in World News JD Vance defends American workers, blames 40 years of globalism for US deindustrialization
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The vice president told an entrepreneurs’ conference that ‘the addiction to cheap labor is the common enemy of American working people, populists, and innovators. The solution is American innovation.’
(LifeSiteNews) – Vice President JD Vance defended American workers against globalism at an entrepreneurs’ conference today.
Vance was the keynote speaker at the Third Annual American Dynamism Summit, a gathering of business owners and policymakers, in Washington, D.C. on March 18. In his speech, Vance described the fears working people have concerning the leadership class attitude toward their jobs and presented evidence that they are right to be concerned:
I think the populace, when they look at the future and when they compare it to what’s happened in the past, I think a lot of them see alienation of workers from their jobs, from their communities, from their sense of solidarity. You see the alienation of people from their sense of purpose. And importantly, they see a leadership class that believes welfare can replace a job and an application on a phone can replace a sense of purpose.
I remember a Silicon Valley dinner in particular back when I was in my tech days, where my wife and I were sitting around talking to some of the leaders of the important technology firms of the United States, and this is probably in 2016 or 2017. And I was talking about my real worry that we were heading in a direction where America could no longer support middle class families working on middle class wages. And, importantly, that even if you had enough economic dynamism to provide the wealth to ensure those people could afford to buy a house and afford their food and so forth, that even if you replaced the financial element of their jobs, you would destroy something that was dignified and purposeful about work itself.
And I remember one of the tech CEOs who was there. The CEO — you would know his name if I mentioned it — he was the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company. He said, “Well, I’m actually not worried about the loss of purpose when people lose their jobs.” And I said, “Okay, well, what do you think is going to replace that sense of purpose?” And he said, “Digital, fully immersive gaming.” And then my wife texted me underneath the table and said, “We have to get the hell out of here. These people are effing crazy.”
He stated that America must be “tech forward” to meet the challenge posed by China, which he said would not hesitate to use AI or any other technology to get ahead of its rivals.