How poor people survive in the USA DW Documentary

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Good jobs, wages, and benefits

began declining after Reagan began the assault on organized labor. Wages are stagnant for 25-30 years. Meanwhile, life is about consumption, and paying for it all, with jobs that are stripped of wage growth and benefits. Good jobs were plentiful for laborers and factory workers when the USA manufactured goods here at home. Now, not very much.

Economist Lester Thurow in the 1980s told America we needed to produce goods that the world wants. The economies of nations are often built around investment in specific industries. At various times and various countries these have been dental products, BSR turntables, televisions and radios, cars. We make all those things, but so does everyone else nowadays. We have no comparative advantage. Post WWII we were the only major economy producing lots of everything because we were the ones left standing. We rode that for 40 years. What have we done lately?