Reply #17: You're taking that quote out of context.

[wickerwoman]

I never said there's objectively no difference between working at Walmart and a white collar tech job. I said there's no difference between working at Walmart and working in a factory. And there isn't. I worked in a factory folding boxes. I came home at the end of the day with paper-cuts down to the bone on some fingers and my hands so stiff I could hardly eat. I'd rather clean puke and have customers shout at me. They're both shit jobs, but the real difference now is you can scrape out a living at the unionized box factory and you can't at Walmart.

I think it's totally unfair that you can't find a job that pays a decent salary for your education and experience. Perhaps I didn't explain clearly what I meant by red herring. I don't think that outsourcing isn't real or that it isn't a serious problem. I just think that making promises to stop it without clearly explaining how that can be done plays into the Republicans' hands- making us look like complainers rather than real leaders (hence a red herring).

I think what we need to say to blue-collar workers is not "Your life sucks because some guy in China got your job". We need to say "Your life sucks because the Walmart down the street won't pay you a fair wage, kick in for your medical benefits, pay you a real pension, etc."

My point was about the message we're sending focusing on a problem that is *perceived* to be hopeless and inevitable instead of telling people what we're going to do for them in concrete terms.