One of the more unfortunate consequences of these jobs going overseas is that the bulk of what kept the middle class strong all these years. When those jobs were either lost or outsourced so did an easy and simple means of a decent income that did not require much education or skill.

What's replaced them is an unequal structure of low paying minimum wage service jobs, and high paying professional or skill jobs. For the latter you need at the very least a college bachelor's degree. For the former, people who work those services can barely live off of the salary. No one even working full time at a fast food joint is going to be living relatively well on that kind of money.

There have been calls to raise the minimum wage and overall salary. The problem is most states, can't damn well pay a higher wage or salary. Most businesses would just cut hours anyway. And Unions can still be greedy. Bad leadership and unsustainable pension funds bankrupted Detroit.

My basic point is that I recognize an income inequality gap in this country and it's due to what Marycas mentioned above. These jobs once held by Americans are now held by Asians so we can buy them at a lower price. We've evolved a higher standard of living but it's only attained by a small number.

Me being a fiscal conservative, I have my own ideas on how to solve it. But that's another story. Sorry if I hijacked this thread