Politics as Usual

It should be noted that Bush protesters often called him a war criminal. Some depicted him on protest-posters with a Hitler mustache. Jefferson and Adams who would become lifelong friends said awful things about each other, and were vicious in their political dialogue.  That being said it has been a long strange political season.  

“We need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and my dear friend chairman of the Democratic National Committee — we need to let them know that Florida ain’t on the table. Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else … Get the hell out of the United States of America.”—Allen West, R-Florida, Jan-28, 2012

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“Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8. At last — I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up — it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and Sisters, can I get an AMEN? AMEN!!!!!!” --Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal

The Full text of Psalm 109:8-12 below. It should be noted the Kansas speaker only referenced 109:8:

⁸ May his days be few;
may another take his office!
⁹ May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
¹⁰ May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
¹¹ May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
¹² Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
nor any to pity his fatherless children!

In response to the public response to the email Speaker O’Neal released the following statement:

“One has to be thick-skinned when serving in public office, but I’ve been disappointed with the over-the-top attacks, particularly those directed at family and associates. Appropriate discourse is a two-way street and I, for one, intend to be more respectful and vigilant in my communications.”

Just a few weeks before Speaker O’Neal a separate apology for calling Michelle Obama ” Yo ’Mama” so I guess we’ll take him at his word for that.

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“It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, in child laws, which are truly stupid…. Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they'd have pride in the schools, they'd begin the process of rising."—Newt Gingrich—Nov-21, 2011

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“There’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”—Rick Perry Campaign Ad

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 Denying that lack of proper medical insurance coverage costs lives “…People die in America because people die in America. And people make poor decisions with respect to their health and their health care. And they don’t go to the emergency room or they don’t go to the doctor when they need to, and it’s not the fault of the government for not providing some sort of universal benefit.”—Rick Santorum, Dec-05, 2011

At the same event Senator Santorum made a lengthy defense of his position on gay marriage and homosexuality in general:

“Really- wow- um okay, well let’s see if we can have a discussion. We can flesh out some, well, let’s look at what’s going to be taught in our schools because now we have same sex couples being the same and their sexual activity being seen as equal and being affirmed by society as heterosexual couples and their activity,”

Santorum does not in these comments or the extended version of them quoted elsewhere address gay marriage or homosexual rights, but rather his views on gay “sexual activity”.

 “…if we say legally if this type of relationship is identical to other type relationships than of course more of it will be taught because this is what the law says.”

***

“There’s a woman who came up crying to me tonight after the debate. She said her daughter was given that (HPV) vaccine. She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result. There are very dangerous consequences.”—Michelle Bachman Sept-12,2011

Perry did not defend his decision. Though Public health advocates noted 35 million doses had been administered and the drug had a good public safety record, Perry did not defend the mandate and instead apologized. Since 2000 he had received $30,000 in campaign funds from the vaccine maker, Merck. The drug maker made $360,000 in contributions to the Republican Governor’s association in the same period.

***

“I don't have the facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these (Occupy) demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama Administration. Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself! … It is not a person’s fault if they succeeded; it is a person’s fault if they failed.”—Herman Cain, Oct-05, 2011

Cain later used the “I don’t have the facts to back this up” introduction to his theory that the Democrats unhappy with his strength at the polls were responsible for breaking the story of his alleged extra-marital affair. Most dems at the time were thrilled with is rise. Cain claimed the payments to the woman—to which is wife was reportedly unaware—were an effort to help the woman “during these difficult economic times”.

At least we end with a smile… Ah Herman, we sure do miss you…

The GOP is Brain Dead

Richard Cohen Writing for the Washington Post:

"The Republican establishment that has now risen up to smite the bratty Gingrich has only itself to blame. For too long it has been mute in the face of a belligerent anti-intellectualism, pretending that knowledge and experience do not matter and that Washington is a condition and not a mere city. The endorsement of Gingrich by Cain was not a bulletin. It was a feeble blip on a scope. The GOP is brain-dead."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/establishment-republicans-have-only-themselves-to-blame/2012/01/30/gIQAmECOdQ_story.html?hpid=z2

The State of Our Disunion

For frustrated and disappointed progressives who say there is no difference between the President and the Republican field the State of the Union speech showed again the bright and shining contrast between Obama and the Republican field. I am so disappointed with the lack of fight this president has shown on some issues and the lack of strategic foresight he has shown on others but my eyes are open, and as I have said previously I will pull the lever for the president without a shadow of doubt this November.

