[grantheaslip]

Sure, ununionized labour would be more employable, but these would be lower-class jobs, not the middle-class jobs that the west of today was built on. Nobody’s going to be able to support a family at middle-class standards on $10-15 an hour.

For some reason, the broader socioeconomic discussion the western world should be having has been condensed to creating jobs. But jobs aren’t a binary thing; and they’re means to an end, not the end goal (an equitable society in which the average person can be a member of the middle class).

[teyc]

The article said that most of the high value componentry came from Germany, Japan and Taiwan. I'm not aware of these people working under slavish conditions. Could it be that the US companies don't have sufficient technical edge?

[count]

Um, 'middle class' is squarely in the $10-15/hr range in the US today. That's about $25-30k per parent, with 2 working parents. That's 'average' in most of the US.

[grantheaslip]

I’m not in the position of supporting a family, but is that really enough to support a mortgage, car(s), daycare (if we’re assuming both parents are working), putting kids though university, buying supplementary insurance, etc?

I get the sense that “average” is no longer middle class unless you really loosen the definition of middle class.