It's a Wal-Mart world

Americans were rudely awakened by the realization that whether or not a Dubai government owned corporation was to run major US seaports, foreign corporations had taken over a long time ago because American firms were incapable of handling the huge and growing amount of imports from the far east. Freight from China has been overwhelming west coast ports to the degree that it’s often preferable to send ships thousands of miles farther through the Panama Canal to ports on the Eastern seaboard. China surpassed Honduras last year to become the Port of Miami-Dade's top trading partner.

The Miami Herald today explains to us in a lengthy article, that handling such trade requires doing business with large, international companies with bigger ships and more expertise. These companies want to run their own port terminals because it's more efficient; because they can make sure their own ships dock first; because they can get rich from our fashion-fed contempt for domestic goods and our insatiable propensity to borrow and consume. At the Port of Los Angeles, for instance, 80 percent of the terminal space is now foreign-run and Florida is following suit. The Port of Jacksonville's new 158-acre cargo terminal for instance, is being built at Dames Point for the Tokyo-based shipping line, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines.

America has been getting out of the shipping business for decades. Like the Chinese in the 19^th century, we don’t build, own or operate the ships that bring us the foreign goods or the ports that receive them. Richard Nixon declared over thirty years ago that we had no further interest in maritime trade and that was long before the tidal wave of Chinese and Japanese goods broke on our shores; before port security became a matter of life or death.

When you talk about Chinese imports, you have to think about Wal-Mart. When you think about Wal-Mart you think about greed. A new report delivered to members of Congress today by the AFL-CIO alleges that lobbyists for America's largest retailer are blocking efforts to secure the nation's ports. Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA,) a lobby group controlled by the big box giant, has poured money into Republican coffers since 9/11 (over 90% to Republican House Homeland Security Committee members) in an effort to keep their prices low even if the security risk is high. According to Raw Story, a RILA Vice President argued yesterday before Congress that improving these security measures would help “terrorists” because if we regulate our international trading system, the “terrorists” will win. He’s wrong. The game is already over and it’s the oligarchy of corporate entities taking home the trophy.

It wasn’t terrorists who transformed the American Eagle into a helpless fledgling, its mouth open to be fed with toys and TV’s and T-shirts and trucks and skateboards and iPods; it was us, the smug, bigoted, sports watching, game playing, Fox believing, fad-following, flag waving, lie buying, Republican voting consumers.

Don’t blame the corruption, the decay, the greed and stupidity and loss of freedom on anyone else. We did this; all of us.