Tale of two people

A tale of two people. Jim is a high school teacher with 20 years under his belt. Over the years he has received modest pay raises and has doubled his starting salary of $30,000. Jim has watched his pension go up and his mortgage go down. He goes to work in pleasant surroundings and he is protected with a good health insurance plan, disability insurance, sick days, holidays and summer vacation. He likes his work and feels he is making a solid contribution to the growth of his students. Jim will retire at age 62 with $7,000 per year more net income than when he was working. Jim had a rough time in the early years when his salary wasn't that great and he had two babies to care for but over the years things got better and better. Jim votes democratic and is OK with part of his union dues going to democratic candidates. Bob worked at Bethlehem Steel making $25 per hour with benefits but they closed down because foreign companies were dumping steel in the US. Dumping means that in countries like China the government subsidizes the steel industry which allows the industry to sell product below cost. They do this until the competition is bankrupt then they can raise the price. The past 20 years Bob has been working at low paying jobs trying to hold his family together. Every four years some candidate for president tells Bob that things will change after the election but nothing ever happens. Bob standard of living has been going down since he left the steel plant even though he and his wife are both working full time. His jobs do not have the benefits he had in the steel mill and it looks like he will have a tough time at retirement. Bob usually votes democratic but he his fed up with the false promises and will vote republican hoping for some miracle.