Lowered Wages for the Employed
Unemployment in the United States is damaging the economy on two different fronts. The unemployment picture in America continues to sit at an unacceptably high level. And, those actually returning to the workforce are given no choice but to take lower wage positions. These problems are a direct result of job losses due to disastrous “free trade.”
Economist David Autor was quoted as saying, “There has been a polarization of job opportunities [with] rising employment in high-skill, high-education, high-wage employment, and the other in relatively low-wage, low-education employment with fewer opportunities in the middle.”
America is increasingly headed down two economic paths, with the middle class being squeezed out of existence. The elite have rebounded well, as the stock market has risen dramatically the past two years and CEO pay has risen. But the vast majority of America has fared much worse.
Since 1980, according to the CIA World Factbook, wages have stagnated for the bottom 80 percent of households. A report from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) showed that wages actually fell when adjusted for inflation during the past decade.
The off-shoring of America’s industrial base to foreign nations is crippling the ability of people to get quality jobs. The problem with a service economy is that the vast majority of positions are low-skill and correspondingly low-wage endeavors. With the added problem of a weak job market, demand for jobs is driving down wages, which eventually increases debt.
Pitting workers of unequal backgrounds and situations against each other has resulted in a free-for-all where the only winner is the large multinational companies that have the resources to take advantage of the situation. The failure of NAFTA is a proven case study. Citizens in countries such as Mexico continued to live in impoverished conditions, while Americans lost millions of quality manufacturing jobs.
The harsh truth is that America’s economic policies have only benefited a small subsection of the population, as data continues to show a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich. The “trickle down” effect is not working and this unacceptable trend will only continue until we come to our senses. We must work to implement trade policy that ends disastrous deals such as NAFTA and creates quality jobs here in the U.S. before it is too late to recover.
