Cheaper employment = / = lower prices. Cheaper employment = more money staying at the top, which as you said is not being circulated through the economy proportionally. It is literally the rich competing among themselves while more of America winds up on the streets. 

If you INCREASE wages for everyone below the elite, guess where that money can only come from? Guess who all of a sudden has more buying power? Guess who's actually going to spend that money and reinvest in our economy? Tell me what is the point in having more money than you literally know what to do with. I understand that the idea of limitless financial potential is tantalizing, but without regulation or even just responsibility we quite literally end up with the current state of affairs.

* Australia's minimum wage is almost $17 an hour.

* Workers aren't being replaced by robots.

* It makes other forms of work seem more valuable, thus they tend to have wages that pay more.

* Everyone earns more, so they spend more.

* Our burgers cost only about a 50-70cents more than the USA, while opening up opportunities for the workers to farther their careers by being able to AFFORD their higher education, it's almost expected a young teen would be working at a job like Fast food.

* No one leaves tips, there is no need to do so.

The USA's minimum wage has been stuck at it's level for decades, consequently... Thanks to Inflation, workers today are earning less than they did a decade ago for the same amount of work... Why? Because of greed.
The USA is supposed to be the "land of opportunity" - But really it's anything but that.

There is a large fraction of the American population living in poverty or near poverty, why is that seen as acceptable?

I don't think the feeling of metal entering your body would be pleasant...Unless you're into that kinky stuff, i'd recommend sticking with actual humans

1) There are several "crises" going on right now, so I'm not sure which one you're referring to. The predominant one of the era is the general economic stagnation since the 2008 collapse, so I'm going to assume that.  That crisis had nothing to do with outsourcing to cheaper countries. It was a result of interest lates being kept artificially low for decades, conseqeuently causing an over-leveraging of debt. Federal law massaged a large chunk of that debt into real estate, hence why that was most affected. This is still going on, by the way, and the auto industry is showing similar patterns to housing back in 2005-2007.

2) The minimum wage stuff in this thread doesn't even relate to the middle class. Minimum wage individuals are not middle class. Middle class is households who earn around $50,000 per year. Less than 3% of the population makes minimum wage, half of which are under 24 years old, and the largest chunk of which work in restaurants where tips make up the bulk of their income.

In addition to this, yes, the middle class *is shrinking* but it's not because they are getting poorer. The largest chunk of people leaving the middle class has been to people going to higher income groups. That's not exactly what I'd call a crisis.

3) The rich are "too greedy and don't pay taxes". Top 20% pay 84% of income taxes, bottom 20% receive more than they pay. Or, even more rich, top 1% pays 45% of income taxes.

4) You tell me to read economics, and then show no understanding of how foreign trade works. When an American buys a car from Japan, Americans buy in USD, and Japanese sell in JPY. At some point, a person (usually a bank or fx dealer) will buy JPY for that American, and sell that American's USD. The only way that the dealer can do that is if they find somebody else willing to buy the USD, ie, find somebody wanting to buy goods from the USA. True, that person may not be interested in buying an American car, but they may be interested in buying American corn, or beef, or planes, or financial services, or even a vacation to Disney World.

People who tell you that the United States has a trade deficit are only looking at half the equation, the current account deficit. In order for there to be a current account deficit, by definition, there must be a capital account surplus. Read economics.

Well that's interesting (: 

Ever heard of competition ? 

If you don't use cheaper employment to your advantage then you'll be out of business in no time when your competitors are taking advantage of it ... 

The cycle of rich and poor can only be broken when the latter must become more humble and stronger ... 

The labour theory of value doesn't exactly match the demands of the market ... 

Just because it's hard physical human labour doesn't mean it's valuable just like how practically nobody values a farmers job ... 

Poverty is but a temporary state just like being wealthy is ... 

USA is the land of opportunity when it has the most amount of millionaires compared to ANY country out there ... 

I like how he immediately stops thinking about the welfare of employees in the face of making slightly less money. CEOs are scumbags.

How do you achieve that when most job opportunities are shipped somewhere else? It sure humbles American families but in no way it makes them stronger.