So what will you do different?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by cabmando

We as consumers have sold our fellow Americans out by purchasing goods made in countries with significantly lower wage structure and regulation. I've heard so many people complain about the lack of good paying jobs. I tell them "Look around your house. Look at where your TV, Appliances, Furniture, Clothing, Tools, Hardware items etc come from. Then you might figure out why we have no good paying jobs". A lot of people say we have no choice. It's more that people are too lazy to research anything.

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of how we came to rely on Chinese manufacturing. Two words, "labor flight," or maybe two other, "corporate greed," or perhaps "share price" or could be "C-suite compensation" and some would say "union corruption" tell the story of moving good paying manufacturing jobs overseas.

New England was once famed for high quality manufacturing with high paying jobs. But some business owners figured out people in the South would do the same work for less money. Jobs flew from New England down to the South. And then Nixon, followed by every president after, started normalizing relations (of all kinds) with China and soon enough, U.S. Corporate C-suites figured out how to make things incredibly inexpensively in China and give themselve MASSIVE compensation packages while ****ing the American worker. More and more good paying American jobs flew overseas leaving American workers with fewer options for the same pay therefore earning less so that they can only afford, you guessed it, cheap Chinese goods. The more workers laid off, the less workers that could buy American and self-reinforced cycle was formed.

CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978.

How much do you think the American Middle Class salary has grown since 1978?

[Tobra]

That only works if people buy the crap Shaun. In my experience, it is cheaper and much less frustrating to pay a bit more and buy something that is not crap. If this were the general consensus, we would have never gotten to where we are now. People are stupid and short sighted though, go figure.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

It worked because, at first, Chinese crap was an unknown. Then it became a necessity. Then a natural part of our disposable economy.

People are generally not discriminating.

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by legion

Vote the bastards out that imposed illegal mandates.

That is one thing I plan on doing. To this day I refuse to support any business that has AARP endorsement due to AARP's stance on something a decade ago.
Everything else? I always restock before items get low, I rarely use cash, I don't live or work in huge urban centers, I ain't worried about dying cause I know where I'm headed. China? Too many products and industries are already replaced by Chinese made products so there ain't much we can do except vote for politicians who take a harder stance on the trade deficit.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

I'll carry on travelling to see different parts of the world but from the safety and comfort a big luxury saloon

I think something like a W140 Mercedes S500, or BMW 740I E38 or Audi A8 D2/D3 would be a nice place to spend time on our way south to the Sahara desert or north to the Arctic circle in winter