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Global Economy? 23 Facts Which Prove That Globalism Is Pushing The Standard Of Living Of The Middle Class Down To Third World Levels
Think a global economic system is a good thing? Think again. According to Michael Snyder, we're going to equalize our way down to the standards of living in third world nations, and we're well on the way. (That is for 99% - 99.9% of us, the rest will be fine). - Ilene
Courtesy of Michael Snyder at Economic Collapse
From now on, whenever you hear the term "the global economy" you should immediately equate it with the destruction of the U.S. middle class. Over the past several decades, the American economy has been slowly but surely merged into the emerging one world economic system.
Unfortunately for the middle class, much of the rest of the world does not have the same minimum wage laws and worker protections that we do. Therefore, the massive global corporations that now dominate our economy are able to pay workers in other countries slave labor wages and import the products that they make into the United States to compete with products made by "expensive" American workers. This has resulted in a mass exodus of manufacturing facilities and jobs from the United States.
But without good, high paying jobs the U.S. middle class cannot continue to be the U.S middle class. The only thing that the vast majority of Americans have to offer in the economic marketplace is their labor. Sadly, that labor has now been dramatically devalued. American workers now must directly compete for jobs with millions upon millions of workers on the other side of the world that toil away for 15 hours a day at slave labor wages. This is causing jobs to leave the United States at an almost unbelievable rate, and it is putting tremendous downward pressure on the wages of millions of jobs that are still in the United States.
So when you hear terms such as "globalization" and "the global economy", it is important to keep in mind that those are code words for the emerging one world economic system that is systematically wiping out the U.S. middle class.
A one world labor pool means that the standard of living for the U.S. middle class will continue falling toward the standard of living in the third world.
We keep hearing about how the U.S. economy is being transformed from a "manufacturing economy" into a "service economy". But "service jobs" are generally much lower paying than "manufacturing jobs". The number of good paying "middle class jobs" in the United States is rapidly decreasing. So how can the U.S. middle class survive in such an environment?
What makes things even worse for manufacturers in the United States is that other nations often impose a "value-added tax" of 20 percent or more on U.S. goods entering their shores and yet most of the time we do not reciprocate with similar taxes.
But whenever someone mentions how incredibly unfair and unbalanced our trade agreements with other nations are, they are immediately labeled as a "protectionist".
Well, someone should be looking out for U.S. interests when it comes to trade, because the current state of the global economy is ripping the U.S. middle class to shreds.
Right now, the United States consumes far more wealth than it produces. This nation buys much, much more from the rest of the world than they buy from us. This is called a "trade deficit", and it is one of the most important economic statistics. The U.S. runs a massive trade deficit every single year, and it is wiping out our national wealth, it is destroying our surviving industries and it is absolutely shredding middle class America.
We cannot allow tens of thousands of factories to continue to leave the United States. We cannot allow millions of jobs to continue to be "outsourced" and "offshored". We cannot allow tens of billions of dollars of our national wealth to continue to be transferred into foreign hands every single month.
The truth is that the global economy is bad for America. The following are 23 facts which prove that globalism is pushing the standard of living of the middle class down to third world levels....
#1 From December 2000 to December 2010, the U.S. ran a total trade deficit of 6.1 trillion dollars.
#2 The U.S. trade deficit was about 33 percent larger in 2010 than it was in 2009.
#3 The U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.
#4 The U.S. economy is rapidly trading high wage jobs for low wage jobs. According to a new report from the National Employment Law Project, higher wage industries accounted for 40 percent of the job losses over the past 12 months but only 14 percent of the job growth. Lower wage industries accounted for just 23 percent of the job losses over the past 12 months and a whopping 49 percent of the job growth.
#5 Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost.
#6 In Germany, exports account for approximately 40 percent of GDP. In China, exports account for approximately 30 percent of GDP. In the United States, exports account for approximately 13 percent of GDP.
#7 Do you remember when the United States was the dominant manufacturer of automobiles and trucks on the globe? Well, in 2010 the U.S. ran a trade deficit in automobiles, trucks and parts of $110 billion.
#8 In 2010, South Korea exported 12 times as many automobiles, trucks and parts to us as we exported to them.
#9 The U.S. economy now has 10 percent fewer "middle class jobs" than it did just ten years ago.
#10 The United States currently has 7.7 million fewer payroll jobs than it did back in December 2007.
#11 Back in 1970, 25 percent of all jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs. Today, only 9 percent of the jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs.
#12 In 2002, the United States had a trade deficit in "advanced technology products" of $16 billion with the rest of the world. In 2010, that number skyrocketed to $82 billion.
#13 The United States now spends more than 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.
