are we China?

This is meant very seriously...

I was in a store the other day called "5-Below" - everything in there between 1 to 5 dollars.  Okay.  The smell right away was that plasticy skunky smell as soon as you walk in.  Okay.  They sure did have tons of stuff very cheap, and very cheaply made.  Of course, I can go into Sears and see the same quality really; shirts as thin as tissue paper, funky smells, a size 2x is really the old 'large' to save on material, etc.  In this area, though, these stores are a necessity now as wages dwindle...

Why are we emulating China - not really sure where this comes from or who is behind it.  The only businesses thriving where we live here are casinos and expensive restaurants, anything and everything that rich people can afford, and most jobs are service jobs (or tech jobs which go to mostly young males if they were lucky enough to afford college).  My family does not live above its means and can no longer afford really anything extra other than cost of living and a few extras here and there.  We have no cell phones, no big TV, a car with 160,000 miles on it, bad credit since 2008 due to medical expenses, once a week ordering take out, etc.  

So the trade act caused businesses to send jobs overseas, and now the TPP act would open up trade so these same products being made overseas can be sold to the people making the products overseas, the people who can now afford them because we here cannot afford them because not enough people here making a living wage because our jobs have gone overseas. ?  It has absolutely nothing to do with being lazy or no good - that is a propaganda tool, obviously, to make people think that way (people who may be sheltered in their own world and do not notice the suffering neighbor next door or the young children out on the street because mommy and daddy have to work 2 jobs).  

Who is in charge here?  I have respect for other countries, but I do not want to live like other countries.  All that globalization seems to be doing is making 2 classes: rich and poor.  Can this be any good - no wonder there is so much violence.  

The two main frontrunners in this country competing for the presidency are exactly the same - neither one cares for anything but their own pockets and power.  

...or is it from 24-hour media because now we see everything.  Perhaps this has always been the case only now we are seeing all the dirt.

Just venting a little bit because I am still in shock that there never was an American Dream for me and never will be.  

Remember musical chairs:  when the music stopped in 2008, that is where we have been stuck and seems will never get out of now.  If your credit was good, you had family to help you through these hard times, parents leaving you a house or some money, you went to college - you are probably okay for now.  

If you were always struggling and thinking things would just somehow get better because you raised a family and were working 2-3 jobs, but you had some bad experiences when you were younger with money, or with love, now you are falling and falling...

Sick of the 2-divide also, because I do not identify with Republicans or Democrats because they are both too rigid and too 'sheltered' from the real world.  That is not real life - you have to bend a little and work together as a team or nothing will ever get done, or nothing good anyway will ever get done.  This happens every single day in my real life - constant back and forth to get through the day whether with employers, children, spouse, etc etc.