Christina Romer

What Will Really Rebuild a Battered Middle Class?

U.

S. factories are hiring again, and Democratic President Barack Obama and some of his Republican rivals are pitching tax breaks to fuel a rebound in manufacturing and help rebuild a battered middle class.A focus on manufacturing may be good politics, as Rust Belt states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania are likely to be hotly contested in the November 6 election.But is it good policy?Economists on the left and the right say promises to bring back factory work may yield more votes than jobs.Industry experts say the United States is long past the days when steel mills, auto plants and machine shops boosted millions of unskilled Americans into the middle class."The days where you could get a job right out of high school, step on a (factory) line and make 35,000 dollars a year, 40,000 dollars a year, are pretty much not out there anymore," said Rich Peterson, a vice president at Astro Manufacturing and Design here in suburban Cleveland.Astro, which makes products ranging from torpedo f...

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