Timeline: From “Made in USA” Champions to Wealth Extractors
The Original Promise (1960s-1985): “We’ll Keep Jobs in America”
In 1985, Sam Walton launched Walmart’s “Buy American” campaign with celebrity endorsements and patriotic promises. The message was clear: shopping at Walmart meant supporting American manufacturing and American jobs.
See:
- 🏛️ Walmart Corporate History – Buy American Initiative
- 🎯 Sam Walton Made in America Campaign Timeline
Key Points:
- Sam Walton’s 1985 letter promised to “restore our manufacturing capacity, improve our national economy and renew our pride in American craftsmanship”
- Walmart’s ‘Buy America’ campaign ran from 1985 to 1992 with major celebrity endorsements
- The campaign positioned Walmart as a champion of American manufacturing jobs
The Shift Begins (1980s-1990s): The Great Betrayal
While Walmart promoted “Made in USA,” corporate America was already shipping jobs overseas. General Electric’s Jack Welch pioneered the strategy: move operations “wherever is cheapest.”
See:
- 🔵 The Week – Where America’s Jobs Went
- 🎯 NPR – How We Got to Made in China
- 🏛️ Federal Reserve – Manufacturing Employment Decline
Key Points:
- The “extraordinary break-up, starting in the 1980s, of the large and competent American industrial manufacturers”
- GE’s Jack Welch argued companies should “seek to lower costs and maximize profits by moving operations wherever is cheapest”
- By 1980, companies like Nike were outsourcing production to mainland China
The Deception Exposed (1992): The Lie Revealed
NBC’s Dateline investigation shattered the illusion. Walmart’s “Made in America” products were actually imported from Bangladesh, often made by child laborers.
See:
- 🎯 Truth in Advertising – Walmart Made in USA Claims
- 🎯 Craftsmanship Magazine – Walmart’s Made-In-USA Shell Game
Key Points:
- 1992: NBC’s Dateline exposed that “Made in America” products were imported from Bangladesh and made by child laborers
- Despite claiming $250 billion commitment to American products, only approximately 2,000 products are actually listed as American-made on Walmart’s website
- Consumer advocacy groups found Walmart’s website “replete with false and deceptive advertising”
The Middle Class Collapse (1979-Present): Wages Stagnate, Wealth Concentrates
As manufacturing jobs disappeared or degraded, American workers saw their wages stagnate for the first time since World War II.
See:
- 🔵 Economic Policy Institute – Wage Stagnation Charts
- 🏛️ Bureau of Labor Statistics – Manufacturing Earnings Decline
- 🎯 University of Chicago – Manufacturing Job Transformation
Key Points:
- Since 1979, hourly wages of middle-wage workers were stagnant, rising just 6 percent over 34 years
- Manufacturing workers’ wages fell below total private sector workers for the first time
- 6 million manufacturing jobs disappeared between 2000 and 2010
- Young college graduates with employer health insurance fell from 61% in 1989 to 31% by 2012
The Taxpayer Subsidy Era (2000s-Present): We Pay Them to Destroy Our Jobs
The ultimate insult: American taxpayers now subsidize the same corporations that destroyed their parents’ middle-class jobs.
See:
- 🏛️ Government Accountability Office – Corporate Welfare Report
- 🎯 CNBC – Walmart McDonald’s Top Employers of Food Stamp Recipients
Key Points:
- Walmart alone benefits from $7.8 billion per year in federal subsidies and tax breaks
- $6.2 billion goes to public assistance for low-wage Walmart employees
- 70% of the 21 million people receiving government benefits work full time
- Cost per US worker: $47.56 annually just for Walmart subsidies alone
The AI Acceleration (2025-2030): Another Hit
Just as we’ve subsidized the destruction of good jobs, AI threatens to eliminate what remains of middle-class work.
See:
- 🎯 World Economic Forum – AI Job Displacement
- 🏛️ Goldman Sachs – AI Workforce Impact
- 🎯 McKinsey – Future of Work Report
Key Points:
- 85 million jobs will be replaced by AI by 2025
- 40% of employers expect to reduce their workforce where AI can automate tasks
- 77% of new AI jobs require master’s degrees, creating massive skills gaps
- By 2030, 30% of current US jobs could be fully automated
The Hidden Cost: What Every American Worker Really Pays
The true cost of this corporate transformation falls on every working American through hidden subsidies and forced replacement purchases.
Annual Cost Per US Worker:
- Corporate subsidies: $2,378
- Planned obsolescence (tech devices only): $417
- Total hidden costs: $2,795 per worker per year
See:
- 🏛️ University of Wisconsin – Planned Obsolescence Study
- 🎯 Americans for Tax Fairness – Corporate Subsidies
Key Points:
- Average worker making $50,000 pays $2,795 in hidden corporate subsidies annually
- That’s 5.6% of gross income going to subsidize profitable corporations
- This doesn’t include environmental cleanup, infrastructure strain, or healthcare costs
- The “cheap prices” are an illusion when total costs are calculated
The Alternative Path: Building Worker Power
Rather than waiting for laws that corporate lawyers will defeat, we can build alternatives that make the extraction system obsolete.
Worker Cooperatives: Ownership That Can’t Be Outsourced
See:
- 🎯 US Federation of Worker Cooperatives
- 🔵 Aspen Institute – Building Worker Cooperatives
- 🎯 AllInCities – Worker Cooperative Development
Key Points:
- Over 900 democratic workplaces in US employing over 10,000 people
- Worker co-ops are more productive, pay better wages, offer longer-term employment
- 60% of new cooperative worker-owners since 2010 are people of color
- New York City’s fund launched 21 new cooperatives in first year, creating 141 worker-owners
Platform Cooperatives: Gig Work That Works for Workers
See:
Key Points:
- Platform cooperatives give workers “genuine self-determination” rather than just resistance power
- Freelancers Union has over 500,000 members providing benefits and legal support
- Guilded Freelancer’s Cooperative provides pooled benefits and collective advocacy
- Worker-owned platforms eliminate the “implicit feudalism” of corporate platforms
Skills for the AI Era: Human + Machine Collaboration
See:
- 🎯 World Economic Forum – AI Workplace Skills
- 🎯 McKinsey – Skill Shift Report
- 🎯 Forbes – Free Reskilling Courses
Key Points:
- Demand for social and emotional skills will grow 26% as machines can’t master empathy
- Professionals with AI literacy are 96% more likely to get hired with 15% higher salaries
- Workers are adding 40% broader skillsets than they did in 2018
- Leadership, entrepreneurship, and human-AI collaboration are fastest growing skill needs
The Choice We Face
The Current Trajectory:
- AI eliminates remaining good jobs
- Workers subsidize corporations destroying their livelihoods
- Wealth concentrates further into fewer hands
- Democracy weakens as economic power concentrates
The Alternative Path:
- Build worker-owned cooperatives and platforms
- Develop human + AI collaboration skills
- Create community-owned alternatives to extractive corporations
- Use collective economic power to make extraction obsolete
Conclusion: From Hostage to Agency
The billionaire “hostage economy” narrative has been exposed as a con. They already shipped good jobs overseas, they’re automating what’s left, and we’re paying them to do it through our tax dollars.
But we have the tools to build something better:
- Worker cooperatives that can’t be outsourced
- Platform cooperatives that serve workers, not extractors
- Skills development that makes us irreplaceable
- Community ownership that keeps wealth local
The moment is now, before AI acceleration makes wealth concentration irreversible. We can choose to keep subsidizing our own economic destruction, or we can use our collective power as workers, consumers, and community members to build an economy that actually works for working people.
The tools exist. The models work. The question is: Will we use them?