 Two issues among the many the president raised really caught my ear. The first was an alternative minimum tax for million/ billionaires so the rich (Romney, for example) have to pay their fair share. Thanks to the sort-of Republican sort of front-runner America has seen truly how it works for those among us with extreme wealth and privilege. I hope Obama stays on this issue through the summer and fall. America needs the education.

The second issue Obama raised that should be trumpeted is a minimum corporate tax so that US corporations cannot shift their income to foreign subsidiaries that claim income outside the US, and expenses here in the US. This type of fiscal slight of hand is very easy to do. The complexity of the tax code and the financial shell game that has been invented to exploit it have exacerbated the flight of capital and as importantly jobs to distant shores. The result is corporations like GE with $5.0 billion in profits in 2010 paying little in corporate taxes even though the rate for corporate profit is set at 35%. Another company, Exxon with $3.2 billion in profit in 2010, claims to have paid $2.6 billion in taxes that year, but obfuscates by including state and local taxes which it merely collects, but does not actually pay, and payroll taxes which as every small business person knows has nothing to do with the corporate tax on profits.

If it all sounds confusing that’s the goal. Tax policy has gotten not only less progressive, in that collections are increasingly weighted to the middle class, but also eternally more opaque and complicated.  Business interests and private citizens have with large capital campaign expenditures skewed the tax code to their benefit. The middle isn’t just getting squeezed, they’re getting screwed and they know it.

Neither of Obama’s tax proposals will pass this year, and without a dramatic swing in congress maybe not next year, but this goes to the core of the fairness issue, and the principle that all segments and members of society contribute and pay taxes to support the government according to their ability to do so. Much has been made of how the top 1% pays a disproportionate share of the overall income tax, but little has been noted about the wildly disproportionate share of the nation’s wealth concentrated in these very same hands. The six Walton heirs for example control as much wealth as 100 million Americans. We could call these people “those at the bottom”—but when those at the bottom are 1/3 of the American population that label doesn’t seem a particularly good fit.  

I was buoyed recently when I caught a snippet of recently released tapes from JFK in which he is heard saying, “…the prosperous hate us…” So it goes and it always has, the battle between the haves and the have nots to control the levers of power.  However, it seems only fair to point out how we arrived at this place in our history. Big money contributes substantial sums to conservative causes and candidates that speak their language. Socially conservative voters, dutifully reinforced in their rage, enter the polling stations and support candidates who as a first order of their legislative agenda vote for the whole panoply of fiscal issues that the rich really desire: Lower taxes, less regulations, weaker government oversight, etc.  Of course these fiscal policies do not advance causes that help the poor and middle class from whose ranks the socially conservative, religious right, and Tea Party rise. But the rich with their available and now completely unregulated campaign contributions make up the narrow sliver of the country that the Republicans are truly defending as they run.  The enduring element is that taxes for the rich and connected are kept low.

The cumulative effect of the last 30 years has been the economic collapse of 2007/2008, sky high deficits that reign in the government’s ability to do almost anything, and a tax policy so skewed to the well to do that it has led to a disparity in wealth between the top and the bottom that the country has never seen. In our gridlocked country the cost of government grows, deficits balloon, and education, infrastructure and other needs of the nation are slimly or poorly met.

Democrats, influenced by big-money Wall Street interests who support them at astounding levels are also responsible. As most Americans now know, big money is an equal opportunity corruptor. Clinton after all repealed Glass-Steagall which prevented the banks from betting their depositor’s money on Wall Street. The Dodd-Frank Bill Obama signed did not erect nearly as firm a firewall, and as everyone knows the six banks left after the too-big-to-fail crisis of 2008 replaced a dozen or more which existed before.

In addition to the decimation of the real estate markets in Florida, Arizona, and Nevada, and really across the country Romney’s tax bill is exhibit A in an examination of the results of the policies that have been enacted roughly going back to the Reagan years. Considering the hard choices about education, infrastructure & housing, and medical care and retirement America needs to make, 15% taxation at Romney’s level of income is obscene as are the miniscule tax bills for Exxon and GE.

Americans get the inequity at a visceral level. In 2008 and 2009 the country was in shock over its financial demise. The average person lost about 1/3 of the value of their 401K. Housing prices were and are down by about the same amount, much more in speculative hot spots like Florida and Nevada. Anger developed on both sides of the political spectrum quickly as a response to it.  As with the student unrest in 1968 the US is not alone. Governments around the world are seeing people in the streets.

