I think depressed wages is a byproduct of globalization and it won't get any better. It's coming full circle.
It is, and that's not incongruent with anything I've said. It's all the same. The profit motive will always chase the lowest wage, whether here or abroad. And the people be damned.
There is a double edge it - because the people losing their jobs in the west may be damned but the recipients are obviously benefiting. Market forces buddy. It's a very gradual redistribution of power and wealth. The western world will only decline economically - the game is up.
Market forces? As in free-markets? It has nothing to do with what the markets can do for themselves. To get to the state we're in, the "market forces" we're structurally determined. There's your free-market theory.
Which leads to the conservative dream of redistributing wealth from America's middle class to the poor of the ROW with the ultimate goal of establishing America as second world country, in which there is a wealthy ruling class and a poor working class. In other words, a plutocracy, not much different than Mexico. Maybe you're new to the program, but it has nothing to do with "market forces" and everything to do with concentrating wealth and power. Get it now?
The big problem here is that the conservatives have effectively convinced Americans to vote against their best interests for decades. When the knuckleheads here finally wake up and smell the coffee, I'll be right in the thick of it. 
No, it has everything to do with market forces.
OK, US Car Company employs 100,000 employees in USA. French Car Company employs 100,000 employees in France. French Car Company moves production to China, saves millions of pounds in overheads, cuts prices and boasts bigger profits with no workforce "issues".
French Car Company increases sales throughout the WORLD, boasts bigger profits at the expense of US Car Company. US Car Company is now losing money with bloated, mollycoddled workforce on a 37 hour week with pension plans etc... whilst sales are plummeting through the floor....
What does US Car Company do....
All about market forces... The far east IS the production centre of the world. You're the CEO of the US Car Company - what do you do? Sink or swim?
What you are seeing Babblelot is a slow shift in power and there is absoutely nothing that can be done about it unless you resort to protectionist, isolationist policies like 50s USA.... and with your countries debt levels I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Yes, that’s the outcome when governments (not markets) make trade policy. With respect to protectionism, let’s start with 2010 and work from there. While the world economy is depressed and unemployment is high, China is experiencing huge trade surpluses because the Chinese government (not markets) have pegged their currency against the dollar. As a result, all bets are off: some protectionism is necessary. And if that doesn’t persuade them to discontinue this predatory policy, then more still. None of this, you will note, resembles "market forces."
It is global market forces that are dictating... Sure, government policies past and present have allowed this to happen. Globalization made the USA an economic super power and globalization will likely see it decline. If you think otherwise, where are the increased prosperity, jobs etc... going to come from?
The last rites will be read when then US Dollar ceases to become the global monetary standard... and at some stage that will likely happen. Actually, that's been mentioned as one of the possible reasons the US held such a tough line with Iraq - Hussein was going to start trading his oil in Euros. If others followed that lead, then it could have set a very dangerous precedent.
I started down this path not because I'm worried about our status as the preeminent super power or the dollar, but because the conservative policies of the past 30 years have created a multi-national corporatocracy that has brought with it the rapid demise of our middle class.
To restore our middle class, some policy changes are required, and these changes will create American jobs. Keep in mind, up to this point, we've been playing globalization with one arm tied behind our back. Here are a few changes that will help level the playing field--tilting in our favor--and go far to rebuilding our middle class:
1. Single payer health care. We don't have it and the ROW does. This is primary reason we lose our competitive advantage. Factories go elsewhere because the skyrocketing cost of employer based health care is a deterrent to doing business in the Sates. (That's the dirty little secret of conservativism. And dumb-America fights against SPHC only to cut off its nose to spite its face.)
2. Resort to some protectionism in certain industries to keep some good paying jobs here and also to force China to allow it's currency to fluctuate
3. Rewrite trade agreements to allow American exports into Asian markets
4. Fund brand new industries that will lessen our dependency on foreign oil
5. Create a high-speed railway network. We have zero high-speed trains in the US.
Returning to the preeminent economic super power is not anything I've argued for. I'm interested in rebuilding our middle class. But anything that will upset the status quo will upset the conservatives who will, in turn, tell their ignorant legions to be outraged. Like I said above, conservatives have conned dumb-America to vote against their best interests for decades.
upshot: politics drives economics
