Robert Reich reminds us that job growth must be the nation’s number one priority, but the few jobs that are being generated pay lousy wages and low or non-existent benefits.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, he states, estimates that seven out of ten growth occupations over the next ten years will be low wage – like serving customers at big-box retailers and fast-food chains. That’s why the median wage keeps dropping, especially for the 80 percent of the work force that’s paid by the hour.

It’s also part of the reason why the percent of Americans living below the poverty line has increased from 12.3 percent in 2006 to 15 percent in 2011. More than 46 million Americans now live below that poverty line.

Did you know that:

– In 2000, there were more than 17 million Americans working in manufacturing, but now there are less than 12 million?

– The U.S. has a trade imbalance that is more than 7 times larger than any other nation?

– Our $ 295.5 trade deficit with China in 2011 was the largest trade deficit that one country has had with another country in the history of the planet?

– In 2011, our trade deficit with China was 28 times larger than it was back in 1990 and more than 49,000 times larger than it was back in 1985?

– When NAFTA was passed in 1993, the U.S. had a trade deficit with Mexico of $ 1.6 billion, but in 2010 this deficit jumped to $ 61.6 billion?

– Overall, the U.S. has run a trade deficit with the rest of the world of more than $ 8 trillion, an amount that could have gone to support U.S. businesses and wages?

– According to the Economic Policy Institute, the U.S. is losing half a million jobs to China every year?

– According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, the U.S. has lost an average of 15 manufacturing facilities a day over the last ten years?

– During 2010 alone, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities permanently shut down in the U.S. every single day?

– Overall, the U.S. has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2011?

– The U.S. has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000?

– Between December 2000 and December 2010, 38 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Ohio were lost, 42 percent of the manufacturing jobs in North Carolina were lost and 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in Michigan were lost?

– Right now, more than 41 percent of all working age Americans do not have a job, and the vast majority of new jobs being created are low paying jobs?

– The U.S. has lost more than a quarter of its high-tech manufacturing jobs since 2001?

– Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry was actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975?

– In 2010, China produced more than twice as many automobiles as the U.S. did?

– Since the auto industry bailout, approximately 70 percent of all GM vehicles have been built outside the U.S.?

– In 2010, South Korea exported 12 times as many automobiles, trucks and parts to us as we exported to them?

– Today, China produces almost twice as much beer as the U.S. does?

– 35 percent of all artificial Christmas trees are made in China?

– China is now the number one supplier of components that are critical to the operation of U.S. defense systems?

– China’s number one export to the U.S. is computer equipment, but during 2010 the number one U.S. export to China was “scrap and trash”?

– Jeffrey Immelt, the head of Barack Obama’s highly touted “Jobs Council”, has shipped tens of thousands of good jobs out of the U.S.?

Without enough good jobs, more Americans than ever before are falling into poverty. Today, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government?

It wasn’t this bad during the 1930s Great Depression but the reason today’s Americans aren’t aware of that fact is simply because the government controlled media is hiding it from them. How quick and easy it would be for those in authority to repeat the steps FDR took to end that Great depression. They know all about those steps but they just haven’t figured out yet how to collect payola in the deal. But let’s hope they do very soon – no matter what the cost will be to the taxpayers.