The economic toll of a changing economy.

A few days ago I was reading in the newspaper regarding how the union is fighting the government to preserve its status and in that article it described a town in Ohio where the only path to middle class is a unionized government job. It was just heart wrecking how people are trying to survive their middle class status since the private sector jobs like steel mills and other heavy industry has been decimated due to global competition and outsourcing and the only jobs available are working at a diner and other retailers getting minimum wage or a bit more but not even coming near to what the people were making before in the manufacturing sector.

Now these people don’t have money to put food on their table, how are they going to retrain for a new and changing economy where there is a minimum need for a college education and some advanced skills? It is sad to see the devastation that this middle class is experiencing due to the global competition and how once sure fire unionized jobs are being either outsourced or eliminated thus ending the dreams of millions of less educated folks who once thought that they would be able to enter the middle class spectrum. Although the unions are fighter to preserve their domain but it is a losing battle since the business can simply pack up and leave for a low cost labor market anywhere in the world. Here I would blame the unions and the businesses equally who trying to preserve their influence and profits respectively have created a new underclass in society who stuck in the lower levels of middle class thus ending their families’ dreams of advancing in life further.