Even in the industrial democracies, working families have not fared well because growth has been slower and inequality greater. Japan has been in depression for a decade, with workers losing the security they once enjoyed. Europe is scarred by long term unemployment with countries pressured to cut back worker benefits. Here in the United States, inequality has been rising, and families pay the price while men and women work longer and harder in jobs that offer fewer benefits and less security. For working families in this country, the global economy is not an abstraction.
Many jobs are dependent on exports.
Many are lost to imports. Employers routinely use the threat to move abroad as a club in contract negotiations. Last year's global financial collapse produced tremors on Wall Street but trauma in Pittsburgh. Even with the economy growing, the U.S. lost more than 500,000 manufacturing jobs over the last 18 months as devastated countries tried to export their way out of trouble. Seated here with me today is one of the workers I'm talking about.