Sacrificing the middle class to buy cheap goods from China?

[genYprogressive83]

So transporting materials 8000 miles to China that has little to no enviromental regulation and transporting it another 8000 miles back is better for the enviroment than making it here that uses much less CO2?

More CATO bullshit.

[blabblab1212]

Average service job paid better than manufacturing job lost? Yeah, like I'm going to get better pay from being a telemarketer than working for GM.

[blabblab1212]

Are you alright Sally? No, you fucking pinhead! I'm not alright. You caught me on a day when I am ragging it and I am ready to pull the hair out of your head.

[gipper10]

ah fuck this british cunt is saying the reason why the middle class is diminishing is because the middle class is getting richer and moved up too being rich??????!!!!!!!! ya those service jobs that pay a whole whooping $6 an hour! ya there rich....rich i tells ya! living in luxury in Detroit, you know next too the burnt out house, but beside the boarded up crack house! now thats living in riches!

[gipper10]

this bitch is full of shite! service jobs pay more than manufacturing jobs! my ass! jobs pay less today than they use too. it's much easier too pay an immigrant 5 dollars an hour (which is a lot too them) or pay an american worker $20 dollars an hour! jobs back in the day with unions payed workers a fair days pay with benefits. now good luck finding a job with good pay and benefits! its tough out their!

[ericssson]

it's time to boycott all these made in China shitty products?

[Hallstyle]

Bottom line i say if we all want to learn Chinese with in the Next 20 years stay on the course we are on. Because at this point the United States is owned Lock Stock and Barrel by the Peoples Republic of China. We are a Dumping Ground for Chinese Goods. Once we degenerate to the point that people can't even afford their Products then maybe people will wake up and realize that Our Manufacturing Sector is what Made the United States Strong.

[TheDecidicator]

If labor doesn't like its jobs being exported, it can refuse to buy imported goods. But, then labor would not benefit from the slave labor overseas and so labor does not refuse.

How do you catch a monkey?

[jimlaregina]

Read the book CHEAP: THE HIGH COST OF DISCOUNT CULTURE by Ellen Ruppell Shell. So much merchandise is available for so little money in the United States, the impulse to sacrifice quality for lower price lowers our standard of living. And Thom Hartmann's right when he says so many Americans are so broke, they play right into it.

[alt173]

Love the Hartmann clips! Daily updates please!

[captcrais101]

This woman is such a liar. China goods suck. We need to start manfacturing goods again.

[mdawg001]

Americans got "richer" due to inflated asset prices.

Nobody is talking about the shrinking commercial/personal lending to small and medium businesses or people.

All the TARP and other government money taken by banks has gone into the capital markets for speculation, why else would all asset classes rise in "value" at the same time?

If commercial lending decreases, the recession will drag on and there will be the rich class and a hobo class!

[eddiemaxblack]

Look at the dAAAta -- ha!ha! The middle class is disappearing. America is quite protectionist. That's true. But free trade has been a disaster for working people. CATO is a too right wing organization.

[sushifool]

this lady is bat shit crazy.

[panthera50]

She is right, this is going on longer then just the last few years.

[1mealperday]

no jobs= no money to buy cheap goods

no product created= no economy

ITs that simple.

offices create no real product.

factories do

[emtravelrn]

1mealperday thanks for breaking it down to simple terms! Ross Perot had it right!

[hollywoodartchick]

This slimy bitch is just repeating what we have had jammed down our throats since the Clinton admin - that somehow, magically, losing a good-paying manufacturing job will be the best thing that ever happens to an American. Supposedly we all get to reinvent ourselves as managers and creatives, or make a fortune in the service industry. Many service jobs are filled with undocumented labor who make sub-minimum wage (who sometimes go unpaid) while Americans go without work. Such BS. Go, Thom!

[jimlaregina]

"Bitch?" I realize how mad tools such as her can make you feel, but please follow the civil discourse example Thom Hartmann sets.

[hollywoodartchick]

Duly noted, friend. It is not my usual way, and I got carried away with anger at the repeated perpetration of the same lies that invalidate the experience of millions of Americans who can't get any political representation because both major parties quote such statistics and pretend they don't exist. I will mind my words in the future.

[jimlaregina]

Fair enough.

Thom Hartmann is just the smartest, coolest broadcaster out there, isn't he?

[hollywoodartchick]

He's certainly one of them. I am also a fan of Amy Goodman's. Her 2000 Election Day interview with Bill Clinton was eye opening.

[jimlaregina]

So you were hip to DEMOCRACY NOW! before I was? I've been getting news and information from Amy Goodman and her colleagues for two or three years.

[hollywoodartchick]

After the shell-shock of NAFTA's signing, I was glued to her.

[oggleman]

I don't think economic nationalism is the solution to our problems.

[demented669]

she gets mad cause she is trying to spew her NWO propaganda, when you put some one on the spot about there lies they get mad ! haha was a NWO WHORE !