HomeARC ML 2440
WORLD CURRENTS!--No. 35 Compiled 7/88 DO 2440
AMERICANS MAKING FUN OF RUSSIANS
(Watching a CBS report on the Reagan/Gorbachev Summit in Moscow:)
1. The Americans are making fun of the Russians! My father used to say they'll never get anywhere with the Russians that way. He said the Russians are like the Orientals, they've got to save face, you've got to treat them with respect. And if you keep making fun of them like the Americans do, he said it's going to infuriate them! They're really making fun of them. (Maria: Well, you've got to say they've taken it all this time.) Yes, it's amazing that they have not exploded more. But sometimes they haven't taken it. A few years ago they completely blew up détente just at some of the cracks that Reagan made about them, calling them "the Evil Empire" & stuff like that. That made them furious!
2. Europeans have learned to have a lot of differences. They have different languages, different cultures, & they're accustomed to that. And in spite of it, they have learned to respect each other, to be diplomatic. What the Americans accuse them of is being two-faced, in other words, because they're diplomatic like the Orientals, they smile & they're polite & all that sort of thing. Americans are just bold, brash, blunt, they don't care! They make fun of literally everybody who's not an American! "We indeed are the people!" That's the American attitude! "Who are you? What are you that you should question us!" It's pitiful!
3. All I can say is thank God for Russia, or the U.S. would have already taken over the World & we'd probably already have an Antichrist! At least the competition from both sides has kept either power from just absolutely taking over. The Americans would have taken over just as viciously & aggressively & as violently as the Russians.
4. That's a sign of the Americans' so-called freedom, that they can openly criticise any government, anybody. That's certainly not trying to make peace!--Constantly another slam, another slur!
5. The Russians are a lot more amicable & are endeavouring to make friends much more than the Americans are. (Maria: That Russian said, "It's so nice to see an American!") Can you imagine an American saying that to a Russian?--"It's so wonderful to meet a Russian!" You talk about propaganda, the Americans are more propagandised, more cleverly propagandised by stuff just like this. They're propagandised & they don't know it!
6. That's what Tom Anderson used to say, the farm magazine editor. He used to say it's no more free in the U.S. than it is in Russia! He said the Americans are slaves of their government, they just don't know it, & they're more propagandised than the Russians. (Maria: Maybe their liking for the Americans reflects how many of them really are Christians or have belief.) And they figure the U.S. is Christian. Let's hope they never get too disillusioned!
REAGAN IN RUSSIA!
7. What would have been a humdinger of a stunt for Reagan to have done while he was there in Russia, & what would have won the hearts of the Russian people, & I think Gorbachev would have even liked it, something he's expert at, is if he'd put on his chaps & his cowboy hat & his guns & gotten on a horse & galloped across Red Square! Ha! They would have roared! They would have loved it! That would have really gone over! What that announcer said made me think of that. He said, "They're each playing to their own audiences." I think it would have been much better if he'd have played to the Russian people. If he'd done something like that, that would have been a hit, a real hit!
8. He should have let me manage his visit! I mean, that's something he's really good at! Reagan's a good rider & good actor, & that's the kind of clothes he wore in most of his pictures, & he would have been very comfortable & at home in that kind of an outfit, & they would have loved it! (Maria: They could have been showing his movies throughout Moscow too.) They probably will. He could have gone across Red Square going "bang, bang, bang," & they would have loved it! That's what I'd call playing to the crowd, playing to the Russian people. That would have won their hearts, because cowboys are loved World around! I'll bet they'll have a lot of those movies now that they've seen him, if the authorities will let'm. Maybe they don't want'm to see'm or it will win their hearts.
9. I bet the Jews & the media are just tickled pink with the big show Reagan put on to please them to plug for the dissidents, mostly Jews. I'm sure they're the ones that egged it on, to the point of absolutely slapping Gorbachev in the face! I'll bet they're pleased. I bet they didn't think he overdid it.
10. There are still people, especially Evangelicals & religious fanatics who still will hate the Russians bitterly & wish they could wipe'm out! (Maria: Yes, on the grounds of religious convictions, no matter how nice they might be.) They were the ones that stood staunchly behind Hitler.
