Why the Richer are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer

According to Reich the economy downfall has a lot to do with the inventions of labor saving machinery. Machinery are not shoppers and they are taking away someone's employment. What do you think is the cause of a deteriorating economy? Why do you think the link between top executives and the American worker faded?

Latoya Robinson
March 3, 2015
College Writing II ltrobins@bhcc.edu Personally I think that the economy downfall has a lot to do with the inventions of labor saving machinery. Machinery are not shoppers and they are taking away someone's employment. What do you think is the cause of a declining economy? Why do you think the link between top executives and the American worker faded?

Reich say that impersonal services jobs will leave and go off shores but the personal jobs will stay here. The reasoning for the impersonal jobs to go off shores is due to the low wages that that they can get from other countries and do better in profit, for example like AT&T where they went to Singapore after leaving the states due to lower wages from the employees but after they move to Singapore they found another country that would do it for less so they moved there company to Thailand instead for even cheaper wages and more profit. Another example would be American Airlines where they were sending transcripts from around the United States to Barbados and to Dominican Republic to have them input there data even thou the computer bank was in Dallas.(Reich p.211)

There are boats that contain routine producers, a boat that contains symbolic analysts, and the boat containing in-person servers. There was a time when everyone was on the same boat but because the American company sold its goods and services all over the world, the purchasing power of Americans workers became far less relevant to its economic survival. Small towns have shrunken and died with the loss of their manufacturing plants while the town’s small businesses got decimate and replaced by Wal-Mart, unlike businesses and restaurants that were once owned and operated by local risk takers.
Reich introduces to us the three boats that sail within the American economy. The boat that is in more danger of sinking is the boat that carries routine producers. The reason this boat is sinking is because American companies are constructing factories in developing nations. They are hiring the citizens that reside in the developing countries and are paying them only a fraction of what they would pay Americans, the reason they are paying less overseas is because Americans have gotten so greedy and because things have gotten so expensive we look for more as were people overseas are take what they can get.

Mr. Blinder argued that the greatest problem for the next generation of American works may not be lack of education but that everything is moving overseas (Blinder p.8). Companies are replacing human employees with machine employees because they are more capable and the move at a faster rate and the more they can produce with the machinery the more of a profit they would make. Reich uses a metaphor to explain how the economy is going up and down for the rich and poor. He says it’s a boat we all in and that one is sinking rapidly while the other one is barely making it and the other on is rising.

The lower class keeps getting poorer because of jobless due to more automation and competition fro other countries that are willing to work for less money. And the middle class is ok but not that great because the machinery is taking over and lower wages but the upper class is doing good because they are the one that are selling their ideas to the foreigners and they are the ones that have the jobs to be able to do this and make more money.

The boat containing in-person servers is also sinking but at a slower rate than the boat containing routine producers the reason for this is because in-person servers are sheltered from