My dad and I were having this conversation recently. Not surprisingly, we disagree. I say that "the good old days" of someone getting a job at a factory and making enough money to support an upper middle class lifestyle (as has been true in much of Southeast Michigan for years) are long gone. I think we shouldn't try to close the borders or keep the jobs here but do what Americans do best .... innovate, create new industries and new jobs that will employ the people who would have been employed by manufacturing. The fact is that since all those other countries can do it so much more cheaply, things aren't going to change. Thus, it seems a better use of our time to find an alternative than to rail against it. In the interests of full disclosure: I live in Michigan and my dad was unemployed during the last auto industry crisis in the 70s. I know it's awful but I'm also pragmatic: since it isn't going to change, what can we do?
That is the real question isn't it? What can we do? It looks like we can do nothing. Congress doesn't let us vote on any of these things so we have to sit back and take it. If we were allowed to vote yay or nay to NAFTA before it was passed back in 93 and we allowed it to happen, then we could only blame ourselves. We weren't allowed to vote on the recent 800 billion dollar bailout, that's right. I said 800 billion dollar bailout and I am sure we won't be allowed to vote on the auto bailout either. Sure the bailout may save some jobs but at what cost and for how long? We are not fed all of the information on these bailouts. All of the ups and downs and are only fed what the government wants us to hear.