COMMUNISM'S RUN ITS COURSE!
11. A lot of historians & politicians & authorities on governments etc. are saying that Communism has run its course & the peoples of the Communist countries are getting fed up with it. Two of the biggest Communist countries of all, Russia & China, are already sort of ditching it turning to certain forms of private enterprise, even Capitalism. So it looks like both of the largest Communist countries in the World are turning their back on Communism. Both of them are disowning their greatest Communist leaders & vilifying them: Stalin & Mao! They're both now saying that they were villains & did horrors, which they did, & which they were!
[DELETED]
JEWS FURIOUS AT POPE!
15. God bless the Pope & the Catholics for refusing to recognise Israel, & for giving the Palestinians a fair deal! But now the Jews are really putting the pressure on the Pope to try to get him to condemn Waldheim & to recognise Israel. They even criticised him for not using the word "Jews" in the speech when he talked about Nazi persecution.
16. The Nazis persecuted lots of people besides Jews. They persecuted millions of Gypsies & all kinds of other people. Why should he just pick out the Jews? [DELETED] [EDITED: "B"]ecause the Pope stubbornly refuses to yield to their dictates, they're just furious with him!
ACs TRYING TO CLOSE PERU DOWN
17. I'm sure the [EDITED: "ACs"] are doing their best to close Peru down because they don't like Garcia's attitude toward them. [DELETED] [EDITED: "H"]e calls them the "international bankers" [DELETED] Who but the [EDITED: "ACs"] are the biggest international bankers in the World? (The rebels there are led by [EDITED: "ACs"]!)
THE U.S. & NORIEGA
18. The reason the U.S. is trying to get rid of Noriega of Panama is because he was, in the U.S.' words, "definitely a political & military problem," & they said "possibly also a drug problem, in the drug area." In other words, they used that to try to accomplish their political & military purpose.--That's the crookedness of the whole thing.
19. The U.S. government's so crooked, so deceitful & such liars, they're making this whole big to-do as though it was only because they caught him with drugs. What the commentators say is the U.S. began having trouble with their little puppet politically & militarily, so they just decided to try to get him on drug charges, whereas they already knew that he was dealing drugs. He wasn't personally dealing drugs, but he was giving protection to drug dealers.
20. How can people have confidence in governments when they're such liars & deceivers & self-righteous hypocrites, like in this Noriega case! They didn't give a damn about the drugs to begin with, as long as he jumped when they snapped their fingers. But when he began to be a little more independent, then all of a sudden they got concerned about his protection of drug traffickers, nothing in the World but just a ploy to try to get rid of him. It had nothing to do with his drug traffic! They knew about the drug traffic, & as long as he obeyed them, they overlooked it. But now that they want to get rid of him, they blow it up into a full-scale scandal, when it's the U.S. that ought to be scandalised! What Noriega ought to do is expose them!
MORE ON PANAMA & NORIEGA
21. There is the U.S.-recognised President of Panama, & then there is the Noriega official President of Panama. The U.S.-recognised President, Del Valle, is hiding in the U.S. Embassy in Panama. And Noriega has appointed a new president, I think his name is Solis Palma. He's also fired this other guy, the Panamanian ambassador to the U.S. See, they put their labels on there & dumb people who don't know any better believe it. You wonder why the Panamanian Ambassador is saying naughty things about his master, about Noriega.--It's because he's no longer the official ambassador recognised by Noriega, Noriega's appointed another Ambassador.
22. These U.S.-recognised & backed people are President & Ambassador of Panama in name only. They do not represent Panama at all, or the government of Panama. The whole Parliament of Panama recognises Noriega & the Ambassador that he appointed since the former president deserted the country, fled to the refuge of the American Embassy, from which he is trying to run it, in opposition to the new president which Noriega has now appointed. Oh, it's a mess! And it's so twisted! It shows you how twisted a story can be, depending on whether you hear it from Noriega or you hear it from the U.S.
