Deindustrialization and Two-Tier U.S. Economy

A wage study just compiled by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress provides grim documentation of the effect that deindustrialization has had on the earnings of America’s workers. It reflects a two-tier economy, with the bottom level growing at the expense of the middle.

The jobs that disappeared in a continuing wave of plant closings were mostly of the type that have enabled industrial workers to become middle-income homeowners. The jobs that replaced theirs are creating a new army of working poor.

You don’t pay off mortgages on $4-an-hour wages.

Two-income households were once an option that offered a bonus of higher living standards. But increasingly, two incomes are becoming necessary for economic survival.

You might ask if there is any connection between the findings of this congressional report and the fact that it is increasingly difficult to find American-made products in stores.

The Reagan Administration doesn’t think so. I do.

THOMAS J. VANDEVELD

San Diego

Vandeveld is president of Local 135 of the AFL-CIO United Food & Commercial Workers.