Reply #22: The outsourcing of middle class jobs...

[Junkdrawer]

Back in the late 1960s people were afraid their middle class jobs would be outsourced to machines. It didn't happen. People learned to operate the machines or moved up into the information economy, where they make machines do the work. Now the outsourcing Bogeymen are third-world countries. Let the jobs get outsourced to where they can be done more cheaply. We'll end up with lower priced stuff in the long run. People in places like India and Ireland need the jobs. It's natural economic evolution that the jobs move there.

No general purpose machine tools are being made in the USA any more. They're made in China and Taiwan, and you can get them for good prices.

In case you haven't noticed, only some factory workers were able to transistion to hightech jobs. The rest now work at (multiple) low paying jobs and are barely able to make ends meet. And we've moved from households with single bread winners to both parents working. The reduction of the middle class is an established fact.

Now, as to the movement of jobs being "natural economic evolution", I agree, BUT there are many ways the impact here of such forces could have been lessened. I think Gephart's "Worldwide Minimum Wage" is a great idea.