I'm never sure what to make of all this gnashing of teeth over some (imaginary) lost America? If anyone is interested in a more balanced and valid assessment of America today check out the book quoted below. Check links too.
"The ruling class thinks that the average American earns too much money. This is an unspoken belief, and one that most of them would no doubt vehemently deny. But the evidence is compelling. The elite show their hand in many ways:
• When they oppose raising the pay of the lowest-paid workers, those covered by the minimum wage
That's because the "elite" get there by being exponentially brighter than you are. They realize that actions do not exist in a vacuum. And when McDonald's is forced to raise minimum wage, they do not eat that cost. Instead, they raise their prices and pass that cost off on to their customers. And so the minimum wage workers wage went up, but so did the cost of everything at McDonald's, Wal*Mart, etc. and said minimum wage worker is no further ahead (but the rest of America - who did not see their income go up, is now further behind).
It's basic, fundamental, economics 101 - something libtards are completely incapable of comprehending for some strange reason.
• When they encourage the export of good-paying jobs in fields such as information technology
See previous response ^
• When they resist changes in the tax code that would protect American workers
I don't know anyone who opposes reforming the tax code. This is a flat out lie.
Corporate executives contend that they are forced to relocate their operations to low-wage havens to remain competitive. In other words, their domestic workers earn too much. Never mind that manufacturing wages are lower in the United Stares than in a dozen other developed countries.
Thanks to the rules, many of which are written by corporations, a company can pull up stakes and use cheap foreign labor to make the same product it once did in America. It no longer has to meet environmental standards. It no longer has to abide by U.S. labor laws. It no longer has to pay a decent wage. Then the company can ship the product back to the United States where, courtesy of the rules, it will pay little if any duty. How can American workers hope to compete against that? They can't.
Lisa Gentner worked at a company called Carrollton Specialty Products, housed in a one-story warehouse in Moberly, Missouri, a town of 15,000 in central Missouri. Carrollton was a subcontractor for Hallmark Cards, the global greeting card giant based 125 miles west in Kansas City, Missouri. The largely female workforce of 200 provided the hand assembly for a variety of Hallmark products. They tied bows and affixed them to valentines and anniversary greetings. They glued buttons, rhinestones, and pop-ups inside birthday cards. They made gift baskets.
As in many towns across the country, the plant was an economic anchor for Moberly. Manufacturing is often pictured as a big-city enterprise, but a substantial number of plants are the lifeblood of small to medium-sized cities...."
Quote from p24 'Assault on the Middle Class' in 'The Betrayal of the American Dream' authors, Barlett and Steele.
Barlett & Steele
OpEdNews - Article: American Job Loss Is Permanent
http://www.drummajorinstitute.org/library/article.php?ID=5195
5 Facts About Overseas Outsourcing | Center for American Progress
The Progressive Story of America
This is Your Story - The Progressive Story of America. Pass It On.
"An entire century of human progress separates the worst-off from the best-off groups within the U.S., according to the latest update of the American Human Development (HD) Index. Read the report."
A Century Apart: New Measures of Well-being for U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups ? Measure of America: American Human Development Project
REPORT: 25 Corporations Paid More To Their CEO Last Year Than They Paid In Taxes | ThinkProgress
