Reply #54: Our income has been more than halved since the Chimp

[Urban Prairie]

took office in '01, and that doesn't include the higher cost of living necessities, food, utilities, clothing, insurance...

But if I had the cash/credit to buy a vehicle like the Terrain, I would. I am almost 6'6 " tall and have always been uncomfortable in autos that are primarily designed with the average-sized person in mind, which forced me to gnaw on my kneecaps while driving or riding in most automobiles, until I finally was able to afford an extended-cab PU truck during Clinton's first term of office. Now we cannot afford to own ANY vehicle, since I became disabled and on a fixed income, and my wife working PT @ minimum wage which is less than a fifth of what she used to earn, not including medical/dental and term life insurance from her former employer that outsourced her job to India two and a half years ago.

Just wait until most, if not all of the 20th century "middle-class" becomes the 21st century "lower class", after the monopolistic global corporate capitalists finish outsourcing and offshoring as many jobs as possible, that aren't nailed down here in the US by physical necessity. China and India will eventually be permitted to export their cheap and crappy vehicles to the US, likely sometime during the next decade, and they will eventually dominate the US auto market, that is, whatever will be left of it.

President Obama has stated that those former US jobs will never return. If I could ask him just ONE question about US jobs, I would ask him WHY he thinks that any "new" jobs that will be created here in the US are not going to be vulnerable to outsoucing or offshoring as well, unless they are government or infrastructure related employment opportunities???

I will be sad to see my hometown's domestic automakers disappear, and I personally believe that propping them up with loans is just delaying the inevitable, but to be honest, I will be absolutely thrilled to see the trade protectionist Japanese and Koreans get their collective asses handed to them by the Chinese and maybe India as well.