What if we mandated that government contracts must be American made?

omegapoint · Feb 24, 2011

I don't even buy this myself, but this page says that theres 24 Trillion dollars worth of untapped mineral wealth in the Republic of the Congo. If thats even close to accurate by a 10th then we should be over there building roads, hospitals and schools and
of course sharing that wealth with the population, I wouldn't want to be King Leopold. Thats alot of strategic and precious metal waiting for the digging up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo

OPTIONAL777 · Feb 24, 2011

Oh, my solution is to take the necessary steps to full on commie, the first step is to move back to isolationism, so that we can successfully drop the global corporate beast that is killing the American people.

What would IKE say today about our situation in America?

Quote from jem:

zzz you are finally thinking about solutions.

I applaud you for dropping the commie rhetoric.

OPTIONAL777 · Feb 24, 2011

Couldn't we just buy the Congo for less than 24 trillion?

How about just trading Alabama for them.

Quote from omegapoint:

I don't even buy this myself, but this page says that theres 24 Trillion dollars worth of untapped mineral wealth in the Republic of the Congo. If thats even close to accurate by a 10th then we should be over there building roads, hospitals and schools and
of course sharing that wealth with the population, I wouldn't want to be King Leopold. Thats alot of strategic and precious metal waiting for the digging up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo

omegapoint · Feb 24, 2011

Quote from OPTIONAL777:

Couldn't we just buy the Congo for less than 24 trillion?

How about just trading Alabama for them.

Laughed out loud at that one. Its why extraterrestrial intelligence hasn't yet landed on Earth. Because they know Earth is the Alabama of the Universe.

OPTIONAL777 · Feb 24, 2011

I heard the point about NR many years ago, when Buffett was asked why America became the power we are/were. He said luck, plus NR had a lot to do with it. America is blessed with NR, which includes a range of weather for growing different crops which gives America the ability to be self sufficient, and also export.

Of course, we would have to figure out what to do about global warming we couldn't control. Can you say, welcome to the dome over green energy America?

Quote from omegapoint:

Thats a great point. Since the demise of colonialism or at least its overt form cheap NR were the best possible source of newly introduced GDP a population could find. Most everything else is merely transfer.

OPTIONAL777 · Feb 24, 2011

Or maybe they did land...in Alabama, looked around, and said...let's look for intelligent life on a different planet.

Quote from omegapoint:

Laughed out loud at that one. Its why extraterrestrial intelligence hasn't yet landed on Earth. Because they know Earth is the Alabama of the Universe.

omegapoint · Feb 24, 2011

Quote from OPTIONAL777:

I heard the point about NR many years ago, when Buffett was asked why America became the power we are/were. He said luck, plus NR had a lot to do with it. America is blessed with NR, which includes a range of weather for growing different crops which gives America the ability to be self sufficient, and also export.

Of course, we would have to figure out what to do about global warming we couldn't control. Can you say, welcome to the dome over green energy America?

Agreed. Can you imagine since the United Kingdoms forfeiture of
having the sun never set on its Empire what they're left with. Coal and Shepards Pie and of course Guinness. It proivides evidence for why cooperation is crucial. The future holds too many challenges for mankinds mere survival alone.

Dragons Teeth · Feb 25, 2011

Well folks panic over Boeing wins although other party seems a little slighted.

PocketChange · Feb 25, 2011

Government contracts contain a "Buy American" clause.

The supplier certifies a minimum of 51% of the final price is from american supply.

The suppliers buy $50 Chinese widgets... Assemble and slap their label and a "made in the USA" tag on it, mark it up to at least $101 and are compliant.

We have no domestic source of rare earths. Anything with an electric motor contains Chinese products. Our Adult American hands are too large compared to Chinese children to assemble iphones.

tomdavis · Feb 25, 2011

Sounds like a good idea, but how do we know we won't end up with a 1988 Chrysler? Most American companies are corrupt and will deliver the lowest quality piece of crap they can get away with. The only way to keep them in check is to force them to compete against the whole world.

Quote from OPTIONAL777:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Air-F...8.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=

Would it be wrong to stipulate large government contracts...funded by taxpayers...must be kept completely at home, where all aspects benefit in the form of jobs and revenues back to the government in the form of taxes from corporate profits, jobs kept in America, etc?

Does it serve the taxpayer to have a large contract, one of the largest in history, go to another country for fulfillment...even though both have workers/divisions in America? In this case, EADS, is multi national...

The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. (EADS) is a large pan-European aerospace and defence corporation and a leading defence and military contractor worldwide.