What might Trump do on Trade and Middle-Class Jobs?

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This has been an issue ever since we've started losing an increased number of auto manufacturing jobs in the late 1970s, with nothing fully taking their place, as well as losing other good-paying manufacturing jobs. This lack of middle-class jobs explains a lot, at least it does in my book. It's a big reason for the rise of Bernie Sanders, as well as a wide array of other populists of all colors and stripes.

I think what we want to do is to take a solid medium step, honestly look at feedback, another medium step, more feedback, medium step, feedback, etc, etc, etc, and in that sense get a dynamic process going.

And some areas where new jobs might be created are infrastructure, which could be a big one, at least for a while because we're behind on infrastructure. Another possibility is ramping up Small Business Administration loans, even though 80% of new businesses fail, yes, eight out of ten fail, that's the baseline statistic. We might also ramp up renewable energy and energy conservation. And maybe more promising experiments on trade, for trade is supposed to be win-win, that's the theory. And the best way to tell which of these areas work best is by taking medium steps and rolling from there.

And even though I bat from the left side of the plate politically, I wish the President-elect well, for it's my country, too. And I want things to go well for my country.

Coal companies are very happy today.

Trump promises to reverse all of Obama's "clean energy" executive orders.

This will bring back lots of "coal jobs".

If Trump follows through on literally anything he said during the campaign, it will hurt trade and middle-class jobs. A lot of his platform included ideas that would in all likelihood lead to economic catastrophe. He's also said no to renewable energy, no to conservation, and his policies will leave no funding with which to build infrastructure. You thought 2008 was bad?

Buckle up.

He won't do crap for the middle class. He will do the exact same thing every other Republican president has done. Give tax breaks and corporate welfare to the rich, and start a war to make money for the defense contractors.

What will he do for people who haven't reached middle class?

Make it so they can't.

You're right.
-3 tax brackets with lower tax on each (including the middle class).
-Reliance on domestic energy of all kinds, this reducing the need for foreign wars for resources or out of bad trade negotiation.
-Competitive healthcare.
-Child support programs and maternity leave/pay programs for the lower and middle class.
-Deregulation and flat corporate tax plus domestic business incentives.

Sounds awful, doesn't it
People, don't just say and think things. READ!! ! Read EVERY nominee's policies EVERY election cycle! The Greens, the Libertarians, the Democrats AND Republicans and you would KNOW! His policies have been up for months. He has brought these talking points up at his rallies for months. He brought them up in debates. They have been covered by his campaign management on television. They've been covered by his VP in rallies and debates.

He wants to kick out the illegals so you can do the low paying jobs they are currently doing.

The better jobs done by immigrants are another matter--they are currently being done legally under the H1B visa program. Trump has gone on record as saying that he wants to best and brightest of the other countries to stay. And flipped flopped back and forth on the H1B visa issue.

In my field, most of the experts have retired or passed away. I've suggested to headhunters that they consider training smart young talent, but nobody does that anymore.

Assuming that Trump doesn't trash the economy, I need about a 4% return on my investments to comfortably retire right now. And about 2% to maintain my present standard of living. And open up another job for a engineering know-it-all.

Last edited by BTDT on 10 Nov 2016, 9:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

I would have said manufacturing jobs were firmly under "working class". Lots of those aren't coming back - even if you could rearrange trade deals to force companies to manufacture in America, a lot of jobs which used to be done by people are now automated.

The middle classes work in offices. I think they stand to benefit from Trump's cut to corporation tax as well as his income tax cuts, although time will tell whether these are a net benefit.

They could use smart Aspies to fix the automated equipment. Normal people may find the lack of social interaction to be a problem with such jobs.

Aspies may consider educational training that would allow them to design lethal weapons for defense contractors. Typically, you don't get to talk about your work in public--so the lack of social skills might actually be good for that job. These jobs have always been high paying--immigrants on H1B visas don't take these jobs.

Engineering is no different than any other occupation--there are lots of football players but only a few can play like Tom Brady. I think there will always be jobs for clever engineers that can make stuff work better. These are the ones that Trump wants to stay in the USA--for them the rules are different.

An example of a low paying job done by immigrants is working in a chicken processing plant. Hard, dangerous work that the local US citizens typically avoid.

When you actually sit down and look at his tax policy, and would it would do to the average American and the economy? Yes, it does. It's f*****g terrifying.

Did Orwell predict this two-fer?

Surveillance cameras can not only watch where you drive, but they can also send you a bill for your usage of the roads. Private companies would be more likely to invest in roads and bridges if the government would automatically collect the tolls.

Further ... Trump's tax proposal:

-raise the "standard deduction" to 25k
-keep the 5k "personal exeception" deduction

So, he proposes the first 30k of income is tax free.

President George W. Bush talked about clean coal. This is where we as regular citizens can engage the conversation. And frankly yes, we can use both the facts and the argument from authority that President Bush said it. We'll just be matter-of-fact. What he said might get people's attention and then we can calmly present a fact or two. And then it's just a conversation. That is, we might be able to plan the beginning, but once we're past the beginning it's a real human interaction in which we're an equal person but so's the other person.

And wind power almost, almost competes economically on conventional terms. Once we add in climate change, and using up a finite resource with oil -- which are two distinct concepts and people who don't believe in the first may well believe in the second -- and the fact that we've had entangling alliances and military bases abroad for the sake of protecting access to oil. I mean, people who support the first Persian Gulf War way back in 1991 may think that oil got our attention and then we went ahead and did the right thing, but it does make you wonder, doesn't it?

So, yes indeed, add all this in and wind power is more than economically cost effective!! ! We just need to sell it with matter-of-fact confidence whether we're liberal, conservative, or middle-of-the-roaders.

Last edited by AardvarkGoodSwimmer on 10 Nov 2016, 5:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.

An example of a low paying job done by immigrants is working in a chicken processing plant. Hard, dangerous work that the local US citizens typically avoid.

What you say is correct...as far as you go, but you ended your sentence too early. Here, I'll show you what I mean:

"...that the local US citizens typically avoid AND the construction trades, where a young man could once work at a decent paying job during the summer to work toward paying tuition for school. Or perhaps the job now being done by an illegal is what the worker at K-Mart used to do before he was recently unemployed???" And including many "physical" decent paying jobs. ETC.

There are real costs to illegal immigration. You may not be paying them directly but they will effect you. Please don't minimize these things; they are important to many people. Where do you think these 10 to 20 million people have gone?

There are also costs to legal immigration with H1B visas--we are taking their best and brightest--which means they aren't going home to help their countries. There are also taking jobs from Americans. Worse, from an Aspie-centric point of view--they usually take jobs that smart people with social issues would typically take.