By Rachel Goldfarb, originally published on Next New Deal
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Wal-Mart’s Manufacturing Recovery? (The Hill)
Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Damon Silvers says that Wal-Mart's manufacturing initiative is really just an attempt to make people forget the company's influence on offshoring jobs.
Sadly, even Wal-Mart’s poster child for its U.S. manufacturing initiative, Element Electronics, seems to be little more than window dressing. Wal-Mart sells Element televisions marketed as “American-assembled” at Wal-Mart stores nationwide, yet as The Wall Street Journal reported last year, the TVs arrive in the U.S. nearly completely assembled from China in boxes labeled “Assembled in the U.S.A.” Workers in South Carolina check for defects, install a memory card and put the TVs back in the boxes, to be shipped to Wal-Mart. This is not the kind of high-skill, high-investment manufacturing that will help rebuild the American middle class.
Wal-Mart says it wants to be part of the solution of rebuilding our manufacturing sector. But to walk the walk, Wal-Mart needs to sell a much higher percentage of goods in its stores that are actually manufactured in the U.S., thus helping to stop the offshoring of jobs and creating real, quality manufacturing jobs in America. And if Wal-Mart wants to really make a difference for American families, the company should listen to its 1.3 million associates when they speak out for “$15 and full time” — an income a person can actually live on.
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Bernie Sanders Wants to Spend $1 Trillion on Infrastruture (WaPo)
Senator Sanders' proposal calls for investment in a full range of infrastructure projects, and he says it would put 13 million people to work, writes Ashley Halsey.
What the Sharing Economy Takes (The Nation)
Doug Henwood dives deep into the so-called sharing economy, pointing out how the utopian ideals of the companies involved fail to play out in the real economy.
Obama Has a Modest Plan to Tackle One of the Most Underrated Economic Problems in America (Vox)
Timothy B. Lee praises a proposed study of state occupational licensing. There's little evidence that licensing massage therapists and funeral attendants improves quality.
Rent to Own: Wall Street’s Latest Housing Trick (ProPublica)
Jesse Eisinger says rent-to-own housing schemes, which seem to take advantage of consumers' lack of knowledge, make a case for a stronger government role in overseeing the housing market.
Stop Trying to Make Financial Literacy Happen (Slate)
Helaine Olen argues that the financial services industry pushes financial literacy because it's a way around true consumer protection models with legal backing.