Welcome to the Third World

This is, sad to say, the most important post I have made in a long time. As Mr. T would say, get ready to feel pain. From an article in the Washington Post, this depressing story, featured yesterday at Daily Kos:

"In its biggest foreign market, BMW gets skilled workers for less

GREER, S.C. - When German automaker BMW put out the call recently to hire a thousand factory workers here, the people who responded reflected the upheaval occurring in the U.S. economy. Among the applicants: a former manager of a major distribution center for Target; a consultant who oversaw construction projects in four Western states; a supervisor at a plastics recycling firm. Some held college degrees and resumes in other fields where they made more money.

But they're all in the factory now making $15 an hour - about half of what the typical German autoworker makes...The International Labor Organization has pegged hourly manufacturing wages in Germany at nearly 24 euros, or more than $33."

Welcome to the third world, fellow Americans.  All the teabaggers are running around scared to death that, if Democrats have their way, our country will become more like Europe, where workers earn twice as much, and have 35 days of vacation a year and guaranteed health care.  God forbid that should happen to us.  Instead, with Republican control of the economy, we're now where European companies come for cheap labor.

"We are a low-wage country compared to Germany," said Kristin Dziczek, director of the Labor and Industry Group at the Center for Automotive Research. "And that helps put jobs here."

But the price of having a more globally competitive workforce means more in the United States could fall well short of the middle-class living standards that manufacturing workers once could expect. Wages adjusted for inflation have declined for these workers since 2003."

The price, of course, being paid 100% by the workers.  We don't see the rich, who get richer every year, paying any price.  But it's just fine with Republicans if American workers have to work for half price if they don't want to starve:

"We live in a global economy, and this is an example of what can be a win-win," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.)"

Thanks for that insight, Lindsay. If you can count having your pay cut in half as winning, we're doing great. I guess that fine attitude is why the mainstream press always says you are one of the Republicans that Democrats should work with.

And by the way, can you even begin to imagine, in your wildest dreams, that the following might happen when our jobs are sent somewhere else:

"...when Daimler decided to make the Mercedes C Class in Tuscaloosa, Ala., rather than in Germany, the union extracted promises that no workers would be left without a job."

The unions, which as you know are, in this county, regarded as little more than Communist terrorists, have about as much chance of protecting anyone's job from foreign competition as Donald Duck.

Well, here we are, in the third world, folks, with the trip being provided for free by the Republican party and its corporate backers.  I hope it's true, as they say, that getting there is half the fun, because I don't think it's going to be that nice now that we've arrived.