Sad. 'The Demise of the Middle Class'

[Deja Q]

http://dissidentnews.wordpress.com/2006/12/25/the-demise-of-the-american-middle-class/

Excerpt:
The high paying jobs created in Mexico under NAFTA, the whopping $3.50 per hour ones, are moving to China because even this princely wage level is much too generous according to U.S. businessmen. So currently unemployed workers and anyone laid off in the future better get their applications into McD and Wal-Mart in a hurry because these will be the premier jobs of the future. But, if American workers are willing to accept these “global standard wages” (adjusted for transportation costs), no more than $4.00 per hour, perhaps they can get work here in the U.S., but only if their employers believe these wages will be maintained in the future. Unfortunately no one an live on $4.00 per hour in the U.S. unless he doesn’t mind living on a subsistence level without car or medical coverage(even if minimum wage laws were waived to allow them to do so).

So the middle class worker unwilling or unable to accept this wage level has been disappearing into the limbo of the “having chosen leisure over work” class. The (establishment) economists have so labeled those 25 percent of the labor force(about 70 million people) who are of working age but not working. Forty(40) million of these 70 million “loafers” are between age 50 and 62(surprise!), still too young to be receiving social security.

So what are these “leisure choosers” doing? Some have legitimately retired, being beneficiaries of retirement plans(civil servant ones being the most generous.) But the great bulk of them are simply limping along on their accumulated savings, or, if they are not so well off, have applied and been accepted as “disabled’ under SSI or SSD programs. The children of all these American workers ( those displaced by foreign workers) will not see a dime of whatever savings they had made prior to this time.

Who can we thank for this disaster? The pols have paid their (personal) economists to say that it is the wage earner’s own preference for leisure. Other current myths, created in the same way and by the same people, claim that American workers are uneducated or too lazy to retrain themselves, or simply too lazy. In other words, the workers have only themselves to blame.


Article has more.

How many of you have chosen lethargy over aptitude to your boss, who in all likelihood will remind you of you place and later on tell you to show an interest in something?

[Warpy]

1. Four bucks an hour isn't a subsistence wage

because it doesn't provide for shelter and clothing, only food and transportation to and from work.

Face it, they'd rather kill us off than pay us.

[Deja Q]

4. Probably...

And when * says "In x years we'll reduce our need for foreign gasoline by 20%", one has to wonder where the 20% comes from.

But why kill us when they can better exploit us? I can think of many reasons why they would not want to kill us.

[Peter1x9]

2. On a related note...

2006 Personal Savings Drop to 74-Yr. Low

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070201/D8N0V3C00.html

Feb 1, 8:56 AM (ET)

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

WASHINGTON (AP) - People once again spent everything they made and then some last year, pushing the personal savings rate to the lowest level since the Great Depression more than seven decades ago.

Economists have put forward various reasons to explain the current lack of savings. These range from a feeling on the part of some people that they do not need to save because of the run-up in their investments such as homes and stock portfolios to an effort by many middle-class wage earners to maintain their current lifestyles even though their wage gains have been depressed by the effects of global competition.

Whatever the reason for the low savings, economists warn that it the phenomenon exists at a particularly bad time with 78 million baby boomers approaching retirement age. Instead of building up savings to use during retirement, baby boomers are continuing to spend all their earnings.

[PreacherCasey]

3. Yeah, it's the workers' fault!

:eyes:

It couldn't possibly be the greed and moral bankruptcy of this country's corporate execs. who use the god of capitalism as an excuse to do ANYTHING to drive stock price up (accounting fraud, tax fraud, union breaking, reduction in benefits/insurance, outsourcing, you name it). :puke:

I do blame the nation's workers (and the rest of the population) in one respect, though. It seems the majority of Americans have excused themselves from participating in our Democracy. They do not know their history, aren't up on the issues, don't vote, and are too lazy/disinterested to keep abreast and think critically about what is going on in the world. We've, in general, submitted to our corporate/political masters.

[antigop]

7. I also think the workers share the blame

They should be participating in democracy, as you say.

They should also be organizing and joining unions.

[PreacherCasey]

8. "They should also be organizing and joining unions"

Absolutely!

As should we all. First and foremost, we are all (knowingly or unknowingly) in a CLASS struggle. Reps and Dems, racism, nationalism, patriotism, sexism, religious belief, ethnicity, ect are all unnecessary divisions which our minds have created. We are all human beings. Some people have got the dough, and the rest don't (relatively speaking).

We need to realize this and organize ourselves to speak with a single voice BEFORE they take away everything we've got.

[BuelahWitch]

5. Retrain for what?

What kind of a degree does it take to say "Do you want fries with that?"

Lower the cost of living to third world levels and I'll stop bitching! :grr:

[Deja Q]

6. *ding* *ding* *ding* We have a winner.

That would solve all the problems. Even Bush suggested so yesterday.

(of course, MN governor Pawlenty kept talking about helpin' out India - gee, I thought people voted Pawlenty to help Minnesota... is India now annexed by Minnesota? 51 states, fine by me... how about them? )

[BuelahWitch]

10. I have no problem raising the standard of living in India

but if we are at a wage race to the bottom, so should we be in a race to the bottom for food, housing, clothes and transportation.
Ask your Gov if he'd like to work for $5.15 an hour or less. What do you think the response would be?

[Deja Q]

11. Neither do I, but why are we killing our own in the process?

Most Americans would probably not mind a wage cut over being without an income or means to even live.

And, yes, as I've said this on other posts, that if globalization was meant to be serious the cost of living WOULD go down to match.

Maybe our elected officials ought to work at $5.15/hr or less, as you suggest. That's what they want us to live with. :shrug:

[blues90]

9. exactly , retrain for what .

I am 57 , now what will I retrain for , let me see , there are calling center jobs , or fast food jobs if they would hire someone at 57 . There are costly schools online which not many can afford .

And most of all you need an interest in something somewhat before you find the desire to retrain .

Beside this there are high school graduates each year with all the training in place so you are behind and ruled out .

So about all you have as an option is to leap off a bridge .

[Deja Q]

12. And in our culture of life, they'll barricade the bridges first.

Nothing makes sense, so I'm hoping leadership will actually learn and provide direction.

We've heard lip service, but not all of it's been proven to be wholly genuine.

[CanonRay]

13. This "leisure chooser" is working hard for the Democratic Party

as a county party officer. I'm working on throwing their Repug butts out on the street.