American Middle Class: Endangered Species

[LiberalArkie]

http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/fisher/03012006.htm

With jobs being outsourced to various parts of the world, and with the current practices of importing cheap foreign labor, and using temporary job services we are seeing a disturbing trend of a dwindling Middle class.

Companies like Motorola and G.E. are notorious for contract labor these days, as well as redefining educational requirements that favor foreign workers over American workers. A friend of mine recently applied to a job with Motorola, after having worked there for over a decade as an engineer with an AA degree before being outsourced a few years ago.

He was told at the interview that his educational requirements were not high enough, and that the position paid him well under the 70k he was making at a rival company. The position he was told paid between 46-52k, and as posted, required at least 3 years experience in the filed he applied for, which he had 10 years. He then found out through a friend there that an edict was passed down by the president that no engineer could be hired with less than a BA degree. Doesn’t matter anymore that a person has a long history of solid work performance anymore, a high level of education is required, due mostly I think to the fact that they can more easily hire foreign labor over American workers without the fear of lawsuits.

<<Snip>>

So for Motorola, GM, G.E., Ford, and all other companies who outsource and import cheaper labor, your days are coming. Because you have crippled the middle Class in America, and you have abused your own best customer. You can only make so much profit and then what? Personally, if I have to buy a foreign made cell phone I may as well just buy a Samsung or a LG phone. They are cheaper and work well, and not having confidence in my job anymore, I need to be thrifty. Why should I pay 400 dollars for a Motorola phone made in China and created by foreign engineers on H1-B visas when I can get one for 40 dollars?

Why should I take a beating on a new car Ford and GM, when I have no clue if my job will be around to finish the payments off in 5 years? I can get a used Toyota for a couple of grand, since Ford is made in Mexico and Canada anyway. So I may as well buy the better foreign car, even used. I will be thrifty on my way down to the bottom, as many people will.

You wanted to make cheap foreign goods, and Asia will beat you at your own game. You wanted cheap labor, so you now have to deal with the spending habits of the imported labor you bring in, which by the way tends more to the Asian market of product and not American.

Bring back our factories, and use American labor. Bring back our job security and we will buy your goods again. Keep us out on the street, and corporations will eventually be the only ones with the money to float social programs and education. If you think your taxes are high now, wait until we are all out of work and in need.

Just remember the phrase “Let them eat cake”. And remember the answer from the masses


http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/fisher/03012006.htm

[Nozebro]

1. Surely, the Democrats will reverse all of that - won't they? NO? I agree.

nt

[Coventina]

2. *sigh* While I agree with the sentiments of the article,

I take issue with calling the middle-class an "endangered species".

I'll probably get flamed for this but.....

I just don't like seeing "endangered species" get bastardized that way. Endangered species means that an entire biological community is on the brink of disappearing forever. I remember seeing an interview on television where a woman was undergoing cancer treatment that required harvesting an endangered tree for the drug she was taking. She said, "Well, I'm an endangered species too!"

Sorry honey, you are NOT. I can understand the desire to live, but saying a human female is an "endangered species" is just stupid. There are far too many humans on this planet already. Maybe all the cancers, hiv, etc. are nature's way of trying to reduce the human overpopulation problem.

But anyway......

It's perfectly fine to say that the middle class is shrinking, or under attack, or disappearing due to economic strategies by the rich or whatever.

Just please don't call them an "endangered species."

:rant:

[katsy]

3. A thought...

What if this is irreversible?

Is it possible that one country after another will be cannibalized by corporatists. Why would they care abut American workers? They'll sell to the next greatest country and then history will repeat itself. They'll just move on to another country.

[leftofthedial]

4. the capitalists are cutting their own throats

I think they actually believe that China will become a consumer paradise and save their asses.

[Deja Q]

6. If that's true, then does that mean

China is helping American corporate leaders? Would China (and other countries) truly welcome them once China (and the other countries) get everything they need to know from us? We see in enough television shows that that is never the case... And the last I heard, India and China and the rest aren't happy with the US either. But I may be wrong; Lord knows I am.

Others have said it on other forums; when talk of profits goes down, some people (typically not me, oddly) say "If the jobs stayed in America, the profit margins wouldn't have gone down.)

Americans get paid what is necessary so they can buy the goods. Not necessarily so in these other countries, why may see some good deals (yet not all), that will stop once the business elite find another country to use.

Meanwhile, whip out your credit card and buy the $30k swimming pool. The one built for $2000 in China and sold there for $3000, no doubt. (the net problem is making America's cost of living (along with the wages) to match the other countries', in which case globalization becomes a fair issue again.)

[leftofthedial]

7. china will only ever help china's leaders

china is using capitalism to wage economic war on the world's capitalists

as usual, the capitalists have an inadequately short-term world view

[Nikia]

8. Which is a bad idea

Environmentally.
Capaitalists are short sighted sometimes.

[Deja Q]

5. Contractors aren't always that good...

You only pay them to do something. You cannot ensure they are doing their job to the best of their ability or even at all. Then when the new product gets deployed and there are scores of problems, who gets the blame? You paid the contractor. YOU get the blame and then YOU can tell the contractor where to shove their business...

You cannot buy loyalty. You can't even guess you'll get loyalty from them when you go to the cheapest source to get it. All you're getting is something for a low price; which in turn will affect the quality of the price people are paying a high price for. And then there's the price of that, which ends up being far higher.

There is no quality control and that is the problem. And freedom is the ability to HAVE quality control. That's why you hire your own and work with them. Anything else is chancy and inevitably going to lead to problems.

Symbiosis. One can't get around it.