The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Ding ding!! We have a winner!! You win a free trip to Australia with BY as your tour guide.

That's cool, I actually like BY. Shocking I know.

On the subject of Unions, they only work in a non globalized economy (with the exception of local services). If a union springs up in say sprocket making, the manufacturer will simply move their production to an area with no unions.

I suppose there was a time when the general population might have been able to support unions but since the huge influx of imports that have flooded the market of cheap goods its nearly impossible now. Then you have the services: buses, trams, police etc that are mildly over paid because they don't have to compete.

The only way to stem the crisis that is brewing, is to slowly, and quietly, begin reigning in free trade. The problem is that the people being hurt by free trade don't have that power, and the people with that power won't temporarily hurt themselves.

Edited July 25, 2010 by Sousuke

[Ban Hammer 13,346]

Ding ding!! We have a winner!! You win a free trip to Australia with BY as your tour guide.

[mawilson 2,133]

Steven, what do you propose the middle class do about this then? I say this as someone who shares your concerns.

I would

1) slap massive tariffs on foreign-made (esp. Chinese) goods to encourage the growth of the domestic manufacturing industry.

2) seal the Southern border airtight, Soviet-Union-style, to stop the influx of cheap foreign labor

3) renegotiate all trade agreements, starting with NAFTA

4) provide investment tax credits for businesses to modernize their factories and purchase new machinery

5) introduce severe tax penalties for sending American jobs overseas

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I guess that is why the left is so messed up. They want to be internationalists, but they are against free trade. They want strong unions, but won't do anything about border security. They want everybody to work, but pay people to stay at home and smoke pot.

[mawilson 2,133]

I guess that is why the left is so messed up. They want to be internationalists, but they are against free trade. They want strong unions, but won't do anything about border security. They want everybody to work, but pay people to stay at home and smoke pot.

Are you calling me "the left"? That's new

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Are you calling me "the left"? That's new

He's called me the left as well in the past. He doesn't even know what the "left is apparently.

[mawilson 2,133]

For the record, I'm an isolationist, not an internationalist. I don't believe in "free trade" with

other countries, because it's anything but free. Free trade assumes a level playing field - equality

among the trading countries - which we all know isn't the case.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

He's called me the left as well in the past. He doesn't even know what the "left is apparently.

The left is the opposite of the right.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

The left is the opposite of the right.

True, so perhaps when you are on the right extreme fringe the entire world is "left" from that person's perspective.

Edited July 25, 2010 by Sousuke

[Dan J 277]

Unions were formed to keep out cheap (black and immigrant) labor. "Buy the union label," used to mean it was made by native born white factory workers.

Sure, if that was the real reason, then corporations would have had no fear of unions. After all most of the corporation shareholders at that time were white.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

True, so perhaps when you are on the right extreme fringe the entire world is "left" from that person's perspective.

Excellent observation.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Are you calling me "the left"? That's new

Did I?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Sure, if that was the real reason, then corporations would have had no fear of unions. After all most of the corporation shareholders at that time were white.

Then why were the companies hiring immigrant and black strike breakers at the time? Why were they hiring private security and paying off Federal, state, and local law enforcement to squash the unions? How do you think organized crime got their hands in the cookie jar, other than to put the unions on a level playing field through extortion and providing muscle?

Not everybody that is white is racist. It's more about selfish economic interests.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

What economists call the "income distribution" is, from a middle class perspective, as bad as it has been since the Great Depression. During the Roaring '20s, the split between rich and poor grew exceptionally large, leaving relatively few in the middle class. In the decades following the Depression, things began to change for the better as income and wealth became more evenly distributed. But now we are back to where we were as the nation stood on the brink of its greatest economic catastrophe ever. The very rich are richer than ever, but the rest of us are falling behind at an increasingly rapid pace.

The history of labor unions in America helps tell the story of why we are losing the middle class. Private-sector unionization was legislated during the Depression. Union membership grew into the mid-20th century, then began a slow decline that continues today. Remember the income distribution numbers: a weak middle class in the Depression, a strong middle class in the decades following, and a weakening middle class now. The way these numbers generally track those for union activity is no coincidence.

Unions equalize power in the market place between those who work and those who own something. Those who work are the stuff of which the middle class is made. Those who own fill the ranks of the very wealthy. When the balance of power is with labor unions, the gains from production stay with the middle class. When the balance shifts as it has today, the very wealthy take an ever-larger share from economic activity.

As the very wealthy become even more so, they do not spend money in the way middle-class people do. After all, how many houses and cars, no matter how fine, can one have? Once people have more money than they can possibly spend on goods and services, they no longer use it in ways that stimulate the economy. Instead, they use the power their money brings to get more tax breaks, less regulation, more support for globalization, and policies that favor capital over labor. The middle class continues to weaken.

In spite of all this, we are told not to worry, because the United States is becoming what some politicians call an "ownership society." Instead of supporting unions that bring decent wages to working people, we are advised to buy shares in the corporations that profit when wages are falling. Meanwhile, we ignore the most important aspect of our economy -- that we are a great market for goods and services.

The trouble with all strategies that trade good jobs for cheap toasters is that they eventually erode that very market for the goods and services. A handful of hyper-wealthy individuals, along with millions of people living on the economic edge, are not the sound, stable market needed for growth. Only the middle class, with buying power widely distributed, can provide that. And that is what we are losing today.

~ Richard A. Levins, It Was Unions That Build the Middle Class

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

~ Richard A. Levins, It Was Unions That Build the Middle Class

Richard "#######" Levins is a mathematical ecologist, and political activist.