To: All manufacturing people.

USA Fair Trade ^ | 11/15/03 | cp124

[cp124]

Please take one minute to read this and save your company, your job, and our country.

If we don’t organize now, manufacturing will simply become extinct in the United States. Since the enactment of China free trade and “Fast Track” legislation, what was a trickle of jobs lost abroad is today a torrent. You think it’s hard now? China is, by a country mile, the world’s largest buyer of the latest technology and production capacity. Then running it with .90 Cents an hour wages, no OSHA, no EPA, no Workman’s Comp. no out of control tort system, no Disabilities ACT or countless other government mandated added costs beyond your control. In addition, since 1994 China has pegged their currency to the dollar giving Chinese goods another huge competitive boost in the USA. China and our other trade partners are not the enemy, it's our trade policy that is at fault. (Please note we have received some emails asking if we are advocating a dismemberment of USA worker benefits, the answer is absolutely not!)

People speak of a “jobless recovery.” Duh! – If I take my product and eliminate the American workers, sell my plant and equipment (or ship the equipment to China) my cost for finished goods drops by what 40%, 50%, and 60%? My company makes a big buck. Wall Street is joyous; the stock shoots up……along with unemployment. Gone are the manufacturing jobs. Gone is the consumer purchasing power. Gone is your business or your job. At the end of the day a few get rich. As for the USA… we spiral downward.

Our manufacturing capacity is vaporizing before our eyes.

Our machine tool industry is all but dead. Don’t believe it? The price of used machinery in the US is in “free fall.” A man whose shop was worth $5 million before China free trade will be lucky to fetch $1M today.

We are rapidly eliminating skilled, high paying manufacturing jobs and converting them to minimum wage dead ends.

America must have a sensible and fair trade policy. If the government is going to saddle us with unending costs then, we need to employ some fair trade methodology to allow Americans to compete at home and abroad.

Democrat or Republican it makes no difference, there is plenty of blame on both sides on how we arrived here. Our interest in not partisan, just American!

We are all talking about it, but few of us have time to seriously address these issues while struggling to keep our own businesses alive.

A Simple Plan:

Each month we will select a government leader to receive our message. We are going to flood this individual with a demand that we will not settle for anything less than FAIR TRADE.

Here’s how:

I know it’s a pain but we MUST SEND LETTERS. The e-mails and fax numbers that we can get access to for these people won’t work for volume required. WE NEED BULK!

If just once a month, we use the power of an ordinary letter multiplied by five (or more) business associates or co-workers, and their five and so on…and if we all have the discipline to do this, we can deliver our message in literally a ton of mail….directly to our politicians door.

Step 1. Printing and sending the letter.

Simply Click on the "September Letter" button to the left and print. If you experience any trouble printing the document, simply copy and paste into your computer's editing software. Or, if you feel like voicing your own opinons and experiences - write your own letter.

Step 2. VERY IMPORTANT

FORWARD THIS WEB ADDRESS TO A MINIMUM OF 5 BUSINESS ASSOCIATES, PARTNERS, CO-WORKERS, AND/OR ANY INDIVIDUALS THE MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN SAVING OUR USA MANUFACTURING BASE. PLEASE STRESS THAT THEY GIVE THIS THEIR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION AND CONTINUE TO FORWARD IT ON. OUR CONTACTS COME FROM METALWORKING, SO IF YOU HAVE CONTACTS IN OTHER FIELDS OF MANUFACTURING PLEASE USE THEM.

Step 3. Make sure you mail your letter as soon as possible.

THIS WON'T WORK AND NITHER WILL YOU UNLESS YOU MAKE YOURSELF HEARD!

Our government leader for November 2003 is:

President George W. Bush The White House U.S. Department of Commerce 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20500

[cp124]

George Bush believes in free (and unfair) trade regardless of the outcome. His father also believed in the "New World Order". I voted for President Bush and I thought there would be meaningfull change. Instead we got out of control government spending and no real tax/regulatory/tort reform. Some of the Republicans you can't tell from Democrats. There is no choice for leaders and our country is being melted into "the new world order". It is funny...this is some of what the founding fathers fought against.