Everyone knows that something has been crapped up. The right assumes that big government is the cause. The Tea Party had elements that came out simply in response to the election of a black President, but it was initially organized around the issue of the bailouts to the big financial firms and the succeeding stimulus bills under Bush and Obama. The anger, especially initially, was directed at establishment Republicans as well as Democrats. This is one of the reasons the Republicans in the house are so hemmed in now from moving any legislation. Many in leadership are afraid of the Tea Party which is ironically the source of their power. The bailouts were largely seen by TP Republicans as a wasteful giveaway to entrenched financial interests.  On the left the Occupy movements also casts shadows of doubt on both parties, as well as institutions of business and finance.  

Neither party has effectively harnessed the deep misgivings that people have with the direction the country has gone. The anger so many people about the massive inequities in the society and as importantly and maybe more so their general belief that the game is fixed have been responded to ineffectively by both parties, which only further feeds the anger and resentment among the electorate. The polarization and paralysis in Congress, a direct result of the way money has distorted the process, only intensifies that anger. Majorities of 60% and more can agree on raising taxes on the super wealthy in order to pay for programs to benefit the unemployed and yet nothing gets done. Billions are spent every election cycle now to make sure the dial never moves far. Lobbying accounts for billions more.

As a liberal I have enjoyed the vicious ugly family squabbles we have seen among the Republican candidates and the wild and immature way the conservative electorate has responded to it, with each new candidate at the dance being treated as prettier than the last. But I hold little illusion that if the Democrats were the party out of power, their race for the nomination would look similarly raging and confused. People are pissed off and have yet to find an effective vehicle for their anger, but with so much around it has slopped over into all of the available and various buckets.

So what is there to unify America?  Well, I truly don’t know. At the moment the distance from the American dream seems far away for a lot of Americans and the vaguely held understanding that the game has been fixed to make the attainment of it nigh on impossible is firmly entrenched.   Is Obama the answer for all that ails us? I doubt it. Even with his fairly moderate policies, he has been painted as a crypto fascist socialist raving eyed nut by many on the right. The rhetoric, while have some historical precedent, is nonetheless stunning. In the last week we have seen stories of elected leaders calling on others to pray for his death. There is just so much blind rage in the country it really is a dangerous time.  Fascist and Neo-Fascist movements have germinated in the past from similar circumstances.  

In both parties, most cannot hear the opposition over the sounds over their own constituencies. So perhaps we can hope for little new enlightenment or accomplishment this election cycle. Let us at least hope for this: The situation does not become worse. We can vote to elect a president who at least will continue the dialogue about the inequity in our society, however feeble his efforts in addressing them. Or we can elect a candidate from the other party who no matter their private thoughts will not even acknowledge the catastrophic circumstances of late 2008 and 2009 or the dire need for action which preceded this president. Whomever the Republicans nominate they will be politically, if not morally and personally committed to policies to the right of what we have seen. For me I have no doubt.

Socio-Capitalism

The Challenge of China-- Foxconn Cont'd

I do not see it as a sad state of affairs, or at least not completely. As I said in the essay it is quite a complex scenario that at least in my view defies easy labels and slogans.  I guess that is part of the point that I did not make well. Millions, perhaps hundreds of millions have been lifted from abject poverty. Perhaps they are not Americans, but I have looked in their faces and seen their smiles. It is not all good, but much of what I have seen is, and I am fortunate to have been witness. As late as last week, I shared meals with office workers who are maybe just a generation from the peasant life. To put this in perspective this would sort of what it would be like if Daniel Boone were my uncle. The Chinese have crammed decades of development into thirty years, not quite two generations.   In forty years they have risen from the madness of Mao and the cultural revolution to the gleaming cities of Shanghai.

 I was thinking as I sat at yet another business dinner with a dozen people, only one of whom actually spoke English, how much I like these people, their easy smiles, their laughter,  their (in some cases) truly revolting eating habits. Late last week, we had a traditional lazy Susan Chinese meal. As always way too much food was ordered. I was actually wondering who would get the doggy bags, but then there were four QC guys, No English at all their, just country people with a thin veneer of training, in which we entrust our quality control. (Good Luck with that…) Well, those guys ate, and they ate, and they ate, until their plates were piled high with the refuse of chicken feet, crab shells, & snails. They ate like people, who perhaps at another time in their life did not have so much. And I thought that with one or two exceptions everyone at this table was born after the Cultural Revolution in the late 60’s, and many after the reforms of Deng in the late 1970’s. These people have little context in which to put their current surroundings, other than WOW, what a feast. I do not mean to suggest that they are unwise just that the primary prism through which they see relations between the US and China is the one that puts this food in front of them and that of their families.

