Ron Johnson would have inner city teens workin' on the farm. Oh, and there's more...

Is it possible to own and run a business, have lots of money and run for a U.S. Senate seat, but still get the idea of capitalism and the economic meltdown so wrong?

Just ask Ron Johnson.



Johnson was asked on the Wisconsin Radio Network about providing a solution to Milwaukee's inner city jobless:

Johnson: "Let's just talk about youth. As I'm traveling around the state and
talking to farmers, they're having a hard time finding workers...from a state
level, I'd like to see some mechanism to bring those...the hard core teen
unemployment, and bring those folks to Wisconsin farmers and "solve that solution. That's just one mini solution."

Is he really suggesting busing in minority teen slave labor for farm work? No, really?

When asked about the "uncertainty" excuse used by Republicans to explain the slow economy and lack of jobs:

Johnson: "I've talked to corporations that don't even consider coming to
Wisconsin because of the business climate. The same is true of America. I'd
encourage people to go onto Youtube and type in 'Steve Wynn.' He's the one that
creates resorts in Las Vegas. He's also creating resorts in Macau in communist
China. His point is the climate for business investment is far more certain in communist China than it is in the U.S here."

For Johnson and fellow business elites it perfectly normal to look at China as a great place to invest, after all, low wages and lax environmental controls (that's changing) encourage development. But uncertainty, which the interviewer rightly observes is a "side effect of our democracy, the partisan back and forth, certainty is a harder hurtle to clear." But that's only part of the story.

China heavily subsidizes industry it considers part of its national interest, a fact conservatives like Johnson conveniently ignore. It's anti-free market. As for low wages, the average annual income in China is only $896. Two years ago 230 million Chinese were living on an average annual income of $44. Dr. Cheng Xiaonong: (World Wage Research) WWR’ exposes a basic problem. It is that China’s so-called development completely ignores social justice. It favors or tends to protect the interests of an elite group."

Johnson "completely ignores social justice." I couldn't have said it better. Two more quick points:

Johnson: "I would argue the cause of the financial collapse really was the housing bubble, it burst. I believe that was a creation of Washington."

Sure it was, if lax enforcement of rules, self policing and deregulation weren't the real cause.

Johnson: "In this financial regulation bill...it didn't even address Fannie and Freddie, it did not address the root cause of the problem."

Fannie and Freddie weren't the root cause of the problem. Period.

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