[gcruse]

Free trade is to fair trade as
Capitalism is to socialism.

[cp124]

November 14, 2003

President George W. Bush
The White House
U.S. Department of Commerce
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We are extremely disappointed that you have not followed through on your appointment of a "Manufacturing Czar". The rapid deterioration of our industrial base and the massive trade deficit are ruining our country. We need your support NOW!

Warren Buffett recently proposed a system of Import Certificates as a mechanism to balance our trade, in the absence of any realistic plan by Congress, we ask that you vigorously support Buffett's proposal.

· AMERICAN TRADE POLICY IS KILLING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING. THIS MISGUIDED POLICY WILL FIRST DESTROY OUR MIDDLE CLASS AND THEN OUR COUNTRY.

· OUR TRADE POLICY NEEDS TO BE SENSIBLE AND FAIR.

· AMERICAN INDUSTRY HAS OSHA REGULATIONS, EPA REGULATIONS, WORKMAN'S COMPENSATION, UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE, SOCIAL SECURITY, HEALTH CARE, MEDICARE, AN OUT OF CONTROL TORT SYSTEM, THE DISABILITIES ACT AND OTHER STATE AND FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS. CHINA AND OTHER OF OUR WORLD COMPETITORS DO NOT! AMERICAN INDUSTRY CAN COMPETE WITH ANYONE ON A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD!

· SOON WE WILL NOT HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO BUILD OUR OWN DEFENSE SYSTEMS. OUR MACHINE TOOL INDUSTRY IS ALL BUT GONE. In 2002 China purchased $5.7 billion in machine tools, the US purchased $3.3 billion one step above Italy at $2.9. Does this sound like a country that is taking our unskilled jobs?

· YOUR OWN CONGRESSIONAL REPORT U.S. INTERNATIONAL TRADE: DATA AND FORCASTS, UPDATED MAY 22, 2002 STATES: "Although no country attempts to balance its trade with each nation, abnormally large or rapidly increasing trade deficits with particular countries can indicate that underlying problems may exist with market access, the competitiveness of particular industries, currency misalignment or macroeconomic adjustment."

· HOW CAN OUR TRADE POLICY BE REASONABLE WHEN THE NETHERLANDS IS THE COUNTRY WITH WHICH WE HAVE THE LARGEST TRADE SURPLUS!

· WE NEED LEGISLATION TO BALANCE OUR TRADE. IF THEY DON'T BUY FROM US, WE DON'T BUY FROM THEM. We support Warren Buffett's Import Certificate plan!

· ON AN IMMEDIATE BASIS, WE MUST ENFORCE THE RULES OF TRADE. CHINA, JAPAN, THE EU AND MANY OF OUR TRADING "PARTNERS" CREATE MARKET ACCESS BARRIERS TO FAIR TRADE WHILE WE OPEN OUR ARMS TO THEIR GOODS AND CLOSE OUR EYES TO ILLEGAL TRADE, EVEN BY OUR OWN LOOSE STANDARDS.

· MOVE TO THE SERVICE SECTOR YOU SAY? ORACLE PLANS TO DOUBLE STAFF TO 4,000 IN INDIA. HOW MANY AMERICANS WON'T HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY FOR THOSE JOBS? FOREIGN OUTSOURCING OF ENGINEERS, CALL CENTERS, AND MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTIONS, ALL ARE GROWING AT ALARMING RATES.

We ask you to support American manufacturing, and we ask you to introduce legislation to make our trade policy fair. USAFAIRTRADE will post on it's website your unedited response in its entirety. Please reply to info@usafairtrade.com

Sincerely,

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Which monopolistic, unfair labor union do you belong to?

