the american middle class is rapidly disappearing largely due to corporate greed and outsourcing in particular. it is a statistical fact that the distribution of wealth is shrinking. it seems that soon (in the grand scheme of time) in the united states there will be a huge asset gap to where you will either be very wealthy or very poor. to think that it cant happen here is to be naive. it is already happening.
how to stop it is the question. after all we are a capitalistic society where nowadays it seems like if you can increase the bottom line by exporting jobs and manufacturing that is all that counts. never mind if if you destroy fellow americans hopes and dreams. and i will go as far as to say many people are being put out on the streets because of this (larergest percentage in history).
frankly i have no realistic ideas on how to deal with this huge issue going forward and would like everyone's input.
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Tha alternative to outsourcing is immigration a worldwide economic crash. Jobs are changing more than disappearing. Learning a "tarde" for a life time has always been a risky choice. You solve this one for yourself by continuing education and continuious retraining. This quality of life has always been there and always been tough and always been a personal challenge. I think it is going to stay that way.
Bill"for what we are together"
bill713.unity08@sbcglobal.net
I think the key is education and freeing up resources so people can transition to new and better types of jobs that may be more service oriented and internet and technology based and provide people more options in work than we have in the past. The rest of the world is adopting this model and we need to keep up the best we can. I do think freer and fairer trade will help our economy and others as well. And the welath distribution IS a concern to me but more in terms of the Generational Wealth Gap more that the class wealkth gap. I fear the way we are going now with the massive Entitlement actuarial shortfall unfunded mandate ($39 trillion and growing), we are hamhocking the kids and grandkids of all classes into a system where their wealth opportunties will be severly limited due to our profigate ways on entitlements.
The wealth distribution as a result is severly tilted in this country to the older and less productive rather than the younger and more productive. This can kicking to the next generations cannot continue! If not addressed in the next 10 years this Entitlement Generational Highway Robbery will be unsustainable. And THAT has more danger to our nation's long-term Domestic Economic Stability and the middle class than any possible threat from outsourcing IMHO. We need to replace the Entitlement Mentality with the Endowment Mentality in all its aspects!
DC - 3rd ward - milligansstew08@yahoo.com
http://milligansstew.blogspot.com
The older and less productive was once the younger and more productive.
Your not very good with words. Nevertheless, I wish you well young fella.
Sorry for my poor wordsmithing there Log! I Apologize! Mean't older OR less productive. Anyway with the onset of the Baby Boom Retirement Tsunami the tilt on entitlement payouts, taxes to pay for those payouts, and the overall wealth distribution between generations, the trend for the youngers is decidedly in the adverse and alarmingly so for a thriving and sustainable future for this country. Must be addressed and resolve in the next 10 years or the youngers are cooked as is our nation's future!! We the olders (over 50) are fine for the most part and probably will be. But sooner or later the youngers will realize the deck stacked against them and it will not be pretty.
DC - 3rd ward - milligansstew08@yahoo.com
http://milligansstew.blogspot.com
I hope you know my reply was tongue in cheek. Apology accepted.
Could you enlighten me on what has caused the SSI dilemma ? Has government misappropriated the funds or are we just living too long and retiring too early ?
I am not opposed to safety nets but giving away hard earned taxes I am opposed to. I'd also like to see corporations take a healthy attitude toward retirees and elders. A great deal of downsizing targeted us. And, after a short period of contracting us back they turned to outsourcing ( which was already underway ). If they want to extend SSI age to 70+ they need to create laws that protect eligible workers. Oh, and enforce them.
All for another forum, sorry.
Change is rapid and accelerating. Complexity is getting beyond our ability to cope.
Common sense - the cure for stupid!
As long as you can make it off shore or import it cheaper, than you can make it or buy it in country those jobs are going away.
Only way to get them back would be a tariff system to level the playing field and the public just isn't willing to pay the freight.
We pay 8 dollars an hour for jobs that are done for a buck a day in other countries.
CORPORATIONS
MERGE, MERGE, MERGE, consolidating wealth, limiting competition
Exorbitant exec pay
FED GOV'T
Failure to use anti-trust laws to stop the corps
*Failure to limit corporate expense deduction for exec pay.
UNIONS
UAW line workers making $25 to $35 an hour.
CONSUMERS
Unwilling to support USA manufacture
*(this really goes against my grain, but the only way to justify some of these wages involves some sort of collusion/deception)
I think the CONSUMERS, which is bottom on your list, ought to be moved up to nearer the top. Meself, thinks, anyway.
But then, that ain't exactly fair, because most consumers were weaned on a steady diet of K-Mart, and then Walmart, from birth until after high school or college and onward.
Davey K. in Florida
Your list looks like a good one. Each one of the groups had something to do with it and my intention is not to single any out. However, I think it starts with the wealthy entities. Because, they have the most influence on the political scene. It was similar to the illegals situation, a phenomenon that spread unchecked and driven by greed. The imigration law was ignored but I can not think of any law on outsourcing.
They say it is and will be a good thing for the economy. It certainly seems to be good for the market as of Oct 2024. Obviously those invested in the market enjoy it.
But, as you point out, it may not be good for the common US citizen. I think this underlines the need to change what is going on in our government and the need for Unity08.
Outsourcing is here, and it won't go away anytime soon. tightening up our entitlement situation will help, and as John M says, it is probably the bigger problem for most American workers - even if they don't realize it.
There will be more attention paid to outsourcing as it begins to impact the "white collar" worker. This is already happening in technology, and as it increases, there will be more outcry from the electorate. Many people who currently see the displaced auto-worker as a victim of their own lack of education will have an epiphany when the engineering jobs dry up. If the fruit of your labor can be e-mailed or teleconferenced, then you are at risk.
We are currently in a three-step transition from a manufacturing based economy, to a service based economy, and finally to an information based economy. This will create a larger disparity between rich and poor, and will also impact the political landscape. The internet is already reflecting this, and the influence of the internet is altering the political landscape by creating and nurturing two different competing realities - the mainstream flow of information that is less trusted than before, even as there is more pressure to produce information, and the alternative reality of cult-based information which can at times overwhelm common sense. The flow of information will be more important than the provenance.
This alternative reality will lead to more third-party political activity as disaffected people look for a panacea, and will change the face of American politics (probably not for the good, since it will negatively impact deductive reasoning as a grounding for political belief). This influence will lead to even more political expediency in campaigns, because the flow of information can overwhelm the electorate more than in the past - even as it becomes harder to control information.
Jeff C
While I was surfing channels during a commercial break in the recent Republican debate the other day, I stopped at what passes as big-time, professional wrestling. It was during the introduction of the wrestlers and their teams, I realized just how similar these televised events were to the televised presidential debates. Both were obviously designed for mass audiences and both largely non-fictional, with just a hint of enough reality to allow viewers who wanted to believe to believe that it just might be real.
In this context, I supposed the powerful communicative tool of the Internet would simply serve to better spread the message rather than seek better answers, as you implicate in your post. But if we change the context and employ the Internet in an apolitical, neutral fashion, allowing it to become simply the structure, like the structure of a bridge over which information flows more efficiently, it can become a facilitator of ideas. Once a web site starts manipulating the flow of information, it becomes as silly as today's professional wrestling matches and just as useless. All we need do is work to insure that the political web site we support facilitates rather than directs Internet information.
ex animo
davidfarrar