Both China and India are Amazing Stories of Poverty Reduction... We Should Stop Demonizing Them

[pampango]

115. Well said. "It should be possible to alleviate the poverty in India and China without increasing it

here, but that would take a little thought and sacrifice on the part of our wealthiest citizens. So far they have been unwilling to share the losses that their outsourcing and importing have meant for working Americans."

You are right. And IMHO the way to do that is the way that advanced progressive countries have done it. They do not allow their "wealthiest citizens" to be "unwilling to share the losses" of a globalized economy.

The US' per capita GDP is $46,844. That of the EU is $30,388. Our problem is not that the US does not generate enough wealth for the middle class to prosper, it is that we don't force the "wealthiest citizens" to share the tremendous wealth that our country generates.

European economies generate 30% less wealth per capita than ours does, but their societies and middle classes are much healthier than ours because they distribute that wealth much more equitably than we do. I haven't met any European who is willing to trade their society (with its high/progressive taxes, strong unions, effective safety net, national health care and better education system, but with lower average incomes) for life in the US (with its regressive taxes, weak unions, ineffective safety net, limited national health care, ineffective education system, but with significantly higher average incomes).

It is, as you say, "possible to alleviate the poverty in India and China (and in other poor countries) without increasing it here, but that would take a little thought and sacrifice on the part of our wealthiest citizens." It is already happening in advanced progressive countries.