 What I do see as sad, is the way the US has divested itself in research & development over these past couple decades. Americans can blame the Chinese, but there are 3 billion people in the world living on wages or farming that barely sustain them. High labor low cost merchandise were it not be made in China would certainly be made somewhere else other than the US. Indeed, as worker protections and wages rise in China some of the lowest cost manufacturing is already starting to migrate. Pandering to the right,  pissed off at the commies, or the left, through protectionist measures, will not solve the issue. Neither in fact really even addresses the challenges.  What the US needs is retraining, and investment and a vision for the future. The Chinese are going to and are well on the way to beating America in the rush to create the newest green technologies, high spread trains, and so forth. The jobs created by his will require high degrees of education and substantial training. In other words these are high wage jobs that we should be chasing. In this race, speed to market and technology beats low wages. That we are losing that battle, lost in political hackery and jingoism is the real cause to be sad. All consumers, everywhere around the world, make decisions based on the best value, or the lowest cost or both. This is not intrinsically American by any means. It is easy to forget that even here in America, the median wage is below $30,000 per year. At $30K per year, strolling the aisles, the Chinese t-shirt at $15 looks a lot more appealing than the American one at $25, and  the truth is that America manufacturing will never again produce the lowest price t-shirt, or imitation jewelry, or even cutlery, but the things we can produce, the things we should produce are lost in the failure of Solyndra and mindless politics.

As the US argues with yahoos on the right on whether or not global warming exists, the Chinese are planning for the post fossil fuel world. They will not accede to Kyoto for reasons of current development, but they have made long term investments in the range of nearly a trillion dollars in green energy and so have placed their bets on the future. What can we say? The entire Republican field argues that Global Warning is some sort of leftist commie plot? These same politicians endorse tax policies that rewards the  transfer of jobs and capital overseas. That's a reason for sadness...

Hunstman Leaves Stage Right

I keep reading all these lovely post-mortems on Huntsman’s campaign.  We’re told that here was a good guy… Who just wanted to even the playing field for the extreme wealthy in the US by cutting taxes further for the wealthiest job creating Americans. What a pile of crap.

He had a few talking points on breaking up big banks and so forth, a thin veneer of populism, but he was a deeply conservative candidate, who would have promised more of the same, on the economy (lesser flatter, less complicated taxes bla, bla, bla…), the environment, and regulations. As with all the rest of them, he postured that the cabal between the NLRB and the EPA was the root cause of America’s economic woes and proposed severe restrictions on current and future regulations.  Consistent with House Republican’s Huntsman’s proposals on the environments and business would represent a decades backward march. Huntsman noted that six banks now control a larger portion of the economy than the top twelve banks did before the crash, but only meekly made the case that the runaway criminality on Wall Street combined with lack of regulatory zeal was the root cause of the catastrophe. Low cost, low interest, cash run amok. Huntsman proposed repealing Dodd Frank.  McCain, no enemy of big business, has proposed bringing back Glass-Steagull. That is a spectrum of liberal and conservative views on financial regulation.  Meaningless promises to break up the big banks while breaking up the regulatory agencies put in place to rein in some of the excess cannot even be taken seriously.

Huntsman was more moderate than the rest of the pack only by virtue of the extremity of the other candidates. As someone said when he dropped out, the main reason he couldn't get traction is he refused to engage in the communist-socialist-birther-crypto racist- crowd. Apparently he’s just not bat-sh** crazy enough, liberal blood dripping from his frothing mouth, to be the Republican candidate. I despise them all.

Both Romney and Huntsman have something north of a quarter billion dollars in the bank, though Huntsman’s father has the real wealth in that family.  He “invented” the plastic foam clamshell that revolutionized McDonald’s packaging and presides over a $10 billion dynasty. But the fact of Romney’s wealth  show us so much of what America is about, and so much about where battle lines are, not only  in  a conservative state like Utah where vast fortunes finance conservative political machinery, but in the United States in general. Like the empty-suit Cain, Romney and others try to define the battle as an issue of jealousy, but of course the real issue is fairness. Taken as pieces of whole the vast wealth of the political elite has transformed the American political arena into one where the battered and bruised American middle class plays the role of Roman peasant, while the conservative right with astounding piles of cash plays that of the lion.

