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Compete? Ya'll didn't get anyone to agree with you before this crap was trotted out on us. The majority of americans is against free trade at this point because they've seen what it means in action.. getting screwed so some US companies can profit from slave labor, devalue the currency, destroy income levels, put countless citizens out of work or at least knock them out of middle class income levels they worked just as hard as you to achieve.. of course none of this is sinking in. And the answer is protection. because the kind of competition you're advocating is us competing against .50 cents a day labor rates in third world countries. That is not competition, that is a rigged opportunisim seeking profit at the cost of the rest of the system. And Congress is already on record in disgust over how the Visas have been misused to create the same situations that free trade is fostering. Bottom line - Bush fixes this or he's a one term president. And you can shout to the heavens about being treated so unfairly as to not be able to put americans out of work, offshore their jobs and sell their product back into our economy under the fraudulent notion, as Congress has been misled to believe, that American workers were not available to fill the jobs. Not nice to lie to Congress. And I wouldn't blame Congress if they strapped you guys to cover the costs of those who's lives you've ruined by doing an attempted end run around equal protection. You should count yourselves lucky right now that nobody has yet pressed a class action lawsuite against all of you for violation of equal protection and demanding restitution.
From what I've seen so far, a pretty good case could be made.

Sir,

You are a bit uniformed about my situation, but let me assure you that despite the fact I was recently laid off I am working hard to find a new job.

I don’t know why, but I’ll ask you again to provide rational comments to the following previously posted points:

1. The supply of cheap labor is for all intent unlimited for the foreseeable future. There are hundreds if not billions of people in SE Asia waiting to enter the low skill labor market and work for $.50/day.

2. The short term benefits to the US consumer are enormous. Our standard of living is very high. It is unlikely we will be willing to pay $100 for a pair of jeans or $5,000 for a home PC.

3. The global companies, many which started in the US or are US based, are profit maximizers. They cannot accede to the idea of higher costs, the executives would be fired very quickly by their stockholders and replaced by those who will move to low cost countries.

So given that the above is true, I fail to see how erecting trade barriers will somehow make our situation better. Economic laws are like the laws of physics, except it takes longer for the reaction to occur. You can be the high cost producer, and in the short run this may even work, but eventually you lose. Maybe a better idea is to figure out how to win given a set of rules that are reality.

bttt - 85"Bottom line - Bush fixes this or he's a one term president. "

You should count yourselves lucky right now that nobody has yet pressed a class action lawsuite against all of you for violation of equal protection and demanding restitution.

LOL. Ok what are the "equal protection" grounds for this class action lawsuit?