United States has lost 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000

[Brickbat]

12. Oh, hell. I'm drinking tonight, so I'll play.

These were good jobs because a person didn't have to go to college to get one, and could still support a family on one. A person with a job like this could afford a small house, a car, two weeks at the lake in the summer and maybe sock a little away for college for the kids, if they were smart and didn't overextend themselves. These jobs were usually union jobs, so there was a pension at retirement. They were stable jobs, so once you got one, you could expect to stick with it throughout your "career."

It was the very basic level an economy should provide for a person, and if a person wanted to do better, THEN a person could go to college and "aim higher" than a job like this one. But if someone didn't want to do that -- and there are many who don't; many would prefer to put in their eight hours, go home, and not have to think about it anymore -- there was a basic level of subsistence that was actually comfortable.

It's called the "middle class," and you might not be familiar with it because it's not around much anymore. That's why people are "obsessed" with these kind of jobs.