There also is definitely a longstanding trend to show boomer workers the door and either outsource their work to other countries or to younger people.

The laws on age discrimination have been rendered moot by the current Administration’s refusal to allow enough resources for prosecution of cases.

IMHO,this is one of several deliberate Republican strategies to convince Americans that government can’t do anything (and if it tries, it gets it all wrong). It takes 8-10 months to even get a case heard by EEOC is my area (Northern VA). Good luck on ever seeing a resolution. Both the accuser and the accused will probably not be working for the company by the time the case gets heard and any action is taken.

This depresses wages.

At the lower-end of the scale it’s not so much outsourcing but immigration & second-incomes, particularly part-timers: kids & wives (and husbands) pressed back or choosing to go back into the workplace on a part-time basis either for personal satisfaction or because the wage depression on the primary earner can’t make it on his or her own. Throw in divorced men and women with kids, singles with kids (most of whom have to take what they can get) & what you end up with is a dispersal of earning power that effects clerks, busboys & waitresses, middle-managers, manufacturing, management, IT. And it’s a blight on everyone outside the top 1%. Man or woman, black, white, purple, married or single, conservative or liberal. And believe me, it doesn’t matter if you’re 34 or 44 or 54…or 24 in some cases. If you’re not young & cute enough to snag a sugar-daddy (or momma) & you lack the means to make that low-minimum wage, you are screwed.

America has a very, very high standard of living. What this means is that most goods and services that can be built for consumption here or provided for consumption here will created elsewhere.

Incidentally, regarding the difference between men’s and women’s salaries, I strongly suggest “Why Men Earn More: And What Women Can Do About It.”

Warren Farrell. The man knows his stats. Farrell adjusts job by job (apples to apples, say), total hours worked, consecutive years on job, willingness to transfer for work (mostly BLA stuff) & indexed with the Jobs-Rated Index, he finds a 1.74% difference in real wages between men and women.

Give the guy a chance. He was elected to the NOW Board three times in the ’70s and has two or three daughters. I don’t think he wants them to fail.

I would be happy to talk about these & related subjects on my own time with anyone who cares to listen. My email is graham_strouse@yahoo.com.

Yrs,

Graham

There ARE some countries that take advantage of cheap American labor. Mercedes builds its M-Class SUVs in Alabama & 60% of Japanese auto parts are made in America.

My maternal grandfather was a carpenter and always had work. Even in the great depression if you had a needed skill there was work. And my grandfather was in his 40s and 50s. Try finding any worthwhile job even to pay the bills if you’re a white male in your mid 40s or 50s.

In the old days work was valued and needed. Conditions were harsh but you weren’t told to go away as are so many of our mature white male workers today. With illegal immigration and other programs that welcome immigrants employers will still have a pool to draw upon when the labor force becomes smaller.(Baby boomers are being showed the door as often as retiring.) Believe me, we’re not part of their plans!