#14 In China, working conditions are so bad that large numbers of "employees" regularly try to commit suicide. One major employer, Foxconn, has even gone so far as to install "anti-suicide nets" in an attempt to keep their employees from jumping off of their buildings.
#15 Wages for workers in China are incredibly low. For example, one facility in the city of Longhua that makes iPods employs approximately 200,000 workers. These workers put in endless 15-hour days but they only make about $50 per month.
#16 In Bangladesh, manufacturing workers toil in absolutely horrific conditions and make an average of about $38 per month.
#17 In Vietnam, teenage workers often work seven days a week for as little as 6 cents an hour making promotional Disney toys for McDonald's.
#18 Since 2001, over 42,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have been closed.
#19 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.
#20 In the United States today, 6.2 million Americans have been out of work for 6 months of longer.
#21 8.4 million Americans are currently working part-time jobs for "economic reasons". These jobs are mostly very low paying service jobs.
#22 When you adjust wages for inflation, middle class workers in the United States make less money today than they did back in 1971.
#23 According to Willem Buiter, the chief economist at Citigroup, China will be the largest economy in the world by the year 2020, and India will surpass China by the year 2050.
Those that promote "free trade" can never explain how the U.S. middle class is going to continue to have plenty of jobs in the new global economy.
By merging our labor pool with the rest of the world, we have also merged our standard of living with the rest of the world. High unemployment is rapidly becoming "the new normal" in America, and wages are going to continue to decline in many, many industries.
Already, there are quite a few formerly great U.S. cities (such as Detroit) that are beginning to resemble third world hellholes. If something is not done about our massive trade imbalance, even more cities are going to follow Detroit into oblivion.
Unfortunately, most of our politicians continue to insist that globalism is good for our society. They continue to insist that we should not be worried that jobs formerly done by middle class American workers are now being done by slave laborers on the other side of the globe. They continue to insist that having 43 million Americans on food stamps is a temporary thing and that soon our economy will be better than ever.
Well, it is time to stop listening to the politicians that are promoting "the global economy". They are lying to us.
Globalism is great for nations such as China and it is helping multinational corporations make huge profits, but for the U.S. middle class it is an economic death sentence.
If you want an America where there are less jobs, where more Americans are on food stamps and other anti-poverty programs and where our cities continue to be transformed into deindustrialized hellholes, then you should strongly support the emerging global economy.
But if you care about the standard of living of the U.S. middle class and you want for there to be some kind of viable economic future for your children and your grandchildren then you had better start caring about these issues and doing something about them.
Please wake up America.
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The useful idiots who promoted it aren't hurt; they're the ruling class.
Be prepared to dispute those who claim that it is your "moral duty" to be your brother's keeper or they will victimize you. "There is no morality in being your brother's keeper if you are forced to do it. To the contrary, it is coercing your neighbor into being his brother's keeper that is immoral." http://thematrixnot.blogspot.com/2009/08/moral-duty.html
For the people that have been in the "Middle Class" for the last 30-40 years, I have a question. Where did your money go? Were you a grasshopper or an ant? Did you gamble? Did you enjoy the "Good Life"? Many people were ants who only bought dividend paying stocks or real estate with positive cash flow or tax free high yield munis or bought gold at 300 and silver at 4 or even a McDonalds franchise when they were a bargain! Like Mogambo says, "Investing is easy" if you pay attention. With the Baby Boomer crash on it's way, the ants will have to ask themselves whether they are their brother's(grasshoppers) keeper? This could get really ugly!
Flashy investments may pay off but mostly not, over time.
To be an ant isn't buying dividend-paying stocks, or any stocks, which after all are gambles, not sure things. It's paying one's own way, not throwing money away, and not taking risks when we used to be able to get a steady and decent percent with CDs with far less risk.
What did we do?
We always lived way below our means. Saved our money, paid off our mortgage. Bought cars only about every 8-10 years. Lived comfortable and were happy but frugal.
Our investments crashed in 2008 and won't come back; it's too late; we're retired.
We are still able to eat, and we're still frugal. We still live in the house we built 26 years ago. My car is 5 years old, a Hyundai because of the 10,000 mile drive train warranty. I'll keep it at least another 5 years.
It's too late to be admonishing people about bargain franchises when everyone's sick over the declining value of homes are chained to but for which they must pay ever-higher property and other taxes while they either can't find a job or are working multiple part-time jobs with no benefits and negligible pay. When gas gets to $5.00 per gallon, are people going to drive to work or eat?
