Tawney,
-Right, I'm not advocating creation of a huge group of poor people in the US. But I'm just noting that there are worldwide market forces at work that cannot be changed by legislation here. Uneducated/unskilled people in the US will not be able to live as wel as the last generation of uneducated/unskilled workers did. The last generation was an anomaly. Look back at the life of a worker (income, even working conditions) of a US factory worker in 1920--I think that is where we are headed for low-skill jobs. And, there's really no alternative, since workers elsewhere can do the unskilled work at much cheaper rates and no US manufacturer can compete unless relative US wages go down. And, before we start encourageing tarrifs and economic disengagement, it would be good to look at the success of that course of action in the past--it is not pretty.
There are three bright spots:
-- On a very long-term level, foreign wages will go up, which will help support higher wages in the US.
-- As foreign workers gradually get more disposable income due to their higher wages, they'l be buying more things from the US This will help US workers.
-- Despite claims to the contrary, low-wage earners in the US are doing better than they have in the past. The median income in the US from 2001 to 2004 (most current year availabe) increased by
1.6 percent after inflation. The mean income decreased 2.3 percent over the same period. That can only happen if low-income folks are earning more, and higher income folks are earning less.
There is nothing wrong with unskilled labor--the guy who pushes a broom or cleans fish in a factory is contributing far more to society than many folks who earn more money. But, the days of working in a US factory and beng able to buy a new car every three years, live in a nice house, and pay for a college education for your kids is probably going or gone already.
As a note--wages for many unskiled jobs in the US would increase if we stemmed the flow of illegal aliens ("undocumented workers"--"hey, I think I misplaced my passport and visa during that hike across the desert!"). In those cases where an industry really can't compete in the worldwide marketplace if they pay higher wages, I think it would be better to allow a controlled guest worker program with tight restrictions than it would be to have the whole factory move to another country. At least we'd still benefit from the ancillary jobs from having the work done here. It would be better than the present situation.