Disappeared News

by Larry Geller

Hot news in Detroit today is job creation. Yes, the Detroit Free Press reported that Ford will be creating 5,000 new jobs.

In India.

Ford last participated in the New Delhi auto show in 2006.

The decision to return after six years and stage a world debut reflects the automaker’s focus on growth in India to achieve a global target of 8 million worldwide sales by the end of the decade, up from 5.5 million now.

Ford expects one in three vehicles sales will come from Asia by 2020. The EcoSport, which is popular in South America, will be one of eight new vehicles for the India market. The small utility vehicle is based on the Ford Fiesta and was engineered and designed in Ford’s Brazil studio. It will be sold in about 100 countries.

Ford is investing about $1 billion in a new assembly plant and a new engine plant in Sanand, India, and adding about 5,000 jobs.

[Detroit Free Press, Ford CEO premieres EcoSport subcompact crossover at New Delhi auto show, 1/4/2012]

As I’ve pointed out from time to time here on Disappeared News, American corporations have no obligations to create jobs here. They are obligated to turn a profit for themselves and they like to produce a good living for their executives.

So the ravings of presidential candidates that by reducing corporate taxes or eliminating regulation more jobs will be created are basically ploys to gain election. If any jobs are created, it will be only as necessary to make profits. And these days, that can best be done overseas.

But without jobs, how are we to afford Ford’s products? Aren’t we still needed as consumers? Again, we’ve pointed out that increasingly, American companies can look to overseas for customers. Over the long term, they won’t need us to buy their products. That day is still far off, but watch out.

Those India-made cars will be purchased by Indian consumers while Ford takes the profit.

We’re out of the loop.

Global auto major Ford on Wednesday said it will invest USD 142 million at its Chennai plant in India to manufacture a new compact sports utility vehicle named EcoSport.

The company's wholly owned arm, Ford India, will roll out the product in the market later this year.

"We are investing USD 142 million in Chennai to produce that vehicle. It really is a tremendous show of confidence to the team in Chennai," Ford India President and Managing Director Michael Boneham told reporters.

[Times of India, Ford EcoSport to roll out this year, 1/4/2012]

We’re still needed as consumers. Black Friday and Cyber Monday demonstrate that. But give it time. Overseas markets are growing rapidly. US corporations would be foolish if they didn’t go for it.

When Republican candidates or President Obama talk about job creation, the press could ask for more concrete plans. How, exactly, will giving breaks to corporations encourage them to create jobs here? In fact, presidents have no seat on corporate boards. Believing that throwing concessions or money at banks or corporations and expecting their greed to benefit American workers is simply foolish.

Jonathan Swift had a plan a couple of hundred years ago:

“An extremely important part of my proposal is that it would eliminate the need to raise taxes to support the poor, thereby enabling the rich to continue to enjoy all their luxuries. In addition, English landlords would not have to show mercy to their Irish tenants. In turn, the Irish tenants would have enough money to pay their high rents, thanks to the sale of their children.”—A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

For thousands of years countries have survived and their elite prospered while the populace remained mired in serfdom and poverty. It works. Economies with huge income disparities have been the rule,not the exception. It could happen here. Why believe it can’t?

Our corporate press, licking its lips in anticipation of profits from unlimited corporate advertising in upcoming elections, won’t ask the right questions. Yet an informed electorate is needed to counter the corporate-military-political complex now running this country. They talk “jobs” but we need to understand that they’ll say whatever they have to in order to get elected. It’s dismaying to read both Right and Left commentaries lauding what one candidate or another promises. Haven’t we learned?

That suggests a solution. Voters need a better understanding of how politics affects their future and that of their children. Right now, neither political party is working to produce jobs or save homes. They don’t care about the 99% except for the inconvenience of having to gain their votes.

Voters need to be critical thinkers. So what’s needed is to…

Occupy their minds.

If schools (now teaching only math and reading) won’t do it, and if the corporate press is complicit, it will be up to alternative media to get the word out. It will be up to advocates for better government to become educators and publicists.

Yes, the revolution should be televised.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 1/05/2012 07:58:00 AM