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The Real Economic Story
U.S.
corporations now are racing to outsource white-collar jobs—including work in
computer sciences, engineering, entertainment, financial and medical
services—to countries where workers earn far less. A Forrester Research study
predicts U.S. employers will move about 3.3 million white-collar service jobs
and $136 billion in wages overseas in the next 15 years, up from $4 billion in
2000.
Corporate
profits and CEO salaries are way up, but wages and family incomes are
stagnant—even though U.S. workers are more productive than ever.
Weekly
wages for nonsupervisors grew less than 2 percent in the past year—the lowest
wage increase since 1987. Meanwhile, corporate profits jumped 25 percent last
year. Household incomes actually declined by 1.7 percent between 2000 and 2002.
Sources:
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics; U.S. Commerce Department,
Census Bureau.
Bush
administration policies are cutting further into families’ paychecks and
decreasing job quality. The administration is pushing changes to the Fair Labor
Standards Act that could take overtime pay from 8 million workers, including
veterans—and the U.S. Labor Department has published descriptions for how
employers can avoid paying low-wage workers for their overtime hours. The
administration has taken union rights from many federal workers and has rolled
back job safety protections.
Health
care is becoming out of reach for America’s working families. Nearly 75
million Americans—almost a third of us younger than
America
has been bleeding jobs since President George W. Bush took office.
Since
January 2001, we have lost a net 2.9 million private-sector jobs, including 2.8
million good manufacturing jobs. The few jobs created in recent months are not
enough to employ the people entering the job market for the first time, much
less to make a real dent in unemployment.
Unemployment and underemployment still are devastating families and
communities. Almost 15 million workers are unemployed, underemployed or have
given up on looking for work in this “jobless recovery.” Close to 5 million
of them work part-time because they couldn’t get fulltime jobs.
The
Bush administration has cheered about the unemployment rate dropping slightly.
But President Bush inherited a much better unemployment rate of 4.1 percent and
presided over rates as high as 6.3 percent. In truth, much of the recent
unemployment rate decline has been because jobless workers have given up hope
and stopped looking, and many other people who would like to work, such as
recent college grads, are not looking because the job market is so weak.
The
good jobs America has lost aren’t coming back. In their place, we’re adding
lower-wage jobs that provide few if any benefits. In the industries now adding
jobs, pay is 21 percent less than in American industries losing jobs. Much of
the manufacturing capacity, which gave us jobs that paid well and came with good
benefits and built and sustained our middle class, has moved permanently to
low-wage countries
such as
China. Now, we’re exporting white-collar, high-tech jobs, too. 65—lacked
health insurance at some point in 2001 and 2002. These days, too many jobs are
moving in the direction of providing Wal-Mart–style health coverage that’s
too expensive for many workers and too stingy to protect working families from
financial ruin in case of serious illness. Between 2000 and 2002, workers’
costs for family health insurance coverage rose 50 percent.
Personal
savings and economic security are becoming things of the past. Personal savings
are at record lows, and personal bankruptcies and debt are at record highs. Hard
work is supposed to enable working families to meet expenses, save some and get
ahead. But today millions of families live paycheck to paycheck; a lost job or
serious illness can drive a working family quickly into
bankruptcy that can cost everything they’ve worked for, even their home. So
many working families have to use credit cards to make ends meet that personal
debt (not including mortgages) now averages $18,700 per household, according to
the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors. As employers cut and kill pensions
and the Bush administration and congressional allies threaten Social Security,
the disappearance of personal savings will mean desperate struggles for a
generation of retirees.
Our children could be worse off economically than our generation— a first
in American history. Americans feel that jobs that pay well and offer good
benefits are vanishing. Many decent jobs today require a college education, but
financially strapped states are cutting tuition aid and raising tuition costs
while parents aren’t able to save for college costs.
Necessities
such as homes and health care are harder and harder to afford. And many of our
children will have to take up the burden of caring for us when we no longer can
work.
The
Bush economic record amounts to an attack on America’s middle class. The
wealthy have benefited from massive tax cuts. Corporations get tax breaks
encouraging them to move jobs overseas and help from the Bush administration to
avoid paying workers for overtime. Today, families in the middle of the income
range have only 14.8 percent of the nation’s income, compared with more than
17 percent back in the 1970s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The
Bush economic record is fiscally irresponsible. Bush’s policies have created a
$500 billion deficit, while still shortchanging working family programs, with
more huge deficits to come. Such policies will result in a burden on our
children and on today’s workers when they try to retire.
The Bush administration is spending billions to rebuild Iraq’s roads and
schools, but not America’s. Iraq greatly needs our help—but so does America.
The Bush administration is spending $87 billion for reconstruction in Iraq while
ignoring too many needs here at home. President Bush is proposing unworkable tax
credits that will at best help only a tiny fraction of the 44 million uninsured
Americans gain health coverage, but 13 million Iraqis will receive health care
access from U.S. taxpayer dollars.
The
budget for U.S. highways and transit requests only two-thirds of the funding
needed to upgrade roads, bridges and mass transit. While proposing to fund
explorations to Mars, President Bush has failed to adequately fund the No Child
Left Behind Act. No funds have been allocated to modernize U.S. schools, but the
latest rebuilding funds include $90 million for Iraqi schools.
“Putting
$1,000 in the pockets of 310,000 families with urgent needs is going to provide
far more stimulus to the economy than putting the same $310 million in my
pockets.”
—WARREN BUFFETT, financier, in The Washington Post,
May 2003 op-ed
“My
handicapped husband Saul just got back to work after almost a year of
unemployment, and both of us still worry every day about losing our jobs and
health insurance.”
—BLANCA MORALES, bakery worker, UFCW Local 881,
Chicago
Sources:
$87 billion: H.R. 3289 and S. 1689, which became public law on 11/6/2003; Iraqi
health care: Office of Management and Budget Memo; Iraqi schools: www.cnn.com/2004/
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