spoke out against what was then termed "Reaganomics", a theory most conservatives still cling to today as "free market capitalism". The idea is that if you deregulate the big corporate businesses, keep the federal government out of their hair, and let industries and their billionaire CEO's regulate themselves, it will encourage competition, resulting in lower prices, better products and services, and a healthier economy--and their success will "trickle down" to the rest of us.
I said at the time that Reagan was misguided and his thinking was flawed; that what would really happen is the rich will get richer (through collusion and loopholes) and the rest of us will get screwed. Well, guess what? That is what's happening. (Just ask Bernie Sanders). I mention this because it is our big business conglomerates that are making countries like China richer and our country poorer.
We need to clamp down on them with protectionist laws that force them to keep their facilities here at home, hire American workers, and stop selling out to places like China. If a company is going to call itself a U.S. company and is going to profit from our capitalist perks and benefits, they had better start putting the U.S. first, and not their bottom line.
Free market capitalists will always holler foul, of course, insisting businesses should be free to do whatever they want to make money. I say wrong. We, the people, own this country...and we need to take it back.
(Fact: the average CEO makes $100 million a year...and gets a bonus of, on the average, $150,000).
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