George Will is clueless about the economic reality for many

[left of center]

After listening to him again this morning pontificate about how raising the minimum wage will make poor people poorer, I'm just wondering what world this guy actually lives in? This coming from the same person who said that Walmart must pay well, or there would not have been 1000+ applications for one that opened down the road from his house!

Any person who has worked in the service or even manufacturing sectors, knows the free market has turned the wages for these jobs into slave wages. I once waited tables and worked in a factory. In fact, for a time, I worked in these jobs at the same time just to make ends meet! This was back in the mid to late 90s before the housing bubble and when health care and energy costs were lower. Had I not gotten my degree, I'd be hurting right now. But someone has to work these jobs, and they should be paid enough to at least afford a descent apartment, dependable car, effective health care, and some amenities for them to enjoy life. They should not have to work two or three jobs to just get by.

My brother-in-law had supported himself for years working for a chicken processing plant in West Virginia, but now finds himself barely surviving. What has changed? The plant has been laying off and cutting back the hours of it's "high paid" workforce and replacing them with guest workers and illegal immigrants who they can pay less and deny health benefits! This combined with the abrupt increase in the cost of housing has devestated the native population where he lives.

Now I'm employeed with a contract pharmaceutical company. My job should be safe, right? My college degree should protect me, right? Time will tell. I'm personally doing okay now, but we are now clearly feeling the pressure from places like India who can usually underbid us on price. Our only recourse is to become more efficient. This has so far entailed cutting costs, reducing or delaying pay increases, laying people off, and having those who remain work faster and longer.

Back to George Will, he is utterly clueless as to the reality for millions of Americans. He has apparently missed the fact that millions have fell below the poverty level, that millions are not far from it, and that millions more are slowly headed in that direction.

Globalization was something I once believed in. It might be something really cool for someone like George Will to talk about, but it's effects suck for the everyday person!

[Eurobabe]

1. George Will is just clueless, period...

n/t

[The Deacon]

2. It Took The Current Greed Of The CEO Class (Supported By The

Pundit Class) to turn me from a True Believer in Globalization into a Trade Protectionist. I will believe that outsourcing jobs has ANYTHING to do with "efficiency" when I see CEOs share the pain of economics with their workers. A week's worth of pay from most CEOs would pay anywhere from 100 to 500 of their workers for the same week - except the workers would have to pay taxes on their earnings while the CEOs don't.
Pigs.

[Subdivisions]

3. The root of the problem is globalization. So...what

do we do about it? Can laws be made that restrict companies from taking their operations overseas? Can laws be made that restrict offshore labor such as India? Can we make laws that restrict imports from China?

I don't know alot about globalization so my questions are serious.

Edited to add: As for George Will, it's tough to see the little people from his ivory tower.

[The Deacon]

4. Yes n/t

[WinkyDink]

6. Can we? What penalties might the WTO then impose on us?

[The Deacon]

9. I Wonder If Whatever Penalties The WTO Imposes On Us

Could be nearly as bad as the penalties we've accepted by membership in the WTO.
When I was a kid, my family (5 kids & 2 parents) was able to buy a house, own two cars (one new, one older) and take a vacation every summer on one salary. This was true of my neighbors (six kids plus two parents on one side, three kids plus parents on the other, newly married couple across the street could even afford a GTO as a "fun car" while they drove their Buick for everyday) as well.
In my hometown were the headquarters of Beechcraft, Cessna & Lear Jet. Boeing had its second largest plant there. The headquarters of Coleman (maker of camping products) was there as well. Today, all of the homegrown aircraft companies are owned by out-of-towners (one Canadian), Boeing has sold its plant & the workers now have fewer benefits & lower pay and Coleman was purchased by Pearlman, who sold off pieces to help pay interest & converted a cash-heavy retirement fund into a series of annuities with companies of shaky finance. Many of the smaller companies which supplied parts to the aircraft plants have shut down, unable to compete with low-wage countries.
In the town where we bought that house (Hutchinson, sixty miles from Wichita) one of the largest employers was Dillon's, a local grocery chain. They had unionized butchers who were glad to cut you any specialty cut you wanted, a warehouse group & trucking group that paid so well that humble warehouse workers were able to send their kids to college. They've been taken over by Kroger's, the butcher's union has been busted & Fleming Foods (the spin-off of the warehouse & trucking group) is defunct.
When I was a kid, televisions were made in the United States by union workers who spent their entire lives at the same plant & retired to decent homes in the suburbs.
When I was a young boy Chrysler was an American company.
I took my first overseas flight on Pan American Airways - an airline which doesn't even exist any more. There was a regularly scheduled service from Hutchinson, KS (a town of 60,000) to Liberal, KS with a stopover in Garden City (towns about the same size.) There is no regularly scheduled service out of Hutchinson any more. And there are only two major airlines still owned by Americans. And both of them are in perpetual bankruptcy in order to break labor contracts.
We made steel, automobiles, radios, televisions, airplanes, computers and textiles. Today we sell hamburgers to each other (the Service Economy.)
All hail the World Trade Organization & low import duties.

[left of center]

8. not sure what the solution is

Erecting trade barriers may set off a chain reaction where other nations follow suit.

I'm sure it will hurt our economy. The question is whether it will hurt it more than doing nothing at all. I'm sure it will devalue our investment portfolios, but for many millions of people, they don't have them anyway.

We'll likely do without some things, but we got by before without having the world at our fingertips. I know as far as agriculture goes, we can produce most of what we eat here in the US. We would have to pay more for it, but over time things even themselves out. It is just the beginning that hurts.

[Stargazer99]

5. Will and his likes have no knowlege of how others must

survive...they do not interact with the lower class and have no real knowledge of their situtation and some don't really care to know. To know would mean to change some things and those that have want more not less. Even if less means making the living hell for the common man a little lighter.

[pdxmom]

7. Will has no business offering up his views on the economic reality

of the working poor. He has no clue. I'm sure he's spouting the talking points that corporations want out there, so as to keep the big bucks flowing into his pocket, along with the other rich.

Sorry, but here in Oregon, we have a $7.50 minimum wage (going to $7.80 in January). Everything shows that this has not had a "sky is falling" effect in this state. Just the other day, on Thom Hartmann's local show, they were talking about how our rise in the minimum wage has made virtually no impact on businesses.