THE JOYLESS RECOVERY

That's what the Detroit Free Press is calling what's happening in Michigan.

"We understand that economic changes have come," Standifer said. "But all we're asking is not to take what we've already earned. We've already said we will take a pay freeze, no problem. A freeze on benefits, a freeze on pension. But with the company, it's all or nothing."

Just steps away from the picket line, inside the Deco plant, Jim Connor, the president of Newcor Inc., Deco's parent company, expresses sympathy for what the workers are going through.

"I feel bad for these people," he said. "It's certainly not their fault. They're hard workers. We've got a good facility here. But we've just got to keep costs under control and be competitive."

It's not that business is all that bad. Diesel engines are selling well, so the parts Deco produces -- like pressure plates and rocker arms -- are in demand. It's that those parts can be made almost anywhere, and competitors are always pushing prices down.

And the two political parties and the media have people so brainwashed that no one, not the workers, the executives or the "experts" quoted in the article, dares suggest that allowing unbridled worldwide competition isn't a good thing. The workers "understand." The bosses have "just got to keep costs under control and be competitive." And the "experts" suggest giving up manufacturing entirely and going to knowledge-based employment, as if that isn't even easier to send overseas.

Sometimes I think Americans are like the frog in the saucepan as the water is heated to boiling. The "globalization" of the economy is slowly cooking them, but they'll just sit back and enjoy the hot bath until it's too late. Globalization is cooking people all over the world. A lot of people overseas are probably much more aware of what's going on, but they have much less power to stop it than we do here. But we continue to do nothing (good) about it.