bye, bye love, bye bye happiness... hello loneliness... I think I'm going to die...
Paul Craig Roberts: 'Welcome to a has-been country'
The US Labor Force: One Foot in the Third World
By Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch
In May the Bush economy eked out a paltry 73,000 private sector jobs: 20,000 jobs in construction (primarily for Mexican immigrants), 21,000 jobs in wholesale and retail trade, and 32,500 jobs in health care and social assistance. Local government added 5,000 for a grand total of 78,000.
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, Americans 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 corn.
Only 10 million Americans are classified as "production workers" in the Bureau of Labor Statistics nonfarm 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 labor.
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 nontradable domestic services.