With Romney the recent facts don’t seem to be resonating though in time perhaps they will. He did not have a good night in South Carolina. Three elements really demand one’s attention. 1) He is paying 15% in taxes. Issue number one with tax fairness. Income, as in the amount on your paycheck, is taxed in brackets with larger income taxed at a much higher rate, at the top end about 35%. But capital gains are taxed at a flat 15%. So the next time you hear a CEO posturing on how he is working for a buck a year, ask what levels of stock options he was granted, because the real F-U money is there. An executive is given an option to purchase his or her company’s stock at a set price, say $15.00. Once the stock rises, to say $18, the executive is then able to “exercise” that option, purchase the stock, pocket the$3.00 which is then taxed at a rate of 15% as opposed to the 35% his salary would have been taxed. Romney may not be talking about stock options but he is saying that he is earning for more in income from the appreciation of his portfolio than any other source.  2) Romney mentioned that he earned “very little” in speaking fees last year. That very little amount was $362,000. 3) And then, well, it just doesn’t get any better than his. We also discovered this week that-- like one of the mafia dons portrayed in the movie The Firm-- Romney has millions parked in Bain Capital funds in the Cayman Islands. We have seen the front runner bet $10,000 in a debate and numerous other signs of his real wealth.

The picture is starting to come into focus. The super-rich, which increasingly crowd the legislative bodies at the Federal level, really game the system for their own narrow benefit even as they postulate the role of government in limiting job creators. Then they call those that ever so meekly oppose this shameless grab for ever more wealth communists. As Bachman would say that takes real “jchutspah”. Romney says that those that would criticize are just jealous, but the real anger that many of us feel is about fairness. After deductions and not including state taxes or social security my effective federal rate is in the mid 20’s. I of course would like to pay less, but as Elizabeth Warren noted I drive the roads and take advantage of the schools, police, and fire departments and we all contribute for that.

When it comes to Bain, as a businessman all my life, I have mixed feelings about what happens there. With moxie and business intelligence they built some great companies. The claims of jobs creation are overstated, of course, but there can be no doubt that good companies were made stronger, and even as some jobs were lost other well-paying jobs with benefits, etc. were created. There is a relentless drive in all economies for efficiency. An over bloated, unresponsive economic structure is on no one’s interest.   That is an economic fact of life and can be seen in China from which I just returned as well of course in the US. I am not totally unsympathetic to that standard.  But an economic structure that enriches an increasingly narrow segment of society is also not in the long term economic interest of the country, and that is the road we stumble down now. 

The wealth generated from economic effort and restructuring cannot all be delivered at the feet of the ministers of commerce like Bishop Romney to run rough shod across environmental, worker safety, and tax policy with their accumulated wealth. I take exception to the fact that Romney’s tax bite being so far below mine, not because it is less, but because I know I can afford mine, so I can’t quite figure out why he can’t pay his. I believe in an egalitarian tax policy that asks everyone to pay their portion based on their ability to do so. I take great exception to the idea that even though he pays such a small proportion of his real income in taxes, even that isn’t good enough for the rich f**, he has to park millions offshore.

Jon Galt, the hero of Ayn’s Rand’s epic Atlas Shrugged, needs to wipe his silly tears. One really has to marvel at the audacity of conservative elite. While mammoth in size and so an available foil for ideologically fervent right wing politicians, the Federal government has neither the power nor the scope to battle entrenched financial interests.  Citizens United has eviscerated any limits on campaign contributions and made the entire process opaque which exacerbates the problem.  Single donors with money to burn can now anonymously channel money to Super PAC’s.  How quaint that, the notion of your Mr. Smith Goes to Washington $200 check to the candidate of your choice. There have been press reports of single anonymous contributions of ten fifteen, twenty million dollars to Romney and Gingrich Super Pac’s.  Individual contributions at that level were denied by the campaigns, but because they are unaffiliated with the campaigns, these PAC’s can run the most outrageous claims, some of which would turn off voters particularly independents. Now the campaigns say—and we have seen Romney do this—I have nothing to do with that.  It is a vicious cycle which will only get worse.

