". . . . and take advantage of increasing global competitiveness of U.S. factories."

[Stinky The Clown]

I'll get to the context in a moment, but this line jumped right off the page at me.

"The Global Market" is code for third world, cheap labor factories where labor and environmental regulations are minimal at best and they pay workers pennies a day.

Now that those places have raised their standards and as their workers demand more - and more importantly, as our workers have been effectively turned into just so many more third world workers, we are suddenly "globally competitive."

On the day this news story comes out, we learn that the US life expectancy is 49th in the world. Our race to the bottom continues.

The story, here, about GE bringing some appliance plants back to the US: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/18/AR2010101802026.html

GE to invest $432M to revamp appliance business

NEW YORK -- GE plans to spend $432 million to establish four U.S.-based refrigeration design and manufacturing centers that will be the focus for its new energy efficient line of refrigerators and other appliances.

General Electric Co. said Monday the move will create 500 new jobs by 2014 and help preserve another 1,166 existing positions.

GE said its investment is an effort to revitalize its appliance business and take advantage of increasing global competitiveness of U.S. factories.

The centers will be at existing locations in Louisville, Ky.; Bloomington, Ind.; Decatur, Ala., and Selmer, Tenn.

>snip<

More at the link above . . . .

If you're not angry, you're not paying attention.

[xchrom]

1. Furious might better describe me. Nt

[HughMoran]

3. 24/7

[leftstreet]

2. Please Sir, can I have some more?

K&R

[pampango]

4. German and Swedish factories are "globally competitive". Is that a bad thing?

Germany exports almost as much as the US with 1/4 of our population and Sweden has one of the strongest economies in Europe now. They compete though they are high-wage, strong unions societies.