April 25, 2017
Your smart phone was made in a labor camp, your clothes were made in a sweatshop, and your fish were caught on a slave ship, reports author of new book.
So James Stuber tells us in the introduction to his timely and provocative new book, What if Things Were Made in America Again: How Consumers Can Rebuild the Middle Class by Buying Things Made in American Communities (Current Affairs Press, www.themadeinamericabook.com).
Stuber invites us on the journey to learn “what is really going on” with trade, globalization, and the U.S. and world economies. We go to some surprising places. . . .
- To the Chinese “factory labor camp” making smart phones, with nets to prevent more workers from committing suicide by jumping off the roof.
- To the Illinois steel mill, dealing with the suicide of one of its workers, because the mill was shut down when China started dumping its overproduction of steel on the U.S. market.
We learn how –
- The U.S. gave whole industries away pursuing unilateral free trade and fighting communism.
- Trade morphed into globalization, three billion people joined the world economy, creating the “age of oversupply,” and China changed everything by adopting just enough capitalism to become the “world’s workshop,” to the detriment of developed and developing countries alike.
- We are caught up in the “Big Squeeze” of the global low-price, low wage economy, with every nation, including the U.S., competing to win over transnational companies shopping the world for low wages and subsidies.
Exploding myths of a “win-win” from free trade, Stuber shows how –
- All this resulted in six million lost manufacturing jobs and lower wages for most Americans, outweighing any gains from lower prices of the foreign goods.
- These lost jobs destroyed lives, families, and communities, while our political and intellectual elites told us how good this was for everyone.
- The future holds more jobs lost to Mexico, China, and India, as white-collar and professional jobs are being swept offshore along with manufacturing, threatening our children’s future.
Stuber challenges us to consider the moral and practical implications of all this, and asks, “who will stand up for the ordinary American?”
Most importantly, we learn how consumers solve the problem, without asking anyone for permission, by buying things made in American communities.
To arrange an interview call (610) 608-5074 or email james.stuber@themadeinamericabook.com. For further information, visit www.themadeinamericabook.com.
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