Homestead mailing list

[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >The thing I didn't like about the Cash for Clunkers program is that it 
> benefited foreign car manufacturerers more than US-owned manufacturers. 
> 

It did indeed.  But no surprise since the US "economy" (nod, nudge, wink)  
is now of days entirely based on whatever money can stick to your fingers as 
it passes around in a chaos of changing hands.  We don't make or do 
anything of any significance, all our "income" is based on passing money back 
and 
forth at a furious rate.

On our biweekly trip to town, mainly to ship wares and go to the library, I 
also needed some box nails and a sieve big enough to sift some rough 
cornmeal.  No surprise that in the harware stores I found not one fastener 
made in 
the US.  Not a single screw, nail, staple of any kind.  It hasn't been 25 
years that we made all of them in the world.  Likewise in the kitchen 
sections of the marts, not one item to be found anywhere that was made in the 
US 
and almost none that were not made in China.

Want to have some fish with saute mushrooms?  Go to the frozen fish section 
of grocery store or mart and try to find any that are not from China.  Even 
salmon caught right off our coast are shipped to China for processing and 
packaging.  Find a canned or jarred mushroom that is China ... maybe once in 
a while one from Indonesia.  

We do not have the mentatliy that for us to be prosperous we need to grow 
things, mine things, and make things.  We imagine (collectively, I mean) that 
just passing money around means we have actually accomplished something.

So while it is ridiculous for us to have dumped $3B on car sales, most of 
which were foreign made and foreign owned, it isn't surprizing that we think 
somehow we have stimulated our own endeavors.

On same said trip we passed by ONE car dealership out of more than twenty 
in the town.  I'd estimate there were 300 cars here marked CFC and headed for 
the crusher.  The report is that 700,000 cars were sold under this program. 
 The market is saturated.  I'm guessing you won't be able to give away a 
new car for the next year and a half.


James