So you just in here trolling huh cuz this cant be serious. Them people is living 10+ppl in a 3 bedroom, eating rice and beans daily and sending 10s of dollars home a week. Stop with your nonsense dude. thats not living, thats barely surviving. Why are they coming here to work anyway? They should have plenty of jobs in there home countries where unions dont exist right?? The companys probably would take care of them? Why you aint answer my post tho.
I didnt answer your post because it wasnt directed to me
And yes while those folks living conditions seem extreme, American living standards are excessive. The size of the avg American home has increased significantly over the last couple of years
http://www.census.gov/const/C25Ann/sftotalmedavgsqft.pdf
If I'm not mistaken it has doubled since the 50s. Likewise Americans are eating damn near 2x as much as we used to. We have a lot more useless crap as well that keeps us mired in debt. So this underlying theme that middle class America's financial plight is the result of corporate greed is bogus. Yes, outsourcing and wage stagnation
play a part, but to try and say they are the only drivers is intellectually dishonest. Point is Americans are making a lot more bad lifestyle + financial choices than we used to
Back to your point though, Americans have grown to feel we are entitled to a standard of life that is well beyond that of "the good old days" people keep referencing as how we should be living, while also not wanting to make the sacrifices or work as hard as we were during "the good old days". The revisionist history is crazy and totally transparent.
The jobs people were busting their ass at used to pay enough to provide a good life. If companies cant afford to pay these workers a good salary because of global competition then how do you explain their profits skyrocketing? If profits are going up then why arent the regular workers benefiting like the owners and executives are?
Bruh the world changes. Back in the day 98% of the Western world worked on farms. Now in many countries farming can't exist without govt subsidies. The pace of change has also accelerated, which is a legitimate cause for concern but not the fault of corporations. In other words, a good job 50 years ago might not even exist today, and its goofy to expect a job's value to remain constant with time.
Not to mention, companies are in the business of making a profit, and part of that is finding labor that is cheap. For better or worse when places like China and Malaysia opened up corporations took jobs there, and US consumers benefited by having cheaper prices. And the typical company within the context of what we are talking about is not that profitable. Don't use Apple or Exxon as an example of a "typical" American company, thats dishonest. They are the exceptions, not the rules... corporations still face losses and go out of business.
Illegal immigrants working for less than minimum wage are living in awful crime ridden neighborhoods, often with more than 1 family in the house, and are living a meager lifestyle. Why you think it is ok for the lifestyle of Americans to be reduced to that and its ok, i have no earthly idea. People want the quality of life they had decades ago. People arent asking for mansions and luxury cars. Just a good life. We should be able to provide that in America.
I didn't say that is how we should be living, just that your assertion that there's no way for Americans to cut back any further is false. And like I said, the quality of life we had decades ago would be a significant regression. Smaller houses, less food, less "stuff". If Americans did that, there would still be issues, but they wouldn't be anywhere near as bad
Do you not realize that Americans have the lowest amount of vacation time in the modern world, yet we work the most hours? Why do you think the bare minimum of 2 weeks vacation a year is fine? Its because you were brought up in this system thats why. People in other countries laugh at that shyt. Its offensive to them, yet for you thats perfectly fine. Unions are the reason we even get that paltry amount.
Other countries laugh?
Most of the European countries w/these more generous benefits are in the midst of a recession/crisis with significantly higher unemployment. The few European countries that are still afloat with better benefits than us have much more competitive workforces and more investment into their labor from the govt. Likewise, Europeans laugh at our mindless excess- our "pigs in a trough" approach to food, our gaudy overcompensating oversized houses, our complete ignorance of world culture yadda yadda. America's got problems way bigger than corporations "giving" us the lifestyle we "deserve"... why you are fixated on this idea that our problems all come back to corporations not paying enough is beyond me but its clear you have an agenda.