23. The fired president, the one that the U.S. decided to recognise--who was hiding in the U.S. Embassy--he & his party tried to take over, & even appointed this ambassador, who is not the ambassador of Panama at all. He's merely the ambassador of this fired president of the Opposition party. It's really a scream, almost a comic opera!
24. Noriega must not only be very anti-Communist, but he must be anti-[EDITED: "ACs"], or the press wouldn't have it in for him so much, all these [EDITED: "ACs"] attacking him. He doesn't really have a bad face. He has a tough face. But a guy who can run a country like that has gotta be tough! He was called before the general assembly of the Parliament & he said the U.S. has been trying to literally invade & bully Panama & beat Panamanians to their knees in submission, & has tried to use economic invasion & aggression which has almost wrecked the economy!
25. Oh, Noriega is a speaker! He couldn't have gotten where he is & persuade people like he does if he wasn't. He's a real politician, a real forceful speaker! He really socked it to the U.S.! And he couldn't have played a more favourite tune to most Latin Americans, who are nearly all sick of U.S. interference & U.S. pressure, the U.S. always leaning on them, the U.S. always invading them, all kinds of things, insisting that they toe the mark, the U.S. line!
LEHDER IN HONDURAS KIDNAPPED BY U.S.
26. This guy Lehder, he's the Robin Hood of Colombia, worshipped by all the poor because he's done more for the poor than the government! But because he's a king pin of the drug traffic industry, selling drugs in the U.S. etc., the U.S. was determined to get him, & with the help of Colombian officials, they virtually went right in & kidnapped him & flew him off to the States without going through any extradition procedure or anything, they just went in & grabbed him! Apparently the officials of Colombia were beginning to worry that he was going to take over Colombia because he was getting so popular! So they apparently ratted on him & let the U.S. kidnap & take him.
27. It's all such a self-righteous game! The U.S. is guilty of more than any single drug-trafficker could possibly do! They've killed millions in their horrible wars & everything else, then they all of a sudden get so self-righteous because their kid just got on drugs! Instead of blaming themselves for not raising the kid right so he wouldn't get on drugs, they go after the drug dealers & after the drug traffic & after the kingpins in foreign countries & all the rest, when it's the U.S. system that's done it!
FRANCE'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS--WHY MITTERAND WON!
28. LePen is the radical Rightist who wants to kick out all those Black Algerians who flooded into France, & I don't much blame him. He's the ultra-Rightist that you've heard so much about, & both the Communists & the Socialists like Mitterand scream about him. But Chirac represented the Gaulist party, the sort of middle-of-the-road Conservatives, because they didn't want the reproach of cooperating with LePen because he's so radical.
29. Those guys failed to get it together, & LePen was really selfish in not urging his followers to vote for Chirac. See, jealousy between the two Conservative parties gave the Socialist--Mitterand, the liberals--the vote, & helped him to win, because the Conservatives were divided. Because together they had the biggest vote, if they had voted together for one man like Chirac. But because LePen wanted to be the candidate & wouldn't concede to Chirac, they lost! So their jealousy with each other helped the wrong people get in, Mitterand.
30. In 1986 a Conservative coalition won the parliamentary elections, & Chirac became the Prime Minister, while Mitterand remained President. So they'd been running a kind of a dual government, what they call "cohabitation," a balance between the Conservatives & the Socialists. But now Mitterand will have everything to himself. It's a sad state of affairs for France!
31. Under Mitterand, the Franc went down from 4-1/2 to the Dollar to 10 to the Dollar! But under Chirac, the Franc has gone back up again to about six to the Dollar.
32. The President is the most powerful position in France. In some countries in Europe the President is just a figurehead, sort of a ceremonial figure. But in France, like the U.S., the President is the power.
SAVINGS & LOANS BAILED OUT BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
33. The Savings & Loan Associations are the type of banks that have been having the most trouble & failing the fastest in the States. The Federal Government is now having to bail out two of them to the tune of over a billion Dollars, because they both went bankrupt! (Maria: So the Federal Government has to bail them out?) Yes, because of the Federal Depositor's Insurance Company, which used to insure deposits up to $10,000, but now $100,000!
