8 is vertical infinity; but it’s relative; it’s only a symbol.
In part 7 we explored a similar relationship in dependency. The inescapable essence of Bourgeois capitalism: that the owners of production property are dependent upon labor and that labor is dependent upon production property.
My experience.
The City of Binghamton used to be called “Parlor City”. You can Google it and Wiki up some history, but being from here I knew some of the people and some of the past that’s maybe forgotten or was never known; and I could write up human interest stories probably even a book because quite frankly someone would have to pay me in order to endure that sort of tedium, so let’s further explore this dependency, which so irks and irritates Mittney-Ryan and the “new” republican party
Binghamton Dependency
There is Mainstreet, which runs east and west and then heading from the west to east, is then called “Court Street” after it crosses the Chenango River, just upstream, from it’s junction with the Susquehanna.
Binghamton NY, like most populated areas in the US was far more self sufficient before my time. When I was growing up, the latest greatest modern thing was Urban Renewal.
US Trade Policy
But one of the things people often gloss over, while exploring or criticizing urban renewal, is US Trade Policy, which was essentially put on auto-pilot like a lot of things are by the Democratic-republicans, consequently, out moded policies of the past - like war spending - are very often imposed by the same sort of Romanticism that destroyed Our successful 2nd US Central Banking System lQQk. And by the time the King of the Mc(s) Ronnie “the Gipper” McRayGun became Fuhrer, the nearly unanimous view of the Democratic-republicans was that the Smoot Hawley Tariff Bill caused the Great Depression.
Well speaking of self sufficiency, compare current “trade losses” (The volume of imports exceeding the amount of exports by at least two times, over a particular course of time, say 5 years) under the “economic effects” found in the foregoing link.
The problem with Tariffs is that they were always left to languish in a rather crude state. Mr Representative, I got this here business, and I need protection against the superior version of my product which people are importing from a foreign nation, and the reason they’re doing that is because it’s superior in quality and far cheaper in price, than I’m willing to sell my shitty version for, so please, O please, impose a tariff against this foreign import so that I can nurture my infant industry, improve my product, slave drive labor to make them more productive and thus increase my profit margin while still lowering my price.
Well how many votes can you deliver? Wow that many !! ok. And from there this practice evolved into Proud American Tradition, success !! superior American business and know how, capitalism, American Exceptionalism !! &c &c.
Private Sector Dependency
So this is where a great deal of the “dependency” psychology, which Mittney-Ryan like to tap into, comes from. The manufacturing sector of the economy became dependent on protective tariffs; and the tension which allowed this practice to grow, flourish and continue was directly dependent upon “an understanding” between US Representatives and their private sector “constituents” - e.g., make sure you improve your product, keep labor corralled and controlled so you can maintain your profit margin, without raising prices cf Nullification.
So you can go ahead and Romanticize and split hairs all you want, but two of the largest local industries here were Endicott Johnson Shoe Company and International Business Machines. Most of my family worked in Endicott Johnson and the rest of them worked in my Uncles machine shop which did subcontract work for IBM and General Electric. So here’s two brief stories in regard to that.
I used to sweep the floors and clean the machines in my Uncle’s Machine shop and one day he called a meeting and the guys met up in the coffee break area and he had a little tool kit comprised of open end and box wrenches that cost 69 cents. My 1st thought was, shit I’m gonna get me one; and we all looked at the tools and they were actually pretty decent quality and he said “I can’t compete with this”.
The guys grumbled about it for a while and I eventually ignored them because it didn’t seem to affect me
A little while later, me and my brother discovered “Beatle Boots” !! which were sold in the EJ Shoe store but were imported, we wore them and people used to call me a “rat”; and then soon we discovered these really nice side zipped suede high ankle boots with a three inch heel. EJs had nothing like that. The kind of shoes EJ was selling then were just plain ugly - in fact they were the kind of things Calvin Klein sold when McRayGun was named Fuhrer. I saw those and thought what a fucking pervert !! and then the weirdo hair, Tip O’Neil tagging along following him all around, much too much.
EJs died, because they had ugly shoes and the imports were nicer, even if they were a little bit more expensive, it was worth it.
The Road to Radical Individualism
The same time the tariff walls were tumbling down, the Democratic-republicans were tearing down the City, after all, the businesses were gone anyway; and what they ended up with was non self sufficient urban sprawl, because previous to this time manufacturing was crowding out other forms of self subsistence: domestic products were being imported into already established areas; and this was thought of as progress. But then when this “growth” petered you were left with lots of
houses, churches and bars and the Democratic-republicans arguing over how to make it work.
Well it doesn’t take too much imagination: if you have a crowd of people and you give them money they’ll live on $4.00 bologna sandwiches on white wonderbread and $1.00 cup of Kool Aid (spike mine please, well on second thought) that is, as long as you have guys like Mittney-Ryan selling it to them as a part of the M-R private sector American Dream.
A sensible tariff policy is possible but I’ll save that for my next number
Getting back to Hawley Street. When I was growing up it was a narrow side street lined on either side with small store fronts, mostly empty, much like Main and Court Street are today.
One of the things I liked about having money was being able to buy nice clothes at reasonable prices. Something that is impossible for me today. It was nice having a new shirt to wear, the fit, the color coordination, like people you see in government and on sports and news shows. And one of the things I noticed after EJs died and IBM left, was that the clothes stores left too and then a lot of old people were walking around in blue jeans and flannel shirts and some of them didn’t look so good; but in the meantime, something happened.
The Government
Went beyond the demolition part of Urban renewal, widened Hawley Street and made new government buildings, new parking ramps and eventually, people started dressing nice again, businesses started opening up around the parking ramps places for GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES to eat lunch, have coffee maybe even after work with drinks. That was made possible by Democratic-republicans, but under Mittney-McConnell-Ryan, it would have never happened cf lQQk.
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