The Impoverishment Of America

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I wrote this article about eight years ago, when I was still working at a factory that has since closed, and before anyone had heard of a muslim, socialist traitor named Barrack Obama. Guess I’m just psychic!

The company where I work for used to have three manufacturing plants within five miles of one another. A couple years ago the first plant was closed and the work sent to a neighboring state where labor and transportation was cheaper. The company saw no need to pass any of their cost savings on to their customers, of course. The second plant was closed about a year ago and most of the work sent to China. The remaining products are now being made in their out-of-state plant, (except for two products which are now made where I work). As you might guess, even though labor costs in China are one percent of what they pay us, the company doesn't seem to have dropped their prices on products manufactured there. They've tried finding a way to take our jobs to China as well, but, the items that we manufacture are heavy and bulky, so shipping costs eat up much of the huge profits they keep hoping for.

If our plant was losing money it would be more understandable. However, it's been a consistently generous money-maker since it first opened in the 1930's. In fact, except for the years during which my union is negotiating a new contract, the company still likes to brag about our man-hour production and gross sales. We've now been through two sieges by corporate raiders and the newest owners are making money hand over fist. Yet, all they can think about is how to cut our wages and benefits to make more money. We're now expected to churn out the same volume and quality of product with fewer workers and ever worsening materials (purchased overseas, of course). Meanwhile, they keep holding the specter of hungry Chinamen over our heads.

I'm not against fair trade; every country that pays livable wages and has few punitive tariffs should have access to the world market. However, countries where workers struggle just to make enough to cover their food cost, while that nation's government and merchants get rich, should not be allowed to compete against countries that treat their workers like human beings. The U.S. has to contend with such things as OSHA, the EPA, The Endangered Species Act and a host of other regulatory nightmares which, at least in theory, make our workers and environment safer. The countries which are undermining our economy not only lack those mind-boggling costs but, also, the expense of wage and hour laws, welfare programs, un-employment programs, Medi-care, Social Security, insurance, and other things we like to think makes our workers more than mere slaves.

I'm afraid that slavery is the reality of many of those working in third world countries. We know some of those countries use convict and child labor. We also know they often lock factory doors when the workers are inside, don't let them take restroom breaks, and won't let them leave until their quota is met. Plus, they often are not allowed to travel, even within their own country, to look for better jobs. It's certainly not fair trade to force American workers to compete against enslaved work forces. I doubt if those foreign workers see much freedom in "free-trade".

Obviously, the companies that are moving their production to those countries are the moral equivalent of the old-time slave-holders of this country. Then again, maybe they're worse. At least the old slave-holders didn't try to call slavery by the high-sounding name of "labor competition". The gravest danger from all this is not the immediate loss of a few thousand jobs here and there, but, the ever quickening downward spiral of pay-scales and purchasing power for the average worker. More and more workers have to compete for fewer and fewer jobs. Even many union workers are finding themselves making concessions unheard of in earlier days. Having forgotten the simple fact that a buying customer must first have disposable income, most corporations will someday find themselves sharing the same grave they dug for the American worker. No doubt, when that occurs, the corporations will whine and gnash their teeth before asking the government to bail them out. By that time, the government will have a hard time saving them, since there eventually won’t be enough people paying taxes to continue corporate welfare.

Years ago, I read a statement by a utopian dreamer that American industry would someday export prosperity to the far corners of the world. The truth, I fear, is that corporate America is importing third-world poverty for our children and grandchildren. © 2012
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