34. That was something organised by dear FDR back in the Depression so that if there was ever another bank failure, depositors would know that they at least wouldn't lose $10,000. Now they've gone up to $100,000 per account, the Federal Government insuring depositors. So if the bank goes broke, bankrupt, then the government has to take taxpayers' Dollars to pay off. So these two big ones in California went broke & the Federal government is bailing them out. In other words, the U.S. is going down the drain, the Crash!
LYING GOVERNMENTS!
35. How governments can lie & indicate that everything's all right! But if you read the fine print & all the little squibs on the business page of the newspapers, you can see how many banks are closing & companies are going broke & thousands of employees being fired & becoming part of the millions of unemployed!
TERRORIST ATTACKS!
36. Terrorist attacks always have the advantage of surprise! You never know when or where they're going to attack, & there's nothing in the World you can do about it if they're willing to die!
PALESTINIAN MARTYRS!
37. In Israel, over 200 Palestinians have been killed who were only using rocks, & only two Israelis have been killed, who've been using bullets! God bless those Palestinians who are willing to put their lives on the line for freedom!
SYRIA & IRAN
38. Syria was ready to move in & take over the area of Beirut that was controlled by the Iranian fanatics, Hezbollah, the "Party of God" they call it, & where they're sure all the hostages are being held. But instead of that, Iran leaned on Syria & Syria hasn't made a move, & we don't know what kind of pressure Iran put on Syria. But you see, Syria has been Iran's friend & ally through all this war & everything. So somehow or another Iran put the pressure on & Syria yielded, or they probably would have put an end to the power of Iran in Beirut & captured the hostages! Of course their captors might've killed them, but at least I think people worry less about the dead than they do the living. Iran is a fiendish, devilish state!--All in the name of God! "He that killeth you will think that he doeth God service."--Jn.16:2.
AIRLINE SUBSIDIES
39. One thing to decongest air travel would be to withdraw & discontinue all those huge government airline subsidies which help non-profitable airlines to continue to keep running with too few passengers! They've got too many airplanes & too few passengers. Too many American airliners are flying without enough passengers to foot the bill, because the U.S. government foots the bill.
40. If they'd withdraw all those subsidies, those airlines wouldn't be able to continue to fly so many flights with so few passengers. They'd have to cut down on their flights & fill their planes. But they have all these fancy frequent flights to make it more convenient for flyers & passengers to have more flights to select from, the whole problem being there aren't enough passengers to go around to economically fly the present number of flights.
41. What they need to do is cut down on the number of planes & the number of flights & fill up the few that are left, then they'd uncrowd the skies. (Maria: But they feel that they have to do that because of the competition. Because if they don't have frequent flights, then the people go to the other airline.) Good! Then if more airlines went out of business the airports would be a lot safer.
42. If they would cut down all the airlines & make them have a minimum number of passengers in order to fly, & withdraw all the government subsidies that support the airlines, then they'd have to fly economically! They would have fewer flights with more passengers, which would make them pay for themselves, & that way there would be fewer planes in the skies & they wouldn't be overcrowded. It's that government subsidy business that does it.
43. But the government doesn't want to withdraw those juicy subsidies from these juicy airlines because they're getting such a nice big tax cut--not meaning a cutting of taxes, but I mean a syphoning off of taxes. They're taking it out of one pocket to put it in the other one! The whole thing is just absolutely crazy, the whole airline system!
44. The only airlines that operate with any amount of economical policy to gear the number of flights to the actual number of passengers are the international airlines, because they have to. Nobody else is going to pay their bills but the passengers.
45. They just need to fill up the planes & the governments need to withdraw those expensive tax-hiking subsidies they pay out to the airlines to keep them running. If the government withdrew those subsidies a whole lot of airlines would go broke, & a whole lot of other airlines would fly less flights with more passengers & make more money so they wouldn't have to be supported by the government.
46. China's national airline, CAAC, has gotten the nickname by disgruntled foreign passengers: "China Airlines Always Cancelled" or "China Airlines Always Changed"! But China claims the service is improving. They're smart! You know why they do it? If they don't get enough passengers to foot the bill, they just cancel the flight!
