>My point was about the decline of US industries, not about the income of workers. You probably shouldn't have said "What destroyed the US industries...was the

>My point was about the decline of US industries, not about the income of workers. You probably shouldn't have said "What destroyed the US industries...was the high price of labor" then, should you? >What matters here is the price of the produced products and you're at a disadvantage in a global economy when the prices are too high. As I explained once before this is due to the high value of the dollar. >I suspect that either option (reducing wages or value of the dollar) would reduce buying power of US citizens since US has to import so many goods thus creating downward pressure no matter which option you choose. Reducing wages reduces buying power period. Reducing the value of the dollar only reduces the buying power for imported goods. Right now I think flat screen TVs, jeans and cheap plastic crap from China are cheap enough and it wouldn't hurt for that stuff to go up in price a bit. Housing, education & healthcare are the major line items on household budgets. THESE things won't go up in price. >Anyways, I agree that those problems have to be solved but I'm quite sure that the current consumption level is unsustainable Current consumption is too low to support full employment. In the EU and the US. This has to change. Both economies need to engage in massive debt writedowns and/or stimulus to return demand to normal levels.