[Dane]

Since 1979 the bottom half of the American labor force, non college educated regular guys, has been steadily losing economic ground.

Really. I grew up and currently live in the Pittsburgh area. Even thoguh the population is down, the traffic seems to be twice as worse. It must be all those cars.

Retail establishments are blossoming in the suburbs and those Nintendo's seem to fly off the shelf.

Americans in 2003 have a much better life than they did in 1979, IMO, and that came about with a minimum of tariffs.

[Tokhtamish]

Your definition of what constitutes prosperity is incredibly shallow. Nintendos ?

A city whose population has dropped is faring badly, losing jobs. And God help smaller industrial cities like Flint, Dearborn, Dayton, Youngstown, etc... All shadows of their 1971 selves. The entire Northeast never recovered from the end of those factory jobs.

The non-college educated worker of today is not by any shred of the imagination better off than the worker of 1971. The worker with a good seniority union job of 1971 could buy a house, go away on vacation, have health insurance, and retire on a pension. How many college graduates these days have those things ? His standard of living has dropped.

On top of this still bleeding wound you would add yet another.

[cp124]

Retail establishments are blossoming in the suburbs and those Nintendo's seem to fly off the shelf.

= Record Credit Card Debt

[MatthewViti]

That all = massive credit card debt