47. That's the way the independents used to run in the United States, they were called the non-scheds, or the non-scheduled airlines. All other official government-licensed airlines are supposed to run on an exact certain schedule whether they have any passengers or not. See, that's the ridiculousness of the whole thing. But the non-scheds made money by filling up their airplanes, & if they didn't fill the plane they wouldn't fly! I can remember sitting in one of their airports for about five hours waiting for them to fill up the plane! In other words, they didn't have to take off at a certain time, passengers or no passengers! They waited till they got the passengers & the plane was full!
48. There was one airline that Fred used to patronise called Continental Airlines. It was a non-sched then, & let me tell you, that thing was packed by the time we took off, every seat was filled! So it paid for itself. They didn't get government subsidies either. They had to make it!
49. China's smart! If the flight isn't packed, if they don't get enough passengers, they just cancel the flight & you go home! The non-scheds, at least they used to say, "We're planning to fly at a certain time but in case we don't we'll notify you or you can call us," & they'd call you that the flight had been postponed until such & such a time. In other words, they were still waiting for more passengers.
50. They would often give the excuse, if you were already at the airport, that the flight is being delayed another hour or two hours or something "due to technical difficulties." We all got to laugh at that because the technical difficulty was that they hadn't yet filled every seat on the plane! But that's smart! And those airlines were able to run & make money without taking the taxpayers' money.
51. The U.S. is doing with its airlines exactly what Europe & Japan are doing on the food market. Europe & Japan are subsidising their farmers, the U.S. is subsidising its airlines, & has ever since the beginning. It did so in the beginning in order to help the airlines get in business at all. Somebody had to finance those early airlines, because they wouldn't get any passengers if they didn't start running planes. So the government helped them build the planes & organise the airlines in order to get passengers & get started.
52. It's just like it was in the beginning with the radio--people wouldn't buy radios until some stations were on the air. So the government gave big subsidies to help radio stations get on the air so people would buy radios & go into the radio business. The trouble is, a lot of those sort of things were continued long after they were needed, & long after the airlines got well in business & were making money. The government of the U.S., for example, is still handing out millions of Dollars in subsidies to airlines not only to keep them running, but keep them running unprofitably with too few passengers & too many schedules, too many flights & too many airplanes & too crowded airports!
53. Once these greedy operators--whether it's farmers in Europe or Japan or airlines in the U.S.--get these government handouts, which they're still getting long after they're needed, it's hard to get rid of them! They may have been needed at one time, like they were in Japan or Europe, to help the farmers get going again after the War, but they're not needed any more now, they've just made the farmers rich & the workers poor, just like the airlines in the U.S.A.
54. You could be getting such cheap flights in the U.S. if the government was not subsiding the airlines, & it would make the airlines become profitable & not fly unless there were passengers. But how many planes have you been in that took off which were half-empty or more than half empty? In other words, who foots the bill for a half-empty plane? They've gotta keep the fares down enough so that they're not totally unreasonable, but they're still a whole lot higher than they would be if the government was not financing these unprofitable airlines!
55. There wouldn't be so many planes, there wouldn't be so many airlines, there wouldn't be so many flights, which might be a little more inconvenient for some of the passengers. They'd just have to schedule full flights & only run as many planes as they can fill up. Then they wouldn't need any subsidies, the tax-payers wouldn't be soaked with high taxes for these subsidies, & the passengers wouldn't be soaked for high fares to run unprofitable airlines!
56. And one of the best fringe benefits is that the airports wouldn't be so crowded. Right now the airports of the U.S. are getting into gridlock where it's going to be impossible to have any more airplanes & flights. So what they need to do is cut down on the planes & cut out their subsidies & make them fill up their planes & not run flights that are uneconomical. But the government insists on that! Because in order to earn a subsidy from the government, the airlines are required to schedule a certain number of flights, even when they're not profitable. So it's an evil, vicious cycle & it's really wrecking the airways, putting too many planes into the air at too much cost to the taxpayer & the passengers, & over-taxing the airports.
