Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
The notion that the loss of menial jobs to overseas workers causes economic hardship is preposterous
Wouldn't say it's exactly preposterous, but it does overlook the obvious fact that it's generally cheaper to hire Chinese (or Malasians, Bangladeshis, etc) than to invest in industrial robotics, but the robots are cheaper than hiring Americans. So most of the manufacturing jobs aren't coming back, regardless.
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Our REAL employment (workforce participation corrected for partime labor) has been dropping since 1980, it dropped massively during the reagan era as real jobs were replaced by part time and minimum wage.
The truth is we are at a real unemployment rate of roughly 62% from a brief stint during clinton where we were nearing a real 37% unemployment since most labor was more than 32hrs a week.
We have steadily stagnated from Bush through Obama to where we are today. The sad truth is there are people who have not had a job for many years and likely only could do menial jobs if such a thing existed, many people are working jobs that have nothing to do with their training either, meaning their schooling has gone to waste.
I have been lucky enough to maintain a job for many years but most people do not have that luxury, nor have any of my friends