Vanquishing the American Dream

[acmejack]

s General Motors shuts down well-paid middle-class jobs, the old slogan 'What's good for G.M. is good for America' no longer applies.

People like Robert Paulk and Jerry Roy are the heart of corporations like General Motors. Paulk, 58, and Roy, 49, are longtime, highly skilled hourly employees who've been working-class proud of being part of GM. Over the years, they've known their share of the hard labor, heavy lifting, and stress that come with being an autoworker, but they've stayed loyal, taken great pride in their work, and kept increasing their skills and productivity, doing their part to help General Motors become the largest car seller in the world -- and helping GM's investors pocket years of profits.

The job has been good to Paulk and Roy, too. Under the contracts negotiated by the United Auto Workers, Paulk, his wife, and their two teenagers have been able to enjoy a slice of middle-class comfort. Likewise, Roy, a third-generation GM worker, has done well enough to afford a modest but pleasant house on a lake near Flint, Mich., where his job is.

The Paulks and Roys represent a common story that can be told by millions of Americans of their generation. It's the story of our country's "social contract" -- an implicit agreement between working stiffs like them and corporations like GM. This is a remarkable success story, embodying our nation's egalitarian ideals and our commitment to the common good. In practice, America's historic social contract has established within our huge, diverse and fragile society something essential: a stable middle class. While the Constitution and Bill of Rights are the legal glue of our nation, this contract is the social glue -- it binds us as one people, giving tangible evidence that "we're all in this together." Those who produced this democratic advance were not the founders back in 1776, but our parents and grandparents -- and doing so did not come easily for them.

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/31127/

[tonkatoy57]

1. Interesting article.

I was thinking about this on the way to work this morning. Here in St. Louis we were affected by the Ford announcement yesterday. The Ford assembly plant here will close, and with that closure we will lose @2000 well paying, middle class jobs.

In an article about the closing in todays paper there was a side bar article with comments by people in the community regarding the plant closure. The comments were all disheartening. Every person quoted singled out the people who worked at Ford who were making too much money for a job that a "monkey could do". Throw in a few gratuitous swipes at "greedy union bosses", and a couple of comments about, "how dare those people expect free health care with their job" and there you have it. Most people were more upset that someone had a job that paid a decent wage and provided them with benefits and an opportunity to send their children to college than they were with the continued erosion of the middle class.

Sometimes I just don't get it. Why are people so envious of someone who makes a decent living with some of their dignity intact? Sometimes I feel like a stranger in my own country.

[acmejack]

3. It is incredible isn't it?

Instead of aspiring to a job that pays like that or thinking that their job should be remunerating them in that fashion, they think the workers there are somehow "cheating" Ford! The GOP noise machine has done it's work well.

[JDPriestly]

2. No sympathy for voters for Reagan and Bush

The downfall of the middle class in America was the inevitable result of Reagan's election. Until the middle class wakes up and realizes what it is doing to itself by voting right-wingers into office, it will continue to decline.

In my view, the outsourcing to India and China and other countries is actually an attack on the dollar.