Americans misdirected by US govt. economic policies: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Mike Harris, an editor with the Veterans Today, in Oregon, to discuss the recent protests in US against racial and economic injustice.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Let’s talk about the demonstrations that have taken place on Martin Luther King’s Day. Again some of the main demands are as far as raising the minimum wage in the United States. Now some of them are calling for even a $15 minimum wage. Let’s talk about the average situation for this type of workers. What is the problem because outside the country perhaps they would calculate dollars and the amount that they are making? But let’s talk about them being able to take care of their regular needs on a regular basis.

Harris: Well, let’s…what we saw today with the protest is the symptom; it is not the problem. The problem is a series of really, really bad policy decisions that the United States has made over the past decades. Among them, signing the free trade agreements which allowed US manufacturers to ship jobs overseas. We just do not have the number of jobs that we had before; that is one issue. The other issue has been unmitigated, unrestrained illegal immigration in this country, which is taking away the entry level jobs away from people.

So normally whether would be upward pressure on wages, there is downward pressure on wages because there is too many people and too few jobs. In addition to it, talking about fast food workers, my first job; I was a dish washer. The minimum wage was $1.66 an hour. If I still had that job…if we still had silver coinage in this country, our Federal Reserve System has debased our currency so greatly and they have taken all the silver out of circulation in the coinage that if I was paid 1.60 today in silver coins that would be worth almost $25 an hour now. So these are complex problems; these are long, long-term issues that the US has just gotten wrong. We have been misguided; we have been misdirected and it is time for new policies in this country that really work to benefit the people.

Press TV: Has it been misguided or was it designed to do exactly what it is doing? And many would say that the top 1% are half of the 1%, the one who are really benefiting from the country; the ones that make these policies and it has benefited them. How do you address that?

Harris: It has absolutely benefited them and you are correct; that is a good point [and] this is not accidental. This is done with this entire globalist agenda to where they want to drive wages down everywhere. Karl Marx had it right: “There is a battle between capital and labor”. And right now capital has been wining for at least the last 50 years in this country.

Press TV: How do you turn it around in the United States? We have seen Martin Luther day; we will see throughout the year May Day and other days that people will be out on the streets demanding fair wages, but as time goes on the gap seems to be getting greater. What has to happen in the United States and elsewhere in order to for us to see more of an equitable situation?

Harris: In the United States, we need to have honest and undependable money. We cannot depend on this Fiat Currency; the Federal Reserve has been an unmitigated failure in how they conducted economic policy for this country. That is number one thing that we need to do is get honest money back in the country. The other thing we need to do [is that] we have many illegal aliens here who are taking part of our least capable, our entry level jobs; our least capable are being displaced by foreigners who come into the country illegally; they need to go home. We need to hire Americans first and put Americans to work and we need to allow the natural upward pressure on wages to occur. So there if you are more productive, you make more money. It is not complex, but it will take a long time to implement; we did not get here overnight and we are not going to get out of this overnight.

Meantime, a ban-aid solution would be an increase in the minimum wage but that is going to bankrupt and put out a lot of small businesses that are the mom and pops are going to go out of businesses, the large companies will support it and again a play straight into the globalist agenda. 

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk