Cal, I agree that we are going to see the income-disparity increase if we don't do something. But, I disagree on the politics of it.
The National Debt has very little to do with real-world workers on the ground.
Jimmy - yeah, and the Philipinos are also being used to a great degree. But, again, this comes back to the fact that our current issue - the "great recession (and the still-lingering effects of it) - Workers are not getting paid to the degree they once were relative to their skills.
For example, a coal miner out of work doesn't give a damn that the coal being used - in neighborhoods that don't have the clout to fight back - might actually be damaging the well-being of the residents in that community. They don't, and they shouldn't, they only care about being out of work because of what is seen as an over-reaching environmental policy by those in charge. They feel this way because that is what they've been told and they have no context to the real problems; i.e. people getting sick because of the fumes that coal plants produce. (another p.s. - this could turn into an entirely different argument).
BUT - if, for example, we offered, as a nation, job re-retraining for those put out of work by closing deadly plants, whatever they may be, we could be on to something. For example, my wife worked for US Steel. They closed the plant and offered retraining in computer basics and typing, etc. She was hard-core blue collar but took the training, got a gig (a painful one), learned enough to get a better gig and eventually became a civil engineer. I should mention that before the degree she went back into the oil fields and became a pipe-line scheduler - the money was great but not worth it. (this belongs on another thread I've been following, my apologies).
Anyway, the point is, we've an antiquated system of measuring performance, and it may well be that the "middle-class", which was once mostly manufacturers and factory workers, simply doesn't exist anymore. None of this answers the question of how does Chewy make 60K in Syracuse, but maybe I just needed to get some of this off my chest. Again, apologies, I'm sick as a damned dog and I have a New Year's Eve gig tomorrow night . . . so I'm rambling.
Chewy - sending a PM.
