The Green Sky is Falling! The Green Sky is Falling! Solyndra is Closing! – Tom Rossi
Several politicians, including President Obama, have made Solyndra their poster "green economy" company – only to watch it shut its new plant, and file for chapter 11. What a shock. A medium-sized company in America closing down. It must be because the whole green economy idea is a failure, right? It must mean that sustainability is a false idol, a dead-end road.
Well… bull. Here's a list, courtesy of Wikipedia, of companies considered significant to our economy that have gone bankrupt in just two years, 2008 and 2009:
Allco Finance Group
Aloha Airlines
Amtrak Express Parcels
Apex Aircraft
ATA Airlines
Australian School of Business and Technology
Bennigan's
Bill Heard Enterprises
Buffets, Inc.
Circuit City
Coast Air
Commander Communications
Countrywide Financial
Dawahares
Dolcis
eos Airlines
FreshXpress
Frontier Airlines
Gamley's
Glitnir
Gretna F.C.
Halifax Town A.F.C.
Harold's
Holley Performance Products
IndyMac Bank
International Race of Champions
iQon Technologies
Kaupthing Bank
Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander
Krispy Kreme Hong Kong
Landsbanki
Lehman Brothers
Lenox
Levitz Furniture
Lillian Vernon
Linens 'n Things
Luton Town F.C.
Madoff Investment Securities
Mattress Discounters
Mervyns
Meguro Sushi
MFI Group
Montres Villemont
Morgan UK
Motorworld
Nationwide Airlines
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines
The Officers Club
Olan Mills
Opes Prime
Peau Vavaʻu
Photo-Optix
Pilgrim's Pride
RC Developments
Rosebys
Rotherham United F.C.
Sanlu Group
Sharper Image
Shoe Pavilion
Silver State Helicopters
Silverjet
Skybus Airlines
Super Aguri F1
Tai Lin Radio Service
Tribune Company
Tropicana Resort & Casino
Tuctuc Ltd
Tweeter
U-Right
USC
Value City
VeraSun Energy
Vivitar
Wachovia
Washington Mutual
WCI Communities
Wickes Furniture
Wilsons Leather
WiQuest Communications
Woolworths Group
XL Airways UK
Yamato Life Insurance Company
Zavvi
Ziff-Davis
Zoom Airlines
3D Realms
A1 Grand Prix Operations
AbitibiBowater
Allied Carpets
Apex Silver Mines
Arcandor
Babcock & Brown
Bashas'
BearingPoint
Berkhamsted Town F.C.
Borders UK
CIT Group
Boater's World
Colonial Bancgroup
Central Park Media
Charter Communications
Christian Lacroix
Crabtree & Evelyn
Darlington F.C.
Denver Newspaper Agency
Empire Direct
Extended Stay Hotels
Escada
Fisher Athletic F.C.
First Quench Retailing
Fleetwood Enterprises
FlyLAL
Fortunoff
Goody's Family Clothing
Gottschalks
Hartmarx
Idearc
Joe's
Journal Register Company
Karmann
KB Toys
Land of Leather
LDV Group Limited
FC Lyn Oslo
LyondellBasell
Märklin
Magna Entertainment Corp.
Merisant
Midway Games
Monaco Coach Corporation
Nortel Networks
Peanut Corporation of America
Philadelphia Media Holdings[84]
Qimonda
R. H. Donnelley
The Reader's Digest Association
Ritz Camera
SeeqPod
Send the Light
Setanta Sports
SETA Corporation
SFCG Co.
Silicon Graphics
Smurfit-Stone Container
Spansion
Spectrum Brands
SPV GmbH
SsangYong Motor Company
Stanford Financial Group
Station Casinos
Steve & Barry's
Strathfield
Stylo
Sun-Times Media Group
Taylor, Bean & Whitaker
Tronox
Trump Entertainment Resorts
Viyella
Waterford Wedgwood
Young Broadcasting
Pretty impressive, eh? A few of these are actually foreign-owned and some of these actually went down due to criminal activities of one sort or another, while some were just good old-fashioned empty-cash-register-itis. I don't think any of these failures had anything to do with some sort of "sustainable economy curse."
Empty-cash-register-itis can be caused by any number of things including sinking company money into bad investments, but one reason, shared with Solyndra, is the inability to compete with out-sourced products. This is because the people that run our country (no, not the politicians, but their bosses… and no, I don't mean, "the people") are getting even richer than they already were by investing in foreign operations. For this reason, they have convinced us all that free trade is the greatest thing since the Beatles' "White Album".
"We can't fall back into protectionism! That would be horrible for everybody!" That's what we're always told. But, as Ian Fletcher says in his excellent book, "Free Trade Doesn't Work," we have a huge trade deficit. That means that hundreds of billions of dollars are going overseas each year, and are not coming back (of course our wonderful wars have a similar, if not much worse, effect). It means that we, as a nation, are LOSING the free trade game, and have been for a long, long time.
It's time to say the ultimate four (three?) letter word… tax. Import tariffs are essentially a kind of tax, so let's not mince words. Let's tax those who take our economy away from Americans and do something direct to protect American jobs and American products.
Republicans keep beating the same old drum that what we need to do is drop corporate taxes (and worker wages!!!!) to levels similar to so-called "third world" countries in order to attract manufacturing back to America. For one thing, many of the biggest corporations in America already pay nothing or almost nothing due to loopholes in the tax code. So what Republicans really want is a free ride for corporations, and for them to be free of cumbersome safety regulations, environmental standards, and the threat of being sued when their products cause someone's death. They want regulatory agencies cut down or cut out.
Right now the tax burden, as a function "disposable income", is heaviest on those who can least afford it. Let's tax the corporations who have taken the jobs away from these people instead. Protectionism MEANS protecting OUR jobs. What could be wrong with that?
-Tom Rossi
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Tom Rossi is a commentator on politics and social issues. He is a Ph.D. student in International Sustainable Development, concentrating in natural resource and economic policy. Tom greatly enjoys a hearty debate, especially over a hearty pint of Guinness.
Tom also posts on thrustblog.blogspot.com
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