I remember 25 years ago attending a Sunday service at a Unitarian church in southern Pennsylvania close to the Delaware border. This Unitarian church had a tradition of letting its congregation members speak about anything that was on their mind. A tastefully dressed woman stood up, introduced herself as a mid-level corporate manager, and proceeded to blame American workers for not being willing to accept the wages of overseas workers, thereby forcing corporate America to move its production overseas.
And so it began, this rejection of American workers by corporate America, which continues to this day.
All of our brilliant corporate minds reject the idea that America should manufacture anything. We have a service-based economy, they say. We need more AI, not the production of tangible products. We can’t compete with cheap overseas labor, so why even try?
I remember 50 years ago, when everything was still being made in this country. Shoes, clothing, appliances, sporting goods, cars, trucks, ships, farm equipment, machinery, pharmaceuticals – everything.
So, what happened?
First, the rise of trickle-down economics brought with it a massive reduction in income tax rates for the wealthy and corporations. The theory was that the wealthy would invest in businesses in the U.S., and this would result in a rise in wages and salaries for middle-class workers as some of this wealth given to the wealthy trickled down to them. The problem with this theory is that it was based upon the expectation that the wealthy would share their wealth. This never happens.
Second, the rise of the global economy resulted in foreign-made goods becoming more available to consumers and businesses in this country. Consumers liked the lower prices of foreign-made goods, were willing to accept lower quality, and did not make the connection that their preference for cheaper foreign-made goods was going to result in the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs in this country. Cheaper foreign-made goods allowed American corporations to become more profitable by becoming importers instead of manufacturers, eliminating the overhead of wages, salaries, and factories.
Third, the entry of China into the global economy accelerated the destruction of the American industrial base. China created an export-based economy for itself and flooded the world with its cheap products. This allowed retailers such as Walmart to change how Americans shopped, in the process essentially destroying small-town businesses as Americans bought more and more cheap Chinese goods from brightly lit mega stores. American corporations continued to source more and more products from China, including machinery, chemicals, and minerals, laying the groundwork for this country’s economic vulnerability that has become increasingly evident.
Fourth, there has been a creation of a new class of economic elites within the United States that has successfully transferred enormous wealth from the middle class to itself. This class of economic elites has benefited from very favorable tax laws and the ability to control our politicians to its benefit. It is no coincidence that this country has nearly a third of the world’s billionaires, that the top 1% of the wealthiest control nearly 1/3 of the wealth of this country, that corporate leaders make nearly 300 times more than their typical employee, and that dark money now dominates political campaign expenditures.
Fifth, the rise in partisanship within our political system over the past 25 years has resulted in the creation of voting blocs within the two houses of Congress that prevent any serious discussion of issues from occurring and prevent compromise on legislation that would benefit the American people. It always seems that whenever an important issue is raised by a politician from either political party, the other party does its best to discredit the politician instead of acknowledging and discussing the issue. There has been no significant effort made to protect and promote the interests of the American people in decades.
It is no wonder that Americans distrust their own government and are less and less happy with their lives.
Where do we go from here?
That is the question that we face as a nation.
I am afraid that there will be no easy answers.