Edwards brings up another very important point....

[Mind_your_head]

If America is projected to LOSE 20-30 MILLION JOBS within the next decade....and it's not the 'mill/factory' workers (b/c how many 'mill/factory' jobs do we really have left anyway - American manufacturing is STRUGGLING, and arguably, in it's death throes....

So, WHO is gonna LOSE those jobs???? The college graduate! The college graduate that YOU (as a parent) or as a student on your own is working very hard to pay for!

Is it okay that 20-30 million jobs will be lost w/in the next decade????? :wow:

[LibraLiz1973]

1. Edwards has his finger on the pulse of what is going on

WE NEED HIM!!!

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. America needs him! Hey freeps are you listening! It's your jobs, it's all our jobs that will be

lost and Corporate America could NOT care less about you or your families! You can't eat your guns and ammo and your bibles won't fill you up, nutritionally speaking! Get a clue!

[MessiahRp]

3. When he said that I thought about all the College Grads with huge student loan debts

and when all these grads are forced into low paying service industry jobs how they won't be able to pay off $100,000 or more in college loan debt. That then trickles over into damaging the economy more because those loans will force these students to live off more credit card debt, to not be able to invest in new cars or homes.... that will cause a dramatic economic hit to occur all the way down the line.

I'm so glad Edwards addressed this because I have been speaking about this since 2003 when I worked for Washington Mutual Bank's home loan servicing department and went against company policy by suggesting customers that were struggling with payments move to refinance to a Fixed Rate Mortgage over the seemingly lower rates of the ARM loans. Anybody with any sort of insight could see how this was going to affect the economy then and not many people warned people about it.

Now that part of the economy is in freefall (mortgage loans).

At that point I started to speak to other Democrats when I worked for Kerry about how important it was to change course with our economy because Bush's Labor Dept had purposely undermined the American worker and college grads by pushing out memos on how to avoid OT pay and suggesting outsourcing solutions.

I and many of us on here could see how the NEW economy was being built by factory workers losing $20 an hour jobs and having to replace them with two $8-10 an hour jobs to make up the difference. But even moreso it was becoming an economy where service industry jobs were all that was left and where technically skilled workers and college grads would not find the jobs they were trained for available to them and in effort to not sink completely they would need to take these service industry jobs...

That caused two issues. First the college grads who usually generate a large portion of the middle class' tax dollars and purchases did not have the money to do so. Second the unskilled or non-college educated workers who normally took those service jobs were struggling hard to find work.

The result is that in addition to other economic policy choices made by the Bush Administration, the poorest Americans got poorer and the bottom dropped out on the Middle Class while the rich and corporate CEOs reaped windfalls from tax breaks and outsourcing labor costs.

I'm so happy Edwards raised this issue because it has been too long coming for a Presidential candidate to do so.

Rp

[LucyParsons]

6. "when all these grads are forced into low paying service industry jobs " ?

hahahahaha

That's... NOW.

(I am one.)

[MessiahRp]

12. Yeah I was talking from the perspective of what I was saying in 2003

I have a friend who the past few years after getting his degree from University of Iowa could not find a job in his field and stayed working at fast food places while debating about taking on more debt from going to grad school and getting even more student loans. He eventually passed on the loans and made management in the restaurant which he believes is his only fiscal hope at this point with positions in his field not open and with his experience in the food industry having more opportunites for him at this point.

Which makes the five years he spent in college meaningless and nothing more than debt accrument for the most part.

Rp

[glowing]

17. Me too.... and its been that way since the beginning of Bush and at the

End of Clinton..

[Mind_your_head]

7. Thank you for helping to explain how this affects ALL OF US.....and this

is just along a certain economic vein....there are MANY many more....

[caligirl]

4. sunny silicon valley is a prime example, manufacturing left for China and India

Most if not all semi manufacturing is gone forever.

[avaistheone1]

5. Tons of the programming and IT jobs have left Silicon Valley for China and India too.

I think Edwards is the only candidate who is articulately positions about protecting the American workers. That would be US!!!!

