[Palter]

Technology and productivity has destroyed jobs. Throw in Republicans and Democrats who favor communist countries in trade deals.

[Scanian]

I had a nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach when I saw Nixon drinking with the Chicoms in ‘72. I just knew we’d end up getting screwed.

[FreedomPoster]

Bingo. That says with charts much the same thing as I was saying in #52.

[Will88]

Technology and productivity has destroyed jobs. Throw in Republicans and Democrats who favor communist countries in trade deals.

There is a major factor in those stats you don't mention. The manufacturing jobs that have been exported first were the more labor intensive jobs. For example, the sewing factory jobs were some of the first jobs to be exported to cheap labor nations, while the highly mechanized production of cloth and other textiles survived longer in the US. The same with many other labor intensive industries.

So those stats don't simply represent mechanization or improved productivity, but also the fact that the less productive, more labor intensive work has been largely exported to cheap labor nations, and are no longer in the computations.

I'd bet that is a bigger factor than real, improved productivity.