Is 7.50 per hour the magic word

From the EthicsBox - A Tapsearch Com Top Article - May 2011

$7.50 per hour is the magic word

A Ray Tapajna Chronicles Tapsearch Com Top Pick article

America walking down the road to nowhere

Free trade came and destroyed the middle class production worker class in the USA. A new working poor class has been created. It still is taking hold.
The balancing point for wages is now $7.50. This means more jobs will now come back to the USA.

Recent stories and events activated this trend even more. Some experts have written about ' re-shoring ' manufacturing parts. Components that are made in far away places are delaying production cycles. The earth quake in Japan demonstrated what happens when events change the flow of supply.
GM had do suspend some production and Toyota had to curtail their production pace to the shortage of parts.

This happening hitches on others. The cost of long haul ocean, air, rail and truck shipping is exposing its costs. Apparently this cost translates to about the difference of $5 to $ 7.50 an hour workers value. For the sake of bare survival workers in the USA are now taking the $7.50 an hour now in the USA. The cost of long haul shipping is making this wage a competitive factor now in relocating jobs back to the USA. It demonstrates how much the value of work has been discounted. I worked at several factories while going to college in the 1950s and made the equivalent of $15 to $20 an hour. If these jobs were still available today, thousands would be standing in line to get them including college graduates. Instead, thousands stand in line to get jobs at places like McDonalds. These jobs were entry level jobs for teenagers back then. Now many are seeking them for the sake of survival alone.

Here is an example of what is now happening in the private sector production class. A company here who has taken over parts of the once large Hoover Vacuum Cleaner factory is bringing their production to the U.S. They make a popular electric home heater. They have a very good marketing campaign. Last winter they were caught with their marketing being more successful then their ability to supply the product made in the Far East. The news channels report about their hiring of about 300 workers for making the heaters here. Hoover had thousands of workers during their prime times with middle class wages and benefits.

The pictures in the newspaper shows the new assembly plant and it looks like the heaters are only being assembled here but the news channel reports how the Made in the USA branding is returning to the USA. I doubt this very much because the company most likely will bring in parts from foreign factories which are cheaper to make and ship back to the USA.
The news channels are still having problems defining what the Made in the USA term really means.

The main point however, shows that since the level of wages and benefits in the USA have been cut at least 50 percent and this opens the door to more companies bringing back the work to the USA closer to their markets.

There is no real reporting of this degradation of values and its affect on workers abilities to buy the things they make. Reportedly stores like
WalMart are working fast to adjust their marketing and prices to fit the new working poor class. However, it is apparent that the balancing point needed for U.S. consumerism to support the free trade process is still unknown.

It is still a race to the bottom with plenty of workers in the world who will work for less no matter what. This means more government services to fill voids caused by poverty will have to continue to avoid havoc.

Nothing is matching up yet as government workers in the USA are now next in line to take the big hit. At the same times strike lines are coming in the retail sector with retail workers needing more income too. Many workers at places like WalMart, McDonalds and other giant corporations need government assistance to survive with millions of Americans on food stamps and many more missing in action from any kind of real unemployment reporting.

There is no signs that things will change that much and another economic bubble will burst in the near future. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress a few years ago that the best way to stimulate the economy is to buy "domestically produced goods." However, if too many workers can not make enough money to buy the things they make, not much good will come from his advice. President Obama or another president will have to bail out big money again. The money changers need to find better answers even for themselves.

Nothing is adding up.

America is walking down a road to nowhere. Consumerism supports the pillars of free trade. A working poor class do not make enough money to buy much and need government assistance to survive. It is a road to nowhere.