You're right that socialists and their beneficiaries seems about to get a dose of reality but the foot-dragging at state and federal levels suggests it may be a very long time before we see any FAIR responsibility-taking by union workers. One wonders who appointed taxpayers as their slaves. Oops, I forgot, it was those bastards we voted for.
I have invested quite a bit over the past few decades in tax free munis, and they have been very good to me. I have never lost $1 of principal on any muni bond (i.e. I do not buy muni bond funds). Some folks on this website think munis across the US may follow the path of those in Vallejo, CA. Maybe that will happen in some places, but I don't believe it will be a contagion. Vallejo, CA was an extreme case of poor city management. Munis are a vital source of revenue to municipalities, and I view them as one of the last lines in the sand before complete collapse.
You may have not lost a $1 in principal but as credit is going to cost a lot more and the currency is being more rapidly debased, what's it gonna buy in 10,20, 30years? You've lost 20% in buying power in the last 10 years!
The munis I have owned have earned (on average) over 5%, and all the income was free of federal income tax and state income tax (I live in Texas where there is no state income tax). As a whole, I'd say that is a pretty decent return, and I didn't lose a penny in the market crashes of 2000 or 2007 in munis.
Good luck to you.
>Those that promote "free trade" can never explain how the U.S. middle class is going to continue to have plenty of jobs in the new global economy.
"We may try to imagine the conditions within a world in which all material factors of production are so fully employed that there is no opportunity to employ all men or to employ all men to the extent that they are ready to work. In such a world labor is abundant; an increase in the supply of labor cannot add any increment whatever to the total amount of production. If we assume that all men have the same capacity and application for work and if we disregard the disutility of labor, labor in such a world would not be an economic good. If this world were a socialist commonwealth, an increase in population figures would be deemed an increase in the number of idle consumers. If it were a market society, wage rates paid would not be enough to prevent starvation. Those seeking employment would be ready to go to work for any wages, however low, even if insufficient for the preservation of their lives. They would be happy to delay for awhile death by starvation. There is no need to dwell upon the paradoxes of this hypothesis and to discuss the problems of such a world. Our world is different. Labor is more scarce than material factors of production. We are not dealing at this point with the problem of optimum population. We are dealing only with the fact that there are material factors of production which remain unused because the labor required is needed for the satisfaction of more urgent needs. In our world there is no abundance, but a shortage of manpower, and there are unused material factors of production, i.e. land, mineral deposits, and even plants and equipment." - Ludwig von Mises's Human Action http://mises.org/books/humanaction.pdf
>We cannot allow tens of thousands of factories to continue to leave the United States.
>We cannot allow millions of jobs to continue to be "outsourced" and "offshored".
>We cannot allow tens of billions of dollars of our national wealth to continue to be transferred into foreign hands every single month.
Translation: if you try to do business outside our borders, then the socialist, totalitarian gangsters will rob, kidnap, or shoot you. Only us enlightened socialists should get to decide how other people's property should be used. Since I thoroughly lack understanding of the concept of free trade, clearly I need to enforce unfree trade.
"We cannot allow tens of thousands of factories to continue to leave the United States."
Dream on! Change will only happen if our leaders want change. And that will not happen because the vast majority of them are filthy rich and don't give a shit about the middle class.
Get the money out of politics and many of our ills are cured.
Letting them leave? More like pushing them out.
Too late, too late, too late. Our advantage (the only standing economy after WWII) is gone. Our competition learned from us. We threw away every advantage and never thought about what would happen when our competiton out-produced, out-smarted, and out-sold us.
We let useful idiots ruin what our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers and beyond worked, fought and died for into the ground. Now there's not much left to fight about.
43 years too late. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Democratic_National_Convention
I beg to differ. There is a great deal to fight about.
what has never been expounded upon is that free trade demands free and unfettered floating currencies. That has never happened. Instead currencies were manipulated with the blessing of the fed to please their banking masters at the expense of middle class jobs. Govt stood around and did nothing except collect donations from the bankstas.
Economic entropy: why would you expect anything else?
Define economic entropy.
Entropy is the quantitative measure of disorder in a system.
Seems to apply perfectly to the world economic collapse and the reasons why it happened and still is happening.
I like this way of thinking about the entropy of the macro.
Heat transfer between systems goes in one direction.
dU=TdS-PdV
The ability to do work (measured by change in energy) is the ability to increase entropy.
Entropy is a measurement of how much work was done with the energy available.
Bottom line: Maximizing entropy is how people seize opportunity and exploit it efficiently. Same as individuals in an ecosystem, maximizing entropy. It's capitalism. Without energy to change the thermodynamic system, forget it. This is why it hurts so bad when misguided people seek out alternate energy sources. Entropy won't be maximized when compared to easier to get energy sources.