57. (Maria: If the government would stop that dirty business & the airlines were willing to share, some airlines could take certain hours, certain flights.) Yes of course, they'd find a way. If they weren't being paid out these hundreds of millions of Dollars by the government, they'd learn to work economically! (Maria: They could all cooperate together.)--Yes, but they're not even trying! And the government doesn't encourage it either, because the government requires this number of flights. In order to receive your subsidy you've got to fly so many flights!
58. So it's a vicious cycle, & I think the only thing that's going to stop it now is this overcrowding of airports. They said they're going to have to ration the flights, etc., & that's the best thing that could have happened to them. They're going to have to cut out these unprofitable routes & unprofitable hours, etc., & if they can't fill up a plane, don't fly it. (Maria: It's not more inconvenient for the person flying, because he goes to the same airport & gets whatever airline has a flight.) Well, it's largely businessmen who want flights very convenient to their business hours. They want a certain time in the morning to get to business, a flight a certain time at night to get home.
59. If they have to do it, they'll do it, but as long as the airlines don't have to operate profitably & can get all this juicy money from the government to stay in business, to keep from going out of business, they'll keep operating the unprofitable flights & all these flights that aren't necessary. But the minute the government cancels all those airline subsidies, let me tell you, first of all there will be a big howl from the airlines, but they'll have to do it!
60. They're just like spoiled children! They're getting these nice big juicy handouts & everything they want & all the toys they want, unnecessary luxuries. Then the parents decide to cut down, & they're going to have to live economically & live on their budget, & the kiddies howl because they don't get all the stuff they used to get! But they learn to do without it.--Or their mommies & daddies will go out of business, including the government!
61. The U.S. is living on borrowed money at the rate of half-a-billion Dollars a day!
SUBSIDIES TO FARMERS!
62. God bless Reagan for bugging that economic conference to scrap its subsidies to farmers. He & Mulroney of Canada were bugging the EEC primarily. Governments like Japan & Europe are paying non-profitable farmers to produce non-profitable crops, & burdening their own taxpayers to do it, & their own people with high prices, & making the farmers rich while they pile up huge surpluses of farm goods that they can't sell because of the high prices! Then they dump these great surpluses--mountains of butter & different farm products, powdered milk, etc.--on other countries at below-cost prices, which gives the other countries that are really profitably producing unfair competition.
63. The governments of Europe & Japan, for example, are taking the taxpayers' money & paying the farmers more than the food is worth! Then, because it keeps the prices so high, the government buys the produce, & it can't sell it on the World market at a fair price, so they have to undercut the good profitable producers who are actually producing farm products at cheap prices, like the U.S. & Canada. Japan & Europe then turn around & sell it even cheaper, making their own people pay the difference, both in taxes & in prices. It's a crazy system! So the U.S. & Canada have been bugging Japan & Europe for years to dump the system instead of the products.
64. (Maria: Do you mean that Japan lets the cheaper things come in?) No, they dump them on the other markets of the World. Japan & Europe will then go & dump products on the World market at even cheaper prices than the economical producers can produce it, like Canada & the U.S.--Which is why Canada & the U.S. are howling, & there's a big argument between Japan & Europe also!
65. Now a lot of people don't understand that big word, "subsidise." What it literally means is that the government pays the farmers more than their products are worth in order to keep the prices up & to make the farmers rich who elect the guys to the parliaments. Then the guys in parliament make the laws to pay for the farmers. That's what's going on in Japan & in Europe.
66. The farmers are in control of the parliaments, because there are so many of them & they stick together, & they've got big farm cooperatives & unions etc., to force the legislators to keep the subsidy system paying them higher prices than their goods are worth. (Maria: In other words, they buy the farmers' goods?) Yes, the government buys the farmers' goods. They promise the farmers a minimum price, which is a maximum price really, a high price for their goods. If they can't sell them on the World market at that price, the government itself will buy them at these high prices that are not economical & much more than it costs the farmer to produce them. Then if the government can't sell it, they then dump them at real cheap prices abroad, losing money!
