The US Has the Highest Share of Employees in Low Wage Work

[finehoe]

[ben says]

Well that's not ok...

[KenFSU]

Highest share relative who/what?

Convenient that China, India, Thailand, etc. aren't even mentioned on the list.

[Ajax]

How's that working out for Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Greece and Italy?   

[Kaiser Soze]

Well, we could just send those low wage jobs out of the country.  Would that make you happy?

[finehoe]

Highest share relative who/what?

UK, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Japan, Australia, Portugal, Denmark, Greece, NZ, France, Finland, Norway, Italy, Belgium

Convenient that China, India, Thailand, etc. aren't even mentioned on the list.

Convenient if the only countries you can beat are in the developing world.

[finehoe]

Well, we could just send those low wage jobs out of the country.  Would that make you happy?

Not as happy as it apparently makes you to send middle-class jobs overseas instead.

[Kaiser Soze]

Well, we could just send those low wage jobs out of the country.  Would that make you happy?

Not as happy as it apparently makes you to send middle-class jobs overseas instead.

What middle wage jobs are being sent overseas?

[finehoe]

What middle wage jobs are being sent overseas?

The section written by Griff Witte in D. Stanley Eitzen and Janis E. Johnston’s book Inequality: Social Class and Its Consequences is about how the middle-class is shrinking and its effects on the job opportunities for college and high school graduates. One of the glaring problems discussed in Witte’s piece is the outsourcing of manufacturing and tech jobs. Basically, the secure middle class jobs are sent to other countries because labor is cheaper for these companies. In turn these jobs disappear and what is left is lower paying and less secure service-sector jobs. Witte writes of the numerous people that lost their middle class jobs and struggle to find a suitable job that could lead to the American dream. A closer look at outsourcing shows that it can lead to success for many businesses, but what is rarely talked about is what it does to inequality in the social world.  Richard C. Insigna and Michael J. Werle wrote about the business strategies of outsourcing in their work, Linking Outsourcing to Business Strategy. The overwhelming problem with outsourcing is that it causes a larger income gap between the different social classes, it also causes the lower income strata to increase and make the upper strata wealthier and smaller, which leads to greater inequality. Without these middle class jobs, Witte displays that a high-school diploma, and even a college degree could mean less in the coming future because the jobs that will be left will be low wage or highly skilled labor jobs, which are harder to obtain. Witte explains a college graduate’s situation, “And yet, as Moore’s situation shows, a college diploma offers a porous shield when demand for a certain skill evaporates. College graduates have, in recent years, become an increasingly large percentage of the long-term unemployed. When they find new work, their salary cuts have especially deep” . When these jobs “evaporate” it leads to greater inequality and a larger income gap, because people can’t get well paying jobs. Outsourcing may cut costs for certain corporations but the cost to the middle class and economic inequality could be too great to overcome. All this leads to a greater number of people finding it harder to achieve the American dream.

[Kaiser Soze]

Would like to know what the authors consider middle class jobs

[JeffreyS]

Highest share relative who/what?

Convenient that China, India, Thailand, etc. aren't even mentioned on the list.

And here is what we are up against folks. So many who would be perfectly happy if the U.S.A. could bid lower than Bangladesh on labor costs. Lets race to the bottom not just of the developed nations let's show Laos we stand more poverty than those weaklings.  That is some real patriotism there.

[JeffreyS]

Well, we could just send those low wage jobs out of the country.  Would that make you happy?

Not as happy as it apparently makes you to send middle-class jobs overseas instead.

What middle wage jobs are being sent overseas?

Ask any I.T. person you know.  Ask any light manufacturing person you know.  Ask any heavy manufacturing person you know. 

[BackinJax05]

Tell me something I dont know. I'm one of those low wage workers. So much for doing better than my parents.

[bill]

The Dems were in charge for a majority of the time period that those jobs left and most of those jobs were union jobs. Hmm any correlation? Carp carp carp...the Republicans....carp carp carp....George Bush.....carp carp carp....tax the rich......carp carp carp....talk amongst yourselves

[KenFSU]

Highest share relative who/what?

Convenient that China, India, Thailand, etc. aren't even mentioned on the list.

And here is what we are up against folks. So many who would be perfectly happy if the U.S.A. could bid lower than Bangladesh on labor costs. Lets race to the bottom not just of the developed nations let's show Laos we stand more poverty than those weaklings.  That is some real patriotism there.

Are you serious?

Putting a LOT of words in my mouth there for a simple question about the context of a descriptionless three year old chart.

I ask about those other countries because the title of the thread is "The US has the Highest Share of Employees in Low Wage Work," which is misleading and patently untrue.

And I ask relative who/what because if we *are* discussing developed countries, the chart is missing a good 15 countries.

But sorry, didn't mean to be so unpatriotic...