The problem, dear Citizen, does not lie with the Dubai Crescent, but within ourselves.
Though I was for dumping Dubai, it was not owing to racism, national security, or post 9/11 anxiety, but rather to dramatize the need for limiting our selling off American enterprise. After all, the city ports have their duly municipal authorized agencies to oversee their security — not to mention the rugged American stevedore unions — and, of course, the Coastguard, though woefully shortchanged. Then again, we have no control over the foreign ports, and those in the Middle East are more likely suspect than other areas of the globe. Here lies the problem: the global frenzy to export to America is driven by our reckless need for cheaper goods — even to the point that outsourcing American industry is out of hand.
Hillary Clinton wants to focus on “critical infrastructure” concerning security, but narrowly limits it to ports; on the other hand, Republican representative Duncan Hunter rightly broadens it to economic security as well. However, it is unlikely that we have the financial resources to rollback the good old days of self-sufficiency and surplus exports because native investments in domestic industry is on self-destruct to the extent that substituting “what’s good for General Motors is good for the country” Wal*Mart, a cut-throat distributor, totally bereft of inducing domestic industries to prevail. The current paranoia or even euphoria over Wal*Mart will not in the end persist; eventually it will be subjected to labor laws and fair pricing and join the ranks of all other retailers engaged in fair competition.
The solution, dear citizen, is a long way off, but we can begin by getting our house in order through tougher regulation of, and incentives for, investors and industries. There is no greater threat to our national existence than permitting our industrial base to unravel: we must think in terms of national disaster and global conflict readiness to produce our own defense and economy.
Copyright © 2006 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: April 2, 2006.
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