One of the big political arguments swirling again this season is “how do we rebuild and restore the Middle Class?”
The next question for me is “what income range is considered Middle Class?”
I’m no economist but I think of Boeing Machinists as being Middle Class type folks. I would guess their incomes range from $40,000 per year to $80,000 per year or roughly $20/hour to $40/hour. And even though they are highly trained, many of them are not college educated.
So for the sake of my argument that is how I will define Middle Class.
Once you establish the income range you just look around for the jobs that pay that kind of money. Or maybe you look for the jobs that used to pay that kind of money and follow that with where did those jobs go?
As a resident of the Puget Sound region in Washington State Boeing is a big part of our economy. For many years it was the only game in town. Fortunately we lucked out when Bill Gates and Paul Allen decided to keep Microsoft local, Howard Schultz opened Starbucks in Seattle; and again when Jeff Bezos headquartered Amazon in town.
So we have four very different businesses that produce and incredible amount of wealth in the region with very different operating models. One that manufactures a product, one that produces a digital product and two that provide services.
Without a college degree in computer science or business management, most remaining Microsoft employees struggle to make it into the middle class. The bulk of the Amazon and Starbucks employees also just bump the bottom of the range at best.
What is missing is the manufacturing jobs like Boeing offers. And what we know about Boeing is that they are also looking to reduce the cost of their workforce as well by opening factories in locations where the cost of labor is lower.
Is anyone surprised that I have an opinion about this dilemma?
Since our government bought into the “world economy” argument the American manufacturing sector has been withering and along with it the Middle Class.
The jobs most often associated with the Middle Class in the past were family wage factory jobs that have been shipped over seas to build up the economies of our trading partners. The adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA signaled the exit of many manufacturing jobs to Mexico. American participation in World Trade organizations encourage relocation of previously American jobs to third world economies to bolster those countries as trading partners but at the expense of American manufacturing jobs.
In most cases the jobs that go overseas are jobs that require training but not significant education.
The jobs that remain here are the ones that are tied to raw materials or require a highly trained and educated workforce; and even those raw materials jobs are at risk as the government is regulating many of them out of existence.
By today’s standards the Middle Class jobs are the public sector employers like governments and school systems. Locally we have city and county governments, we have Policemen, Fire Fighters and Public Works employees and at the state and federal levels we have the Department of Transportation, Department of Energy, Department of Ecology, Department of Education…..yadayadayada. Is it any wonder that the Middle Class has changed so dramatically?
The Middle Class swapped private sector jobs that produced the highest standard of living and best quality products in the world for public sector jobs that suck up the resources of society and produce nothing but a bill.
The Middle Class today is the Bureaucrat Class with the Service Sector groveling for a handout.
The cost of government skyrocketed at every level while the private sector industries our country was famous for have fled. Even a country boy like me could see this as it was happening but the rationale for world trade was too deep for me to grasp.
Whether it’s big business or big government, both political parties still champion the world trade argument even though it sells American workers down the river. There is no safe haven with either the Democrats or Republicans.
If you really want to know what happened to the Middle Class look at China where economic development is producing record numbers of millionaires even in this depressed economy. Our Middle Class moved overseas!
If our goal is to return America to the prosperity we enjoyed for many years after WW2 we have to examine what our government did to cause the exodus and systematically reverse it. We will also have to analyze the political ramifications to our trading partners and make value judgments. Bringing the private sector Middle Class back to America will have international implications.
No Loss for Words 
Immigration Reform as I see it!
by Steve DanaI don’t remember a time when we haven’t been talking about Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Both political parties use the term and at different times each party has proposed legislation that ultimately failed to pass both houses of Congress. I don’t know whether the content of Republican sponsored reform compared favorably with Democrat sponsored reform.
The fact that both parties drafted legislation would suggest there is common ground worthy of keeping the negotiations going. So what were the sticking points that prevented completion?
Why do we call it Comprehensive Immigration Reform? Why don’t we just call it Immigration Reform? So what’s wrong with our existing Immigration legislation?
From my perspective there isn’t a problem with our existing policy. There might be some issues with the number of folks we allow to emigrate from foreign lands, but the process appears sound. That would suggest the issue isn’t immigration reform at all.
In the context of the national debate the two issues are Border Security or a lack of it on our southern border and the large number of Mexicans who have entered our country illegally and have been allowed to stay for many years with the full knowledge of the government. The justification being the need for workers willing to do jobs “Americans” wouldn’t do.
The truth is the old system worked well for Mexican workers who came over the border to work for the season with some sort of seasonal work permit and then returned home for the winter. The agriculture interests needed seasonal workers and the permit system was one solution that worked but was abandoned in the 1980’s.
I had personal experience in the 1970’s of working on a corporate farm in Central Oregon where there were migrant workers who started in the spring harvesting something in Arizona and worked their way to the Canadian border as the harvest progressed north. In my case we had a couple dozen Mexicans harvesting potatoes. The important consideration was the fact that there wouldn’t have been work for those guys before or after the harvest. They would have been temporary hires for a couple weeks and they would have been laid off. The temporary worker permit system worked.
For me, the bigger issue is a lack of border security. The vast majority of illegals who cross are Mexicans but there are some folks other than Mexicans who also cross whose intentions are not just working in America but maybe harming America. Border security is a high priority for most countries in the world. The penalty for illegally entering many countries is incarceration for lengthy terms.
On our southern border we don’t send you to jail when you enter America illegally, we send you to college.
In my view the Comprehensive part of Immigration Reform is the dilemma of ten million illegal aliens who have lived here so long their kids are graduating from high school and college and who are now finding themselves in the spotlight. What do we do with all the folks who have been well behaved illegal aliens who have become contributing members of our society?
Once again it’s my view that people who enter this country illegally can never become citizens. We might grant Mexicans resident alien status that allows them to live and work here but if they didn’t enter through proper channels they can never apply for citizenship. How we might deal with foreigners of other origin is up for discussion.
And because these illegal aliens came into the country illegally they are classified similar to convicted felons in that they are never granted the right to vote or own a fire arm. I don’t insist on calling them felons but the restrictions we put on felons should apply.
Amnesty is not an option for me. There must be consequences for jumping the line and breaking the law which might also include a monetary penalty.
The bottom line for me is we don’t have to kick all of them out of the country but we do need to identify them and give them proper identification that includes fingerprints and or DNA so if they mysteriously disappear into the country there will be some way to identify them when they do turn up. The argument that aliens of any kind should not be required to have proper documentation on their person at all times when they are in public doesn’t work for me. The feel good folks would have us believe that it’s inhumane to characterize illegal aliens as criminals but we don’t hesitate if the person breaks into our house or damages our property. What is breaking into our country?
If all they want to do is work and raise their families in America and give their kids the chance to realize the American Dream the restrictions I outline here shouldn’t be a problem. The alternative is to uproot their families and go back to Mexico where the kids might be treated like foreigners.
The opportunity to become a US citizen should be a privilege reserved for aliens who entered through proper channels.
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