The US work force - one foot in the Third World

In May the Bush economy created 73,000 private sector jobs: 20,000 jobs in construction (primarily for Mexican immigrants), 21,000 in wholesale and retail trade, and 32,500 in healthcare and social assistance. In the public sector, local government added another 5,000.

Not a single one of these jobs produces an exportable good or service. With Americans increasingly divorced from the production of the goods and services that they consume, they have no way to pay for their consumption except by handing over to foreigners more of their accumulated stock of wealth. The country continues to eat its seed and corn.

Only 10 million Americans are classified as ‘production workers’ in the US Bureau of Labor Statistics non-farm payroll tables. Think about that. The US, with a population approaching 300 million, has only 10 million production workers. That means Americans are consuming the products of other countries’ labour. In the 21st century, the US economy has been unable to create jobs in export- and import competitive industries. US job growth is confined to non-tradable domestic services. This movement of the American labour force towards Third-World occupations in domestic services has...

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