It looks like we have some good economic numbers, but it also appears that looks may be deceiving. According to this MSN Money article, we are replacing $35,000-40,000 a year manufacturing jobs with $18,000 a year retail jobs. As if any of us could take that kind of pay cut. In the denver Metro area you have to make $17/hr to afford a two-bedroom apartment on your own.
It isn't just manufacturing types that are getting hit with outsourcing and offshoring of jobs. Increasingly, white collar engineering, IT, and call-center jobs are being sent out of the country, with 5-10% of all IT moving offshore within five years, primarily in software enginnering and phone help desk functions. Even farmers are hurt by agriculture gluts and globalization.
The solution is compicated. Many of the lost jobs are just gone forever. The culprit? Globalization, Free Trade, and the fiscal policies of cheap-labor conservatives. That's right, the guys who make money by keeping wages down and prices high are behind this. it makes them scads and scads of money. They also happen to be the same people who want to kill welfare, Social Security, Medicare, job training programs, after school programs, and pretty much any left over New Deal items they can find.
Any recovery we get without either maintenance or improvement in real wages is an illusion. Of course, that won't impact the CEOs who run the outsourcing and offshoring all that much.
Posted by Chris at October 30, 2003 12:27 PM