Dragonlady
Designing Woman
The problem for the US economy since 1970 has been that the Europeans and the Japanese rebuilt with the latest and equipment, technology and infrastructure, while by 1970, American manufacturing capability and infrastructure which have been built in the 30s and 40s, was now ageing and out of date.
With a Republican failure to invest in infrastructure, education, or the social contract since 1980, you are now worse off than you were in the 70s when things started going south.
The problem in our country was that unions either closed down companies, forced them out of the state, or forced them out of the country. Outsourcing became a common method of getting cheaper labor, especially thanks to Ears when he put a 50 employee limit on being exempt from Commie Care. When growing small businesses started to creep up to that 50 employee limit, they outsourced instead to not cross that line.
All the business and pollution regulations didn't help either. Those could cost a company millions. Then there is taxation to consider.
It had nothing to do with technology and and equipment. Employers were always willing to invest in anything that has a great return on their money. In fact automation killed more American jobs than outsourcing or companies moving overseas combined. If the Democrats ever pass a 15.00 minimum wage, automation will be on steroids.
Outsourcing started with Reagan, bottom line management, and vulture capitalism. It had NOTHING to do with unions or Obamacare, although the capitalists had no qualms about pressuring unions into making concessions to save jobs, or in blaming unions for the loss of jobs.
If you want the simple explanation, watch Wall Street to find out what happened to your jobs. That all started when Reagan busted the air traffic controllers union, before Ears was out of law school.
Reagan promised all the workers a big raise when the unions were gone. Workers haven’t had a real raise in wages since they foolishly elected Ronald Reagan. Not only have they not had any meaningful raise since 1980, their current wages have less buying power than they did when Reagan was in office, and 60% of Americans now live pay check to paycheck.
It wasn’t the unions that destroyed jobs and offshore and caused the offshore in, it was bottom line management and rewarding the shareholders.
The Republican Party the big corporations scapegoated the unions for the job losses even though Republican taxation policies and corporate greed lead to the decisions to offshore manufacturing.
Just as the Republican Party tells you that “illegal immigrants are stealing your jobs”, they tell you that union demands force them to off shore manufacturing.
American business leaders made the decisions to move manufacturing offshore. Republican donors who give jobs to illegal immigrants, are the ones who are “stealing your jobs”. No one “forced” these decisions on them.
During the merger mania of the 1980’s, It was highly profitable for capitalists to buy small companies sell off their assets and close down their operations, than it was for them to buy and operate these businesses. So that’s what they did.
After NAFTA it was more profitable for American companies to close Canadian branch plants, set up to avoid tariffs, and move jobs back to the states, so that’s what they did.
No consideration was given to the effect on the people or communities who depended on the work and the income.
By the time Obama was elected, American manufacturing was completely gone. But by the time Obama left office, they were 5 million jobs in the United States which could not be filled because you’re completely lacking and technically skilled and qualified labor.
Why haven’t you been re-training people for 21st Century jobs? Instead of trying to reopen the coal mines?