I grew up in the Midwest back in the 70's. I saw first hand the progression of "The Rust Belt", and the disruption job loss caused the Families of my school mates. The US had it coming, they told us. American manufacturing had grown fat and sluggish during the postwar boom, and this was all a necessary correction. Knowledge work was the future. And to be a Knowledge worker we needed education.
So my cohort was seriously motivated to get science/engineering degrees at University. We thought this would inoculate us against the fate of those lost-looking 40-50 year old men standing in line at the Unemployment Office.
Funny thing happened though. Ten years ago Washington instituted measures to greatly increase the number of temporary technical workers (H1-Bs) allowed to work in the US. At the same time, Corporations discovered that entry-level IT work could be off-shored for a fraction of the cost paid here.
Between 2001 - 2004 its estimated that over 400,000 technical IT jobs have been lost to off-shoring . These aren't McJobs we're talking about - but rock-solid Professional positions paying 40-60,000 per year.
Within the United States, there is an increasingly desperate cry coming from the professional middle class. And progressives seem tone deaf to the issue. I can find more mind share on Kos given to the Humanitarian crisis of Illegal Immigrants than the trials of the middle class professionals. Sometimes I wonder if Progressives don't have a repressed disdain for this portion of the working class - akin to a "just desserts" attitude for voting Republican the last 10-20 years.
This just in from the Associated Press:
CINCINNATI (AP) — Operators of free food banks say they are seeing more working people needing assistance. The increased demand is outstripping supplies and forcing many pantries and food banks to cut portions.
Demand is being driven up by rising costs of food, housing, utilities, health care and gasoline, while food manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are finding they have less surplus food to donate and government help has decreased, according to Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
Stop for a moment and consider the desperation here. For 70% of the electorate, there is no one to turn to. No retraining, no special unemployment benefits, nothing. What government safety net exists does not allow for House payments - its subsistence only. Losing a job is now a descent into real poverty.
And even that meager aid comes strings attached; the shame of today's Calvinist/Darwinian ethos of "you are responsible for yourself - you put yourself in this position".
At this point, I need to say for the record that this is not a screed on Immigration.
This is plea for Leadership. We face a leadership problem, both Democratic and Republican.
Simply put: For the last 10 years Corporations have been strip-mining our domestic economy by exploiting discontinuities in international labor costs. These discontinuities are non-sustainable, and ultimately result in a scorched economic landscape for all participants.
And our Leaders are willfully abetting this agenda.
Free Trade is nothing more than an idealistic smoke screen for rapacious business practices. Put more bluntly - Free Trade does not exist. For proof, go to China or India and try to set up a business that imports knowledge workers, manufactured goods, anything but scrap metal or commodities from the US. You'll be in for a surprise (if you even get started). And even if you do, don't even think about bringing your profits back into the US.
From Foreign Affairs:
WAGES FALLING, PROTECTIONISM RISING
Over the last several years, a striking new feature of the U.S. economy has emerged: real income growth has been extremely skewed, with relatively few high earners doing well while incomes for most workers have stagnated or, in many cases, fallen... By some measures, inequality in the United States is greater today than at any time since the 1920s.
Its a fact that 2/3 of the American economy is Consumer Spending. Not Wall Street, not Oil Companies, but the Middle class spending to take care of their Family.
So where is our Democratic leadership on this? With the exception of Edwards, the rest of the field continues to spout platitudes about Free Trade Benefiting Us All. Our Leaders have forgotten that the genius of Henry Ford was not just in automotive production, but in the notion that his workers should be able to afford the company's products - an innovative idea that laid the cornerstone of labor's ascent into the middle class.
I feel a growing sense of dread about all this. But there is a glimmer of hope. Again, quoting Foreign Affairs:
The best way to avert the rise in protectionism is by instituting a New Deal for globalization -- one that links engagement with the world economy to a substantial redistribution of income. In the United States, that would mean adopting a fundamentally more progressive federal tax system. The notion of more aggressively redistributing income may sound radical, but ensuring that most American workers are benefiting is the best way of saving globalization from a protectionist backlash.
The unraveling of our social & community cohesion is a half step behind this economic crisis. I hope we have the turning room to make a course correction.
Regards;