Pay Mexican workers living wage so they can stay there

The low-wage paid to Mexican workers producing goods destined for the United States is a monument to greed and disregard for our middle class.

American manufacturers fled to other countries, claiming inability to compete with low wages in foreign work forces. They stepped down from very good wages with benefits to slave wages and zero job security, while market prices of finished products are not reduced noticeably.

The last sound we heard as the door closed on American manufacturing is “cha ching,” when all those tax-free profits were distributed.

We sold out to slave labor and cheap foreign goods and meanwhile set an impossibly low bar for our workers. We may never recover the jobs and vibrant middle class that existed when America’s labor force was a respected and well-paid entity.

Manufacturers who choose to operate outside the country they claim to love, respect and cherish should be required to pay decent, living wages when they move to exploit desperate workers and escape regulation.

Fair wages for Mexican workers would allow them to remain in the country they love, respect and cherish and we could use the wall money to solve our own problems.

This story was originally published October 26, 2017 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Pay Mexican workers living wage so they can stay there."