In other elections in the past twenty or thirty years Huntsman would have been considered a right wing conservative, in this, the year of attention grabbing chain-rattling paranoia, he comes off merely as a moderate pulling three percent in the polls. See ya later, loser. We need to get back to the action. Will Newt’s open marriage suggestion sink him with conservatives, who no matter how they vote will be pulling the trigger for a candidate that stands in direct opposition to their economic interests?  Will Santorum’s deep and abiding fear of homosexual sex resonate with unemployed but conservative voters that still can’t decide if they are more interested in finding a job, or enraged by seeing two men, kissing on the steps of city hall, getting married, and oh-my-God, kids involved, and raising a family? Perry’s gone, so goes his gay bashing campaign. That leaves that slice of the electorate all open for Santorum.  And finally, will the picture of Romney’s tax haven millions be enough of a turn off for the legions unemployed  factory workers beyond South Carolina to extend the race?  

The Problem of Foxconn

The factory name is Foxconn. They produce all the iGadgets for Apple, as well as the Xbox and products for Dell, HP, Motorola, Nintendo, Sony and Nokia. I don’t pretend to know the exact nature of the worker issues, but for whatever reason this factory, which is actually a complex of multiple buildings employing thousands of workers has a history of labor disputes being solved with suicide.  The stories I have read have mentioned compensation, pensions, worker conditions, really almost anything one could imagine in a large manufacturing environment. When I saw all the glowing obits for Steve Jobs and his genius, and then saw those on both left and right claiming his legacy for the mantle of their ideology I often thought of the workers at Foxconn. In this latest incident which happened while I was in China these past few weeks, dozens of workers threatened to commit mass suicide by jumping from the factory roof. The protest lasted for days. It was in local English language press, which is censored and so shows the conundrum of modern China.

In 2010, there were fourteen suicides. In 2011, there were 4. The latest incident I believe was precipitated by new worker rules which would require some workers to relocate to factories further into the interior of the country. This is a growing trend as the cost of labor in the highly developed and in many ways—especially environmentally-- overdeveloped eastern third of the country has risen. The threatened mass suicide was averted after the intervention of the local mayor, but we can be certain that the conditions that led to the incident have not been resolved. As I said there is history here.

Foxconn has hired therapists, doctors, etc., and has a hotline staffed 24-hour with trained specialists. None of the big electronics firms involved want their name soiled by these tragedies, but reconciliation is to my eye not near. Not unlike my local school district, I suspect there is now a troubling perception, an understanding even, which is at the heart of the challenge. Suicide is a way out. This is a vile conclusion that once reached by a handful, becomes more accessible to others. It is a slippery slope, not only in China, but also at epidemic proportion in US schools.

The circumstances in this factory which led to the worker suicides are not unlike those in other factories. China’s industrial machine is populated  by millions of  workers from the country’s interior. Virtually all of these workers have traded the life of a peasant for an opportunity to make a better life first for themselves, and also for their families. They are young, and in most all cases thousands of miles from home and family connections.  The factories they populate-- and the engine they drive which has lifted millions from starvation and want-- is essentially in a foreign country.

The migration and the transformative effect on the country have been amazing. Worker holidays and vacation are not well enforced, but one rest and family reconnection that comes each year is The Lunar New Year Holiday. I saw estimates that up to one half of the population is on the move, and this is happening right now.  500 Million souls looking for the proverbial trains, planes and automobiles. Oh, and throw in buses. Imagine if the US instead of having vacation policies--largely attributed to the strength of the now defunct labor union movement-- had instead a government enforced regulation that everyone will have time way for two weeks over the 4th of July. Imagine half the country all headed for the airport or train stations all within a few day window. Keep in mind that these people have to migrate home and then travel back to work a week or two later. I read stories and saw video on CCTV news of people camping out for four and five days trying to get a train ticket home. All of the workers seem to be 25, and so what one sees is the image of the entire college age population of a nation sleeping in every available space in every train station in the eastern part of China.

Then, once they reach the interior, often the buses and trains don’t go there. Foot travel for miles or tens of miles is not uncommon, often in the case of young urban families with little ones in tow. Hours and hours on a train packed so every available space is occupied. It is not hard to understand why the government is so alarmed by and attentive to the concerns of the mass migration of illness. In every major transit center, everywhere one goes, laser thermometers are pointed at you. I got sick on the plane on the way home and was so grateful it was after I left China. Those with fever are not allowed to pass.

