Some days Chris Matthews is really off his game.

[pennylane100]

They were discussing the upcoming trade agreement and he began discussing how in his youth, the only choices were clothes made in America and not too many to choose from. He said that now we can get clothes from all over the world and the large selection is what people want.

What he didn't mention was the hundreds of thousands of jobs that also went overseas, along with the paychecks of the American workers. He also left out the fact that the people that now work in the jobs we shipped overseas earn barely enough to feed themselves. Sometimes he forgets to think before he opens his mouth.

[MADem]

1. I didn't see the show, but I don't see where anything he you say he said is factually incorrect.

US clothing producers were not competitive--that's why the business died. Should we lower the wage for textile workers/clothing makers to a dollar an hour? Because that's the only way we could keep those jobs here. Should we impose artificial tarriffs on cheaper clothes from overseas, and foster a smuggling economy in cheap jeans and tee shirts?

Tell me how he--or anyone--could have kept that industry afloat. While you're at it, tell me how we can revitalize the dead TV making, appliance making, or small electronics making industries in this country. The short answer is we can't. We don't do that simple stuff anymore. Things that are easy to do, that don't require a lot of skill, education or technical ability, have migrated to countries with less educated, less skilled, less technical populations. That's how it works. Newly industrialized countries take on that easy shit. Once upon a time, there was No Such Thing as a Korean microwave oven, or TV....never mind a Korean car. Now, they're everywhere.

As for clothes, people DO want large selections. They DO like clothing that is, essentially, disposable. They like new trends and fashions, and clothing is not built to last because people would rather change styles more often and pay less for clothing. Back in the sixties, futurists predicted we'd all be wearing PAPER clothing. The stuff on sale nowadays is pretty close to that imagining--it's not real durable, but durable enough, it's inexpensive, and it is cheap, so it's easy to replace the stuff.

If the people who lost their jobs sewing Fruit of the Loom tee shirts or slacks for the Johnny Carson collection are even still alive, they've surely retrained to new work...or retired. Those jobs you're bemoaning left a LONG time ago. They aren't quite buggy whip manufacturers but come on--CLINTON (Bill, that is) was talking about how those jobs were gone and not coming back during his FIRST run for POTUS. That was decades ago.

In any event, blaming Tweety for speaking factually is a non-starter.