Where have America's middle-class jobs gone?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/perspective/article_620c2812-803c-5e27-86d1-14565d643a29.html

By Tracy Emblem - For the North County Times North County Times - Californian | Posted: Sunday, December 12, 2010 12:00 am

American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report. These profits are the highest they have been in 60 years.

At the same time, Americans are out of work. As of September, 14.8 million American were unemployed ---- 6.1 million people have been out of work for six months or more.

Recently, three members of San Diego County's congressional delegation, including North County Rep. Brian Bilbray voted to extend another round of unemployment benefits. But extending unemployment benefits is a Band-Aid while leadership ignores the problem. America's economy is hemorrhaging from the nation's loss of jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that since 1979, 8 million American manufacturing jobs have been lost. This is significant because for every manufacturing job affected, three to four ancillary jobs are also lost.

[Skink]

1. Since 79 we probably have atleast replaced those jobs with jobs

the middle class is disapearing because of the downward pressure on wages for the last20 to 30 years.

[Codeine]

2. They began disappearing as the unions were crushed.

Coincidence, I'm sure.

[Vincardog]

3. China and India They followed the Manufacturing and IT jobs to China and India. This is exactly

the 'problem' the politicians refuse to face.

The Corporatist refuse to fact the fact the the working people have to have more than a seat at the table
they need to own the damned factories before we begin to fix the underlying issues.

[peacebird]

4. wish i could say i was surprised.... but i'm not.

[Cerridwen]

5. It's a 4-fer.

Not only do multi-national businesses remove decent paying jobs from the job pool, they get to use the decrease in jobs to increase the number of employees per job while putting workers in a position to compete for each job while under-bidding each other. Oh yeah, and then we get to blame our fellow workers for costing too much by demanding decent wages and benefits and chasing jobs away.

Multi-national businesses get to
cause the problem,
pit worker against worker,
pass the blame,
then PROFIT!

That's some serious return on investment.

[RKP5637]

6. Business as usual in the "new" American, home of the jobless. No "real"

solutions, just ban-aids on a system in need of refurbishment. Examining and stopping the benefits of offshore labor would be innovative, but no, the vote could not be obtained to stop the taxing benefits. Stopping incorporation and tax havens in the Cayman Islands would be beneficial, but no, we can't do that. And on and on ... Any thinking their jobs are secure in this country haven't thought it out ... some will be, but others can be easily outsourced.

Meanwhile, Demand will go down and hence jobs down, and cheap imported goods continue. The way it's worked, it's an insolvable equation.

[Statistical]

7. Another way to look at it is...

If corporations hired the 14.8 million unemployed with average salary of $50K (cost of $740B) they would have "only" made $919 billion (instead of $1.7 trillion) this year.

0% unemployment $50K average salary and companies would have still cleared almost a trillion in profit.*

*The reality is those empoyees would have generated additional revenue, sales, etc but even assumming they didn't companies would still have been solidly profitable.

[Uben]

8. Automation takes a lot

Computers and robots are just a couple of reasons jobs for humans are disappearing. Technology has made it easier to ship some jobs overseas where labor costs are lower, ie all the telecommunications outsourced to India. It wasn't long ago when this was not possible or economically feasible but it caught on like wildfire when it became easier using telecommunication technolgies of today.

[Cleita]

9. We could create more jobs by bringing back the labor

laws of the seventies. Everyone gets time and a half for hours worked over forty a week or eight in a day. This alone gets employers to hire on more people instead of working their employees an extra twenty to forty hours a week over their forty hours without pay. Next we need more government jobs not less. Instead of giving welfare to able bodied skilled and unskilled workers, hire them instead and make sure there is quality day care available for people with children. There is always work that needs to be done and it would be a good way to start fixing our infrastructure. Put tariffs on imported goods that can be manufactured here so that our manufacturers can compete. Finally, make low interest small business loans available to would be entrepreneurs who would build these factories. Finally, give Medicare to all to bring back runaway industries, like the entertainment industry that has fled to Canada and New Zealand because they don't have to provide health insurance to their workers or the auto industry that has fled to Canada and Mexico for the same reason.

[Laelth]

10. +1 Spot on. n/t

-Laelth

[RKP5637]

11. Now these are innovative ideas, things that could work, that's what gets me

so PO'ed with the current approach, it's business as usual and ban-aids.

[Bill O Rights]

12. Clinton stabbed all in the back by pushing NAFTA

Outsourcing Manufacturing destroyed our nation's job base and will be the death of America. One of the main reasons that they are using the TSA to shred our rights is as a pretext to do the same thing to us in our city streets.

In 5-10-15 years, our nation will be an unrecognizable, Third World Police State.

DEFEND EVERY ASPECT OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS, IF WE DON'T WE WILL BE VERY, VERY SORRY.