I saw one story of a young man and his toddler boy travelling home for the holiday. After hours on the train, there is a long bus ride, then miles of trekking over snowy mountainous roads with the little boy and his dad. Once they arrive there are toothless smiles from the peasant parents, a really joyous reunion. And then, they retire to the… shack. It is amazing the things stands through the brutal winters. This is housing that you can spot everywhere once you leave the cities. Inside there is neither light nor running water. Both heat and light are provided by a fire pit at the center of the single room. The family wears their heaviest coats as they gather communally to reconnect their lives and tell their stories. There is much to talk about, they will not see each other after this two-week visit until the same time next year. The smiles, even on the little boy, are beatific.  Food is shared, treats from the developed  East are distributed.  The Holiday extends for roughly two weeks and then the migration happens in reverse.

So this is the backdrop to the mass suicides a t Texconn. This migration has transformed Chinese society in ways both good and bad. As with the US there is one picture of the country one captures through the gleaming, truly amazing, cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Yiwu City, and so forth, and another one sees in the undeveloped rural environments an hour or two away. In China to travel four or five or ten hours is to travel across decades of development.  

The attachment to family, particular the cross generational ties are deep and strong. And millions of been uprooted from this existence. At the factories they live in dorms with hundreds or thousands of other strangers. Food is provided, and in the most progressive circumstances rudimentary medical care. The labor market is increasingly regulated in terms of overtime, and worker safety. This is nothing at the level of the US environment, but by land large it is good for workers, but has also meant a flight of manufacturing capital further into the interior, where 1) the Government is glad to have the investment, and 2) they are more willing to accept lesser worker conditions.

When one glimpses the other China it is not hard to see why the country has been transformed or why it had to be. Hundreds of millions have been lifted from abject poverty, and tens of millions now have essentially a middle class existence in those gleaming cities, complete with modern apartments, automobiles, appliances, etc. There can be no doubt that serious and extreme environmental damage has been and is being done, but here also there are changes afoot. As people worry less and less about daily sustenance they focus more and more on the sustainability of their environments, and the legality of their circumstances.  This is the natural way of things and not unlike what happens in all societies.  The government though is making gigantic investments in high speed rail, green energy, and infrastructure of the type the US should be, but is not making. The China as are indeed planning and investing in the post-industrial era that will follow this one.

And so we arrive back to try to understand the workers at Texconn. The fact that Apple is a primary customer has brought a lot of light to their circumstances, but that light has not penetrated the veil of worker issues. The actions are reported in the English language press, and often people I travel with seem to be aware of the circumstances so I assume that the Chinese press at least some level also reports. The awakening is near. I have seen thousands of workers, in my years of travel, seen the rudimentary housing, visited the kitchens were meals are prepared.

The Chinese, at least among themselves, are physically affectionate. Girls who are friends can be seen walking hand in hand, and guy friends can be seen head on each other’s shoulder laughing and gesturing. There can be no doubt there is friendship there and if not happiness, at least satisfaction. To be out and about during the midday break for meals is to witness hives of activity, pool playing, basketball, and the ubiquitous cigarettes, which to me view has the potential to have more long term negative health effects than even the pollution challenge. There are people everywhere, many, many smiles.

I know that there are those that will say that the conditions for the workers are slave-like. That environmental and worker safety rules are non-existent or not enforced. There can be no doubt that that is true in some factories. I still recall a p[particularly memorable visit to a metal factory called black widow. They will argue that millions of American jobs were lost down the black hole of the Chinese worker gulag. I suppose it matters what side of the onion one peals. To me it is a terribly complex place, and simple demagoguery on neither right nor left does not pass the reality smell test. I feel privileged to have witnessed the transformation of this society over these past thirty years. I have been travelling to China since right after the opening initiated by Deng Xiao Ping in the late 1970’s. It is neither as horrific as it has been made to seem, but it is also worse than you can imagine, but in general change at a quickening pace is inevitable.  

As China wakes from its environmental and worker neglect, there are stories everywhere of manufacturing capital moving to less regulated locations, whether Vietnam, Cambodia, The Philippines, Thailand, Burma-- just opening from decades of injustice-- or wherever. And as these things develop, by the time the American government enacts legislation to stiffen requirements for better conditions the Chinese will have already dealt with much of it, and what can’t be dealt with in terms of low tech high labor work will have emigrated elsewhere. And so it goes…