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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsincome gap widens as factories shut down
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WEALTH_GAP_MANUFACTURING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-06-15-22-14-07READING, Pa. (AP) -- In August 2008, factory workers David and Barbara Ludwig treated themselves to new cars - David a Dodge pickup, Barbara a sporty Mazda 3. With David making $22 an hour and Barbara $19, they could easily afford the payments.
A month later, Baldwin Hardware, a unit of Stanley Black & Decker Corp., announced layoffs at the Reading plant where they both worked. David was unemployed for 20 months before finding a janitor job that paid $10 an hour, less than half his previous wage. Barbara hung on, but she, too, lost her shipping-dock job of 26 years as Black & Decker shifted production to Mexico. Now she cleans houses for $10 an hour while looking for something permanent.
They still have the cars. The other trappings of their middle-class lifestyle? In the rear-view mirror.
The downfall of manufacturing in the U.S. has done more than displace workers and leave communities searching for ways to rebuild devastated economies. In Reading and other American factory towns, manufacturing's decline is a key factor in the widening income gap between the rich and everyone else, as people like the Ludwigs have been forced into far lower-paying work.
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income gap widens as factories shut down (Original Post)
xchrom
Jun 2014
OP
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)1. TPP, anyone?
xchrom
(108,903 posts)2. +1
KG
(28,752 posts)3. oh, c'mon. TPP is all about soybeans. read it here on DU. what ya got against soybeans
they're cute and cuddly.