Posted on 11/25/2003 8:50:24 AM PST by 1rudeboy
•NAFTA has been a huge success for the U.S. and its NAFTA partners. It has helped Americans work smarter, earn more and increase purchasing power. It has contributed to more trade, higher productivity, better jobs, and higher wages.
•In ten years of NAFTA, total trade among the three countries has more than doubled, from $306 billion to $621 billion in 2003. That’s $1.7 billion in trade every day.
•U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico grew from $142 billion to $263 billion in NAFTA’s first ten years. And Mexican exports to the U.S. grew 242 percent, improving lives and reducing poverty in Mexico.
•Some claimed NAFTA would contribute to U.S. industrial decline and a “giant sucking sound.” But after NAFTA was passed in 1993:
--U.S. manufacturing output soared in the 1990s, up 44% in real terms.
--U.S. employment grew over 20 million between 1993 and 2000.
--U.S. manufacturing wages increased dramatically, with real hourly compensation up by 14.4% in the 10 years since NAFTA, more than double the 6.5% increase in the 10 years preceding NAFTA.
--Income gains and tax cuts from NAFTA were worth up to $930 each year for the average U.S. household of four.
•More recent problems for manufacturers and their employees came long after NAFTA. These problems are due to a recent recession from which the U.S. is now recovering strongly. Much is blamed on imports, but in fact 80% of the increase in the U.S. manufactures trade deficit in the last three years is attributable to reduced exports and weak demand overseas, not increased imports.
•Some blame NAFTA for recent economic problems. But in fact, during the recent U.S. economic downturn, U.S. imports from Mexico were up less than 2 percent (last three years). By contrast, the U.S. economy added more than 20 million jobs during a time when imports from Mexico were booming in 1993-2000 (up 241 percent).
•Clearly U.S. employment trends reflect the health of the U.S. economy far more than the negotiation of trade agreements like NAFTA.
Actually, it seems that NAFTA has provided just enough more money to MORE mexicans to be able to Afford a coyote to get them accross the border.. -OR- to afford a better quality coyote...
NOTE- Coyote = Border engineer
The onions came from Mexico and if we try to stop shipment of these contaminated onions, we will break our NAFTA agreement.
“[U]nless immediate relief is provided, the domestic textile industry will be destroyed by foreign textile imports.”
Sorry, I'm responsible for my own well-being, and that of my family, and I choose to maximize my spending power, and hence, my real wealth, and hence, my standard of living, by purchasing the goods and services I want regardless of source. Judging by the import/export market, I think there are a lot of folks like me. Manufacturers are simply going to have to take that into account if they want my money - I spend it or withhold it as I see fit, and those are my criteria. Now, they can either cater to me, as many successful manufacturers have chosen to do, or they can try to manipulate my behavior in order to self-servingly force me to enrich them. But they should hardly be surprised when I object to such things.
Stores like WalMart have elevated the convenience of one stop shopping above getting the highest quality or even the best value.
The only way that "convenience" is not an economic consideration is if your time is worthless. Mine isn't, and I doubt yours is as well. Given that, I will sometimes choose to maximize my spending power by spending less time and less money on goods at Wal Mart. Other times, I may choose to maximize my spending power by finding higher quality, or lower-priced, goods elsewhere. Either way, it's my money and my choice, and I have no use at all for those who would steal from me by taking that choice away.
In a related story:
(And, I want a pony!)
america is building products for the military, for schools and home that used to be found only in the richest homes or in science fiction stories. now good pay is going to people making water filters, night vision goggles etc.
don't you get any catalogs, half the high end stuff in them come from small companies.
Either that, or I'd just piss it away anyway, so why not take it from me and let someone else spend it?
I figure that ought to work in reverse, anyway. That money I would have spent on the shirt is also just vapor, so how about if I just make them give me a free shirt? Why isn't anyone clamoring for laws like that? Think of how much consumers would benefit by not having to spend on shirts any more. Why, surely that would improve the economy - lots more domestic consumers than there are domestic shirtmakers, after all...
The jobs have left America and the taxpayers are stuck with unemployment costs, crime, social collapse, and welfare costs so the Government is entitled to your tax money. Paying a few bucks more for the shirt sounds better to me than paying the bucks in taxes. It's pay me now for pay me later and the taxes are more costly.
Maybe you shold have stuck with the founders vision of no direct taxes. That way you could make a case for your utopian vision of huge tariffs and isolationsm and a trip back into the great depression.
False. Nice try, though.
Regan mentioned it way back in 1979.
Per the U.S. Constitution. You can always try to amend it . . . .
LOL,,nice try. Nafta law says we have to buy contaminated food? There goes any hint of credibility.
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