Saturday Political Soap Box 20 - In Service to the Economy

I have a question, of which I am genuinely unsure of the answer. I am looking for answers and dialogue, however, only from those who agree with the basic premise that the key to a successful nation (indeed, successful planet) is a growing and vibrant middle class. If you believe that the world is better off with a shrinking middle class, please - pick another soap box to comment on.




I heard a panel discussion on the radio where a man brought up that some manufacturing jobs were coming back to the United States, but they were coming back at substantially lower wages than they were before they left. It was brought up that some plants were hiring young workers without the pay or benefits that the older workers were getting. Now, whatever you think of unions or how we compete in the world, you have to admit that represents a decline in middle class standards and not an improvement.



He also mentioned about how part of our solution lay in how we treat service jobs. We don't seem to want to pay them a wage adequate to middle class standards, yet that is where a lot of our future job growth is. So we have a manufacturing base that is declining (both in jobs offered and wages paid) and a service industry that is growing but whose wages are not. We also have a public sector that is being vilified and stomped on. Bizarrely, those low-paid private sector workers are going not "Hey, they get four weeks off, why can't I?" but instead, "Why should I pay taxes for them to get four weeks off when I have to beg for two?" dragging everybody down to the Lowest Common Denominator.



Manufacturing jobs were not always middle class jobs. It took the considerable efforts of workers through unions to make that so. It took thirty plus years of Reaganomics and globalization to batter it away. So my question is, why can't service workers be given the same dignity? Why can't they be paid middle class wages? Wages that enable them to have the basics in society - food, clothing, shelter, education, see a darn movie once in awhile, be able to dream for a better future.



A global economy based solely on manufacturing seems to me ecologically unsustainable. We are consuming resources at a rapid rate, and producing larger and larger junk piles. What if we had an economy that was based to a larger degree on the services that we render to each other?



It took me awhile, but that's my question. Is it possible to base the global economy as much or more on services as it is on manufacturing stuff, and if so, can those people in the service industry be compensated at a middle class level?



Let the squaloring begin!