Did the death of industry in America kill the Middle Class?

[*L*E*G*A*C*Y*]

I'm starting to think this is the case and maybe without a doubt this ship isn't coming back to port anytime soon.

It seemed like when upward mobility was more possible between the 1960s-1990s, the best chance there was for low and middle class people without formal skills or education was to get into an industrial job of some sort or in manufacturing.

Ex. The rust belt cities...NYC being the most prosperous...Detroit the least.

Back in the 70s NYC wasn't as prosperous as it is now and Detroit was thriving.

Detroit was used as a model for the middle class in America and now it's seen as a vast wasteland.

Now that most of those jobs have been shipped overseas in favor of low wages and cheaper production costs, I can tell that this dependence on a service economy and it's changing demands can't hold the weight of all the job prospectus in America. There is no reason that a job that requires nothing more than an HS education should have 300 applicants for it ranging from uneducated HS dropouts to bachelors/masters graduates. That shows how pathetic this job market is and how much we are hurting economically as a country.

This can't and won't last forever....

 

[Suicide King]

There was all good and dandy during the industrial revolution and manufacturing jobs were key.

Now we are in the technological age, people need to get certs.

@ assembly lines, ship that out to cheap labor in Mexico.

 

[nineteeneightysix]

The Globalization of Capitalism is killing America...

Capitalism is about maximum profits for minimum expenditure...If you can mass produce for cheap, then you are a good capitalist...

With that said, American will keep losing as other countries develop...

Why would I pay an American an hourly wage, and then give him/her benefits, when I can pay somebody in a developing country significantly less money for the same level and amount of work...?

 

[Scientific Playa]

it started 100 years and two weeks ago

Federal Reserve Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Act‎
Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve Act (ch. 6, 38 Stat. 251, enacted December 23, 1913,

Legislative history

• Introduced in the House as H.R. 7837 by Carter Glass (D-VA) on August 29, 1913
• Committee consideration by: House Banking, Senate Banking
• Passed the House on September 18, 1913 (287–85, 5 Present)
• Passed the Senate on December 18, 1913 (54–34)
• Reported by the joint conference committee on December 22, 1913; agreed to by the House on December 22, 1913 (298–60) and by the Senate on December 23, 1913 (43–25)
• Signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913

 

[Richard Wright]

Even though the fed is the devil in legislative form, we can not ignore that the 50s and 90s booms occurred in the fed era.

Middle class people love Bill Clinton, but looking back NAFTA and especially glass steagall repeal have hurt the middle class just as much as the fed.

Another thing is of course international competition, once everyone else recovered from ww2 the catch up effect started paying dividends. At the same time some one like me who grew up middle class will still have a much better individual opportunity now than any other time in the past, which is relative but not dismiss-able.

God bless America

 

[Marvel]

The Globalization of Capitalism is killing America...

Capitalism is about maximum profits for minimum expenditure...If you can mass produce for cheap, then you are a good capitalist...

With that said, American will keep losing as other countries develop...

Why would I pay an American an hourly wage, and then give him/her benefits, when I can pay somebody in a developing country significantly less money for the same level and amount of work...?

This. I don't think that we are bouncing back anytime soon as a country. Elites will continue to hoard the lion's share of the money. Wages are not going up. Many white collar jobs are paying the same as they were in the 90s and the cost of living has shot up. Good paying blue collar jobs are no longer around or going overseas. Debt is rising. The middle class will keep shrinking. More people will have to do illegal or to some immoral shyt to survive. More will rely on welfare and low income housing. Another thing, the United States has well over 300 million people and growing, we are the 3rd in the world in population. You just cannot make enough jobs for that many people, somebody is going to get screwed and overlooked. Law and MBA degrees are even worth less now and don't guarantee a good career.

 

[IAmGettingAMailOrderBride]

Corporations are cheap

Someone needs to talk to CEOs of the fourtune companies and walk in their shoes

 

[unit321]

Death of industry? Well, it's multi-faceted issues that have either killed off factories or moved manufacturing elsewhere.
Different manufacturing companies have slowly moved manufacturing to Mexico or Asia. The odd thing is that European companies have moved manufacturing to the US. Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Rolls-Royce (for airplane engines, not cars) to name a few have set up factories in the US, which is good for the US economy. Why did they move manufacturing over here anyway? Multiple reasons. Cheaper labor. In the case of German auto manufacturers, less tougher labor unions (employees at German auto factories got it made with a shorter work week and more money). Tax-break incentives. Decreased costs of transportation; they sell so much of a particular vehicle in the US that it makes sense to build it here. For big corporations, it is seen as a very friendly gesture to provide jobs to a competing country (of course, none of these companies have set up factories anywhere near Detroit).
It's pretty hard to keep manufacturing here when you can cut costs by having manufacturing done in Asia. If you don't, then your competitors can eat you alive. For example, Nike and Adidas make shoes in Asia. If Adidas decided to make all shoes in the US, their costs would go way up. They would either have to increase the cost of their shoes or take in less profit per shoe sold or possibly lose money for each shoe sold.
So, all I can say is get some kind of training in the field that can't be shipped overseas.

 

[Vandelay]

Some forms of manufacturing simply cant be offshored. Cars and food for instance need to have local hubs because transportation costs outweigh labor costs.

Capitalism should follow the path of least resistance; ie where dollars can be saved and made. There will be bubbles, recessions, and surpluses along the way.

No one here wants expensive products and people in the developing world like electricity and other first world shyt. America is selling itself short on both sides. The only salvation will be in investing and learning new tech and industry...if people dont want to learn and produce it theres 1 billion in china and india, and all over that will.

 

[blackzeus]

Did crack f*ck up the hood? What kind of captain obvious discussion is this? That sh*t ain't coming back, not meanwhile Patel, Sergei, Akwasi, Chan, and Miguel are willing to work harder, produce more, and complain less for half the pay America's standard of living is not the norm, it's only so long you can live off your past laurels before you start to regress Time to get some bootstraps Americans