You made me laugh.
You made me laugh.
Define disorder.
Entropy is a state of being particularly well known to over 200,000,000 americans who do just enough to get by, and has been adopted as the 'raison d'etre', of the teenage classes.
While there is some dispute as to whether or not 'Truth' really exists or not, it does. There is your view, my view, and the truth, the fact. You see one side of a tree and I see the other side. BUT the fact, the truth is that there is a tree.
Arguably our culture encourages a population to do as little as possible to survive. Some relatively small percentage of people do not subscribe to this and do all they can to excel at achievement, and I don't mean achieving a better bowling score, 4 hours a day in front of mindless television, or some 500 hours of professional sports attendance, and that in turns translates into economic entropy.
Here is the Truth: Grow or Die.
>23 Facts Which Prove That Globalism Is Pushing
Post hoc ergo propter hoc
>I was not aware ANYONE thought the global economy was a good thing.
Only Ricardo and his law of comparative advantage.
I was not aware ANYONE thought the global economy was a good thing.
Oh yeah, Uncle Warren and Bill Gates does.
The people that import tungsten think the global economy is good. Thank the Maker Congress has outlawed incandescent light bulbs.
1.3 billion people in China, 1.2 billion in India, 240 million in Indonesia, 200 million in Brazil, 80 million in Vietnam...
Get ready, they're coming.
""1.3 billion people in China, 1.2 billion in India, 240 million in Indonesia, 200 million in Brazil, 80 million in Vietnam..."'
...Rising Oil, Food Prices plus Rising Population Equals World Starvation.....
http://seenoevilspeaknoevilhearnoevil.blogspot.com/2011/03/rising-oilfood-prices-and-rising.html
Breeding like rats and consuming everything in above and below ground. Foaming yeast!
It is really simple. America's middle class and China/India's middle class are leveling out. Unless you're management at a multi-national or a government drone, you're probably fucked.
As the shitpile rises, all levels gradually are subsumed. This depression is going to last for a long time.
Yes it is simple. As I look around my town all I see in the eyes of the people is an attitude that is eerily like that of
a herd of sheep, innocent looking, clueless, timid and undefiant---except for those few crazies that, too rarely, go postal and those that do, never direct their outrage at the proper level of the men on the pyramid.
We have the richest "poor" people on the planet. Globalization is not avoidable, unless you want to build a wall around the country.
Stalin; yes, we should.
You are right about the "poor" of a very rich country. You should see the folks living in cardboard cartons on hillsides above Caracas, and in San Paulo, and elsewhere. Everywhere are populations largely young, jobless, desperately hungry, while in the US it's quite usual for the poor to have a place to live, a car, food on the table, television, and many other amenities that the poor in other countries can't imagine. When they are able to make their way into the US, they don't complain about menial jobs, and that's how so many are happy to be here though they must do shit jobs and put up with being cheated and with employers that treat them badly. They know that once here, they can do better for themselves and their kids. Most don't get assistance.
But never mind... too late for that wall to be built, and there's a tidal wave of people on their way to take on those jobs that the "poor" here won't do.
.
There is one good reason to have/allow the equalization of incomes... consumption.
Regardless of how you may feel about 'climate change' and environmental damage through human activity, a general lowering of ability to CONSUME will be a good thing on a planet with nearly 7 billion humans.
Unless a large portion of us drastically change our habits or disappear, I fear for this biosphere.
you don't know much about the biosphere. It is quite resilient, damn near indestructible by the puny attacks man makes on it.
once she is pissed off enough, she'll just kick you and the rest of us off the planet and go back to doing what she always did.
if you fear for anything------which is really a colossal waste of your time, energy and money---fear for the people most vulnerable to the wrath of the biosphere which has endured some of the most horrific catastrophes you can ever imagine.
...until it isn't.
+1 in general though
I'm looking forward to your disappearance.
Don't worry real life is coming to America, the only question is when?
That shit sandwich we're all eating - yum. Sooo good!!
What I am asking myself... Is it better to live inside or outside the evil empire?
so much is so messed up for so long it all seems hopeless. so, what should we do?
http://covert2.wordpress.com
We need to keep foreign goods out of America to keep prices up. If we keep prices up we will reduce exports. If we reduce exports we won't be able to get our oil needs met. This will lead to economic collapse.
This will be all to the good if the unions can keep extracting as much wealth as possible while the economy craters.
The whole premise of this article is that you can beat supply and demand by government fiat. Good luck with that.
Too late to be born in 1946.
More like 1926. The boomers are gonna end their lives eating cat food.
Not all of 'em ; )
...being cat food.