Tag: end of the middle class

“Fast Track” is the Fast Elimination of American Jobs

The Los Angeles Times argues that the ‘fast track’ bill on trade makes sense in a June 10, 2015 editorial. Pointing out that “The nation’s five metropolitan areas with the largest agricultural exports are all in California.” That is clearly a reason to support more free trade agreements that will help farmers sell their crops.   However the consequence of selling those crops overseas is higher food costs for Americans.

The United States is a consumer driven economy. That is an established fact. This country has a history of making everything from cars to bed sheets. I just walked through a Macy’s department store and looked at three men’s shirts made by well known manufacturers. All three were made in other countries: Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Chile. Recently purchased towels were made in India, carving knives made in Switzerland, and a desk chair made in China. We all know that consumer tech products are made in Asia. Where does that leave the blue collar, former middle class, Americans? Unemployed! The last thing the United States needs is another free trade agreement.

Update June 13, 2015 – from my congressman:

Brad Sherman

Dear Friend,

I voted NO on the Fast Track Trade Bill this afternoon. The House stood up for American workers and voted down the package that gives the President “Fast Track” authority that would force into place job killing legislation such as the Trans-Pacific-Partnership.

Washington’s trade policy in the past few decades has failed the American middle. For far too long, we have seen the U.S. export jobs rather than products. We can no longer afford to continue on this path. We must abandon these failed, so-called “free trade” policies of the past and take a new direction that creates more jobs here at home in America. We need balanced trade. That is why I have opposed NAFTA, CAFTA, MFN for China, and a host of bad trade deals we have adopted over the last 20 years.

Thank you very much for contacting me and sharing your views, I hope to hear from you further in the future.

Sincerely,

The Great Economic Divide

Let’s not beat around. Barack Obama was wrong. There are two Americas. Not red states and blue states or racial divides of Black and White. The two Americas are 1) the rich and 2) everyone else.

This is the subject that should be discussed and debated in the next presidential election. Even before that date the subject of the declining size of the middle class and the growing numbers of poor should be discussed by every candidate in both political parties.

Mario Cuomo, the just deceased former governor of New York State, speaking at the 1984 Democratic convention in San Francisco told us the truth about America. Unfortunately the things he said are even truer today.


“While the press and politicos would thrill to the speech’s metaphors about the ‘Tale of Two Cities’ and wagon trains heading west, Cuomo himself would note years later that the part of the speech that ordinary people mentioned to him more than any other by far was the moving description of his family’s immigrant experience” 1 which matches a story that many immigrants to America can tell.

So here we sit at the beginning of 2015 with 30% of the unemployed still looking for work for more than half a year. Many people have been unemployed for years rather than months. Considering those that are “marginally attached to the work force” the unemployment rate is over 11%. These are numbers from the last (November 2014) Labor Department report.

Some are whining that half of the population pay no income taxes.   Are they upset that their pay is so low or that the burden is too high for the nation’s wealthy population? That there is a population that receives special treatment for their dividend and interest earnings? The wealthy are taxed at a lower rate than the family that works for their income.  There are wealthy that pay no income tax because they own nothing but municipal bonds.

Will Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, or any of the other candidates discuss the great economic divide that haunts this nation? My guess is that this is a subject that won’t be discussed. The reason is quite simple. No one wants to alienate their backers who are mostly the very rich.

So what will they discuss and debate? Iran, Iraq, ISIS, Cuba, immigration, taxes, education and everything else you can imagine. There won’t be one word spoken about America’s economic divide.

1 Andrei Cherny, “The legacy of Mario Cuomo’s 1984 ‘Tale of Two Cities’ speech”, Yahoo News