67. So they're losing money both ways. They're paying the farmers too much, & then they're taking the same products that the government paid high prices for with the taxpayers' money, & dumping them at less than cost on foreign markets.--And this is unfair to the nations who can produce economically & profitably & sell at lower prices, like the U.S. & Canada, who are big agricultural countries. This gives unfair competition to the big, economical, machine-based, agri-business, thousands-of-acre farmers of the U.S., Canada & Australia, who can produce food at the cheapest cost of any countries in the World.
68. The U.S., Canada & Australia are the biggest food-producers in the World who can sell at the cheapest prices. So when these other food-producers like Japan & Europe cannot compete with the low prices of Canadian, Australian & American food--they can't compete with them because those governments are paying their farmers such high prices for the goods--then they take them & dump them at below-cost prices on the World market, which means unfair competition to the truly economical, productive nations like Canada, the U.S. & Australia. They dump them at even lower prices than Canada, the U.S. & Australia sell their products for!--Not only at lower prices than Europe & Japan themselves have to pay for the products, they dump them on the World market at cheaper prices than even the cheap products of the U.S., Canada & Australia!
69. It's a very unfair system, & the poor & the common people are the ones that suffer! In those countries where they have to have high taxes to pay their farmers high prices, like in Japan, then the people of those countries themselves also have to turn around & pay higher prices for the food.--The Japanese common people & labourers & clerical workers etc. It's amazing that they don't do something about it! Their unions are not really doing the job or they'd go on strike to make the government reduce such unfair prices & eliminate those farmers' subsidies & all that stuff!
70. Their taxes have to pay these subsidies to the farmers! Then they have to turn around themselves & buy the food at higher prices, so they're doubly taxed to help keep the farmers happy & rich! And it's because the farmers of Japan & Europe both control their parliaments. And so the parliaments vote the way the farmers want them to vote.
71. That's why the U.S. & Japan are having such a hell of a trade war about farm products. Japan pays its farmers more than the food is worth. It pays them way above even the actual costs. The costs are high enough, they can't produce economically. But the government, in order to encourage them to keep producing, even though it costs six times as much as World prices, they want the farmers to stay in business. It's to save their own necks, their own jobs, because it's the farmers that voted them into power! (Beef is 10 times World price in Japan!)
72. So they keep up this unfruitful, uneconomical system of "buy high" from the farmer, & make the local people also "pay high"--high prices & high taxes to keep the farmers rich! And then if they have a surplus, they take it to the foreign markets & dump it at lower-than-cost & even lower than countries that are economically producing food, like the U.S., Canada & Australia sell their food for. So the U.S., Canada & Australia are howling about these farm subsidies of Japan & Europe!
73. (Maria: Because the countries that don't produce food then buy the European products that are being dumped.) Yes, they'll buy European food because they deliberately make it so dirt-cheap to undersell the U.S., Canada & Australia. In other words, they're robbing the poor to feed the rich! Well, you say in the Third World countries, isn't that better for them that they sell it at even cheaper prices than Australia, Canada & the U.S.? Well, yes, if it were only Third World countries. But they go out on the World open market & they undersell American products right in America itself!
74. (Maria: Why does America let them get in?) Well, because the U.S. is all for free trade, & they're trying to set the example of not raising import barriers & not paying out huge subsidies & creating huge surpluses & all that sort of thing. They're trying by their example to show what they think the rest of the World ought to do. But Japan just stubbornly refuses to let the U.S. into its markets with cheap American food, & Europe the same. So it's an evil system that does nobody any good except the now rich & powerful farmers who run the governments of Japan & Europe!
75. Europe imposes a 100% surcharge, plus a 20% tariff on imported beef! There's another case of what I'm talking about, making it virtually impossible for people to buy imported beef, or for any nation to sell them imported beef! In other words, for the sake of their local farmers, to keep the prices high, to make the farmers rich & make the workers poor!
76. In spite of all Japan's import charges & import restrictions, limitations on imports, Japan is the greatest importer of farm products in the World, because they just cannot possibly produce enough farm products for their people. But it's still got too many farm product restrictions. They just can't produce food economically in Japan, they just haven't got the area. They just ought to dump all those food product restrictions, like I said, & let the people buy the cheap food from abroad, from the U.S., Canada, Australia & even Latin America, & make their money on their electronics, cars, etc.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