[cascadiance]

8. Bangalore is NOW the biggest employer of high tech workers, NOT Silicon Valley....

That shift was made just a few years ago. It's a shift that continues with this "free trade" bent towards rewarding outsourcing of our jobs...

[Avalux]

9. Further gutting of the middle class; it will be extinct in 20 years.

Unless we do something NOW, this country will be nothing more than a ruling class and their serfs.

[B Calm]

10. He's the only candidate that is speaking up for the person who works

for a paycheck! A person who works for a living would be a damn fool not to vote for him!

[waiting for hope]

11. A vote for Edwards is a vote for yourself. eom.

[Digit]

13. I am back in frigging retail after years of being self employed

You would think retail would be easy but there are stats you must adhere to or lose your job.

With the damned economy being what it is, it can be tough to meet what is expected of you.

Oh, we have a great product, one that people really need.....but they have to be able to BUY it, or qualify for financing.

If the Huckster were to become prez and add 23% plus tax to our items, we would be out of business.
Craigslist would become so busy, it would be insane. Why pay retail with a 23% tax when you can buy secondhand and save hundreds of dollars?

* has turned our world upside down....everything is in turmoil...I predicted this when I first heard his name. I was extremely unpopular back then, but time has proven me right. I don't know HOW I knew it, but I KNEW with ever fibre of my body that he was BAD news. I posted and posted back then, but I only drew flames.

I am rambling and need to get to bed. Sleep well, DU.

[Horse with no Name]

14. reposted from my journal

Ultimately, the US will be merely one stop on the Tilt-a-Whirl for the corporations. They will have an office here to portray involvement in this country, while outsourcing the REAL (manufacturing) jobs to third world countries for cents on the dollar and getting insanely rich in the process.
The "global economy" doesn't exist for the average worker...the "global economy" exists for the corporations.
The blind American support for a global economy and free trade perplex me the most because those are the death knells for the middle class. Instead of concentrating on how many high paying jobs have LEFT this country...the media/government has everyone fighting the undocumented workers for the leftover scraps of jobs--while leaving out the important details of WHY those jobs have suddenly become desirable and why those that seek them are now the "enemy"...and leaving out the important intersection of "us" and "them" which is only the fact that we happened to be born on this side of the border--other than that, we are ALL literally in the same boat...they have just been in it longer. Make no mistake though, there will be a day, if not in OUR lifetime, then certainly in our children's lifetime that crossing the border--legally or illegally--to work will be an option that many will have to consider.
The breathless reporting about the Nasdaq, et al...is another thing that I don't understand because most middle class can barely afford their homes, gas, and cars, let alone a blue ribbon portfolio of stocks.
I am not saying these aren't important indicators, but the time that it takes to report on how much money the wealthy and uber-wealthy lost/made today is really not relevant to most. The trickle-down theory does NOT exist, it never has.
However, these things have been portrayed by the media as being "important" in achieving the American dream...when the American dream does not exist anymore. It is a fable.
When I graduated from High School in 1981, college was really only one option. The area that I lived in had manufacturing plants that were good, solid union jobs. The kind where you could raise a family. Those are all gone now and the available jobs have been replaced with Walmart and McDonalds.
I remember in the 90's that it was touted that if you got a degree in computers...man, you were set for life. People flocked to college and trade school--acquiring thousands in loans (enter Sallie Mae, et al). Now, those jobs are either gone or are leaving...replaced again with MORE Walmarts and more McDonalds. More low level low paying service jobs.
The ONLY thing that is existing right now is a redistribution of wealth to the top of the economic spheres. That is not good for anyone making less than a mid 6-figure income. But that is the entire point. It's not supposed to be good for us.
We are dispensable.

[Justice Is Comin]

15. He really got his points in

Was as articulate and deft as a ninja.

There are a LOT of college students in NH and it had to be chilling for them to hear that kind of passion for them.

[deacon]

16. k + r n/t