"You Americans abhorred being called part of the world's 'working class.' Now you are not..."

[laststeamtrain]

"You Americans abhorred being called part of the world's 'working class.' Now you are not. So quit bitching!"

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http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2008/04/no-longer-worki.html

[Juche]

1. True

I do love this country, but we are in for some tough times ahead because we haven't planned for anything. We let religious nuts, uninformed shitkickers and corporations take over. With all the movements for human rights and democracy in China or India and the everpresent EU, maybe they will do a decent job running the world and inventing the cures for cancer and alzheimers while we are here in the US believing in creationism while trying to determine if Jesus hates mexicans or gays more. Now I sound like all those old people who think 'this is hte last good generation', except it isn't the last.


I think the US can rebound, but it'll take a while. From what I have seen, many of the young in this country are disgusted by the idea of letting uninformed, criminal religious bigots continue run things and this can be seen in how active we are now. THen again many of the young I have known are college educated from decent sized cities, so my perception could be skewed. But in 2006 youth gave the dems a 22 point advantage over the GOP. I think they preferred the dems by 49 points in new england, 14 in the midwest, 3 in the south and about 30 on the west coast.

The dems are not the solution to everything, but they are far better than what the current GOP has become.

[aquart]

3. When I was a kid...

Children's books had daddies who were firemen, milkmen, farmers, factory workers...

When I grew up, no one would be caught dead being such a terrible thing. Such people were "losers."

After 9/11, when the only important people in our city were the blue collar cops, firemen, steelworkers, EMTs, and sanitation crews who endangered their lives to find our dead and give us back our city, I thought that attitude might change. But no.

We told a generation "You can be anything you want to be" which is a flat lie. As a result, any child who doesn't become a movie star, or president, or a ballerina or win American Idol is a loser, a failure, someone who obviously doesn't have the right stuff. With only contempt for the real world jobs they find themselves in.

[Elspeth]

2. The results of globalism

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2008/04/no-longer-worki.html


* 72% of all U.S. shoes are made in China
* 50% of all U.S. kitchen appliances are made in China
* China has the largest number of Internet users in the world, 220 million
* 432 million Chinese own Chinese made cell phones
* Hottest car market on the planet -- China
* Number of Chinese who pay for their cars in cash -- 96%
* Portion of wages saved by the average Chinese wage earner -- 25%
* Percentage of Chinese parents who believe their children will have a better future than they did: 89%
* Source: National Geographic Survey, and others


"WE" didn't make these changes.