[cp124]

I don't. I am a business owner. I don't like unions. Can't the people who believe in unfair trade come up with an intelligent response to back up thier beliefs other than the unions, the unions, the unions. A very small percentage of people in manufacturing are in unions and only few specific industries demise can be pegged to unions.

[Asclepius]

... WILL FIRST DESTROY OUR MIDDLE CLASS ...

Um, no. Only six percent of us are in manufacturing. And most of those workers aren't middle class. (And yet we produce as much as a percentage of our GDP as we ever did. Productivity is an amazing thing.)

[Las Vegas Dave]

PING

"Don't Buy Chinese Goods!"

[cp124]

Ummmm....most of the union members are in government.


The percentage of union members in the private-sector labor force in 2001 was unchanged at 9.0%, while in the public sector it stood at 37.4%, down slightly from 37.5% in 2000.

Among states, New York (26.7%), Hawaii (23.9%), Alaska (22.0%), Michigan (21.8%), and New Jersey (19.6%) had the highest union membership rates in 2001. And half of all union members in the U.S. lived in six states: California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, according to BLS.

Union membership in the recession-battered manufacturing sector fell by 175,000 last year, while service-sector unions saw membership increase by 142,000. Public-sector unions added a net of 52,000 members, construction unions added 44,000 members, while transportation unions lost 66,000 members. (see table)

Demographically in 2001, men had a higher union membership rate (15.1%) than women (11.7%), while blacks had a higher rate of union membership (17%) than both whites (13%) and Hispanics (11.3%). Workers between the ages of 45 and 54 had the highest union membership rate at 18.9%, compared with 11.5% for workers between the ages of 25 and 34. The majority of union members (59.2%) were age 35 and older.

Union members also continued to enjoy significantly higher wages than non-union workers in 2001. Median weekly earnings for union members were $718 compared with $575 for non-union workers, which is about a 25% difference.

[Las Vegas Dave]

(Meant especially for conspiratoristo.)

PING

Don't Buy Chinese Goods!

[cp124]

Source please.

Manufacturing workers’ earnings exceed those of workers in services and other sectors. Average hourly compensation for manufacturing workers was $24.30 in 2001, compared with $19.74 in service-producing sectors.

[Cpu]

>Free trade is to fair trade as
>Capitalism is to socialism.


Well done, couldn't have put it better myself.

cpu
(toolmaker 30 years).

[hflynn]

Economics 101 is at work.

1. Demand - Demand summarizes the behavior of buyers. The quantity of a product or service that buyers demand varies with its price. As the price rises, the quantity demanded falls, and vice-versa.

2. Supply - Supply summarizes the behavior of producers and sellers. The quantity of a product or service produced and offered for sale depends on its price. As the price rises, the quantity supplied rises, and vice-versa.

3. Equilibrium – Equilibrium summarizes the outcome of the market process. If the price of a product or service is “too high,” the quantity supplied will exceed the quantity demanded, creating a surplus of the product. That surplus leads sellers to cut prices. However, if the price of a product or service is “too low,” the quantity supplied will fall short of the quantity demanded, creating a shortage of the product. That shortage leads sellers to raise prices. In equilibrium, the price is “just right,” with no surplus or shortage, because the quantity demanded equals the quantity supplied.

When you factor the cost of Union Labor into the equation . . . . . . .

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I am a business owner.

Is your business getting its ass kicked by WalMart?

[cp124]

No. Some of my customers are.

[cp124]

Real intelligent response. Typical of morons.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

No. Some of my customers are.

How coy.

If your customers' businesses are getting their asses kicked by WalMart, then they aren't buying as much from you, are they?

[cp124]

When you factor the cost of Union Labor into the equation . . . . . . .


The percentage of union members in the private-sector labor force in 2001 was unchanged at 9.0%, while in the public sector it stood at 37.4%, down slightly from 37.5% in 2000.

[cp124]

We service and sell to manufacturers.