First things first. Donald Trump has made some very attractive (though vague) promises. To make America great for everyone. But — among many other things — his record at Trump University clearly proves he promises things he does not deliver, clearly proves he is a con man par excellence, and cannot be trusted to do what he promises to do. His promises on the campaign trail are aspirational rather than realistic. And the politically inattentive tend to swallow them because he seems so strong, so dynamic, so sincere, promising to shake things up as an act of his enormous will --- when of course in reality, the Lilliputians will tie him up and fix him to the ground just like Gulliver.
I watched Trump's victory speech tonight, June 7, after his super Tuesday sweep -- where Trump relied on a teleprompter to stay on message and not ramble.
After the speech, I watched the pundits on MSNBC and CNN pooh pooh it. I think they are horribly wrong in thinking it was not an effective and persuasive address to the American public.
After a totally silly — but maybe politically effective — accusation against Hillary of "running a hedge fund" at the State Department, that caused countries like China to enrich the Clinton foundation with generous contributions, he launched into a first class and well delivered critique of American foreign trade policy, that rang absolutely true, that is consistent with what Bernie has been saying, with what Robert Reich has been saying. In addition Trump said “America first” … “American workers first.” And I think this is potent stuff.
The simple fact is that both Democrats and Republicans have had a tacit consensus that has thrown large numbers of American workers under the bus in the interest of transforming threatening communist regimes into trade partners, and of improving America’s international strength. This is precisely what Richard Nixon did in wooing China back in 1971, opening up a channel of communication that has reversed the international isolation of China, and turned it into a semi capitalist country, enmeshed in trade relations with the rest of the world.
The fact is ... trade can be an enormously powerful foreign policy weapon. As can outsourcing. Spreading American capitalist technology and methods.
And in my book... this is okay... if and only if... American workers who are displaced by cheap foreign labor ... are properly compensated. I saw with my own eyes the pathetically weak efforts at compensation in the form of job retraining. I saw an acquaintance lose his $19 an hour job assembling air conditioners when his company transferred manufacturing operations to Brazil, I saw him being offered job re-training as a welder, and I saw him being employed as a nursing home orderly at $8 per hour, disrupting his family life.
The earned income tax credit was a solution to low incomes offered by none other than the arch conservative Milton Friedman, and implemented by the aforementioned Richard Nixon. And it surely could be used to reduce income inequality and to increase consumer demand among the most vulnerable and poorly paid segments of our population, who live from paycheck to paycheck.
The earned income tax credit ... the creation of Republicans.... amounts to a transfer of income from the affluent to the working poor. If expanded sufficiently, it could be a valuable income supplement to workers displaced by the forces of globalization, international trade, automation, and the destruction of small retail shops by hypermarkets like Walmart. Fifteen years ago there were two office supply stores on the main street of my town. Today there are none, killed by Mitt Romney's Staples, of which he was so inordinately proud. Expansion of the earned income tax credit could serve as a very useful supplement to raising the minimum wage. As could increases in housing subsidies to low income workers, through programs like Section 8.
As it stands now, the earned income tax credit is a paltry joke. It is an April 15 trickle down, of a couple thousand bucks, highly prized by recipients, but quite insufficient to raise standards of living among the poorly paid. What the poorly paid need is a monthly payment sufficient to lift them out of poverty. Income redistribution ? Yes. Those of us not displaced by competition with poorly paid foreigners are benefiting from lower prices of products, and we deserve to be taxed to compensate those who lost their jobs. And to help eliminate poverty.