Reich's Boats

            
             "Twelve thousand people are added to the world's population every hour, most of whom, .
             eventually, will happily work for a small fraction of the wages of routine producers in America".
             (291). In the late 1970's it was customary for families to have the "dad" as the bread winner. The .
             "Leave it to Beaver" persona poured from home to home and engrossed the budding families to .
             come. Now in the modern day "Gucci" society, a one person income is not adequate enough to .
             keep a family above water. Everything is getting to be more and more expensive, but the income .
             of modern families, is no longer a safety boat . Robert Reich in "Why the Rich Are Getting .
             Richer and the Poor, Poorer," describes a metaphor of three boats, the routine producer, the in-.
             person server, and the symbolic analyst, explaining the fates of these American workers. .
             .
             The first group of American workers that Reich discusses is the routine producer, the .
             hands on producing worker that helps the larger corporations manufacture their goods. He .
             stresses that in the mid twentieth century, routine producers were to make a decent living: they .
             could buy homes, take annual vacations, and save toward retirement(290). However, Reich states .
             that this is no longer the case. His metaphorical boat containing the routine producers is sinking .
             steadily(290). Because of ease of transportation as well as advances in communication, "modern .
             factories can be installed all most any where on the globe"(291). Therefore, it is a simple process .
             for factories simply to relocate wherever labor is cheapest. Reich cites the example of AT&T, .
             who after years of assembling their telephones at a factory in Louisiana relocated to Singapore .
             where labor cost were cheaper. However, "by the late 1980s, AT&T's strategic brokers found .
             that routine producers in Thailand were eager to assemble telephones for a small fraction of the .
             wagers of routine producers in Singapore"(291).