American Families Are Hungry Too; CAFTA-DR's Passage Questioned

CCN ^

[Happy2BMe]

What does CAFTA do for that 12-year-old in El Salvador making $2 / day at slave labor?

Can you answer that question?

[Egon]

Any time you have American companies setting up shop overseas it's the sign of bad things.

I should qualify that: When companies have to set up in foreign countries just to remain competitive in their home market, it's a sign of bad things.

[cripplecreek]

"Resorting to such hyperbole is a turn-off."

And calling us anti CAFTA folks socialists, Rhinos, and liberals etc etc etc isn't?

I have to question the intelligence of people who watch democrats employ every smear tactic in the book and lose, then turn around and do it themselves thinking they'll get a different outcome.

[Clock King]

I strongly disagree. The society is sliding, some skills are in demand, others in decline. And I don't see it getting better. We (the US) are not producing anymore, we consume more and more, and that is not good.

[DuckFan4ever]

CAFTA has provisions and $ dedicated to labor law enforcement as well as environmental law enforcement. Those provisions have real teeth. You have been listening to people giving you half truths about this.

[Trust but Verify]

If someone's family is hungry, they have seriously screwed up somewhere along the way. I reject the notion that we are a country of hungry families. If you're a drug-addled slug, maybe. But then, those aren't people who are going to work anyway.

[Trust but Verify]

Whose smearing anyone? Did I smear anyone?

[Trust but Verify]

We will have to agree to disagree then.

[DuckFan4ever]

It's over cripplecreek. The legislative fight is over so CAFTA is now law. There's nothing left to argue about with it. It will take its course now. Time to move on.

[DuckFan4ever]

Consumption is a sign of afluence, Clock King. How can that be a bad thing?

[cripplecreek]

"Whose smearing anyone? Did I smear anyone?"


Not that I know of but many from the Pro CAFTA open borders crowd has done it right down the line. Most disturbing was seeing a republican congressman equate those of us who oppose CAFTA with the sandinistas. I wish them lots of luck in coming elections, they're going to need it.

[NATIVEDAUGHTER]

We were also told that NAFTA would stop Illegal immigration from Mexico because it would boost industry in Mexico...guess what?...alot of those factories are picking up and moving to china(which is even more low wage).....

[NATIVEDAUGHTER]

NAFTA has been a mixed bad...but it is certainly not the shining success we were led to believe....If so called "free traders" wanted the ultimate in free trade why have any "managed " trade?...simply say, no more tariffs , rules,taxes on ANY good or service crossing national boundaries....Conservatives are always talking about a "fair profit"...It's time they also talked about a "fair wage"....

[11th_VA]

That would explain why H-P and all the other high tech companies have added so many jobs since the '80s.

You Mean this HP:

Hewlett-Packard to slash 14,500 jobs

Over the next year and a half Hewlett-Packard plans to cut 14,500 jobs, or around one in every 10 of its 150,000-strong employee base. The bulk of the jobs are likely to be lost in the support areas of information technology, human resources and finance, HP said in an announcement on Tuesday.

[Dat Mon]

People and / or political action groups should really go through the language of this agreement in detail...and track the developments that result. Some info is only going to be gotten by insiders working in affected industries or trades.

For example...government procurement minority set-asides are unknown to many people who have never dealt or worked with government approved prime contractors. But insiders know the reality. Lets track how this agreement pans out in real life.

Post your all info on this forum....good and bad. Thats a fair approach we can all agree on. An overall assessment can be made within a year....and updated annually. If efforts are made to conceal facts...that IMO is in itself a red flag.

Finally, when the 2006 and 2008 elections roll around (especially primaries)....people can gather a list of questions to throw at your candidates. Vote accordingly. There may end up being different people in Congress if /when the FTAA agreement rolls around.

[Colorado Doug]

NAFTA worked I'm also more confident in our ability to compete.

Yes, of course NAFTA, GATT and all the other "free trade" bunk worked. That's why our steel and manufacturing sector is thriving so. The 8 billion that Clinton gave Brazil didn't do a thing to help kill our steel. Don't you think it's funny that the steel "glut" ended as soon as American steel died. Can't even afford to buy the stuff anymore. Call it what you want but this selling out of America is NOT free trade.

[cripplecreek]

"Conservatives are always talking about a "fair profit""


Because CAFTA is about conscience free trade.

[11th_VA]

I wish them lots of luck in coming elections, they're going to need it.

Yep - I voted last time for a conservative Supreme Court nominee.

It's back to a third party candidate next election ...

[NATIVEDAUGHTER]

No, people will work...but they won't work for peon wages....and I don't blame them....I am against union excess,but I don't like the notion of conservatives favoring low wages as the price of free trade....I also don't understand why so-called "conservatives" want to keep trading with authoritarian dumps like China that have no intention of political or electoral change...If Bush is so interested in democracy spreading he ought to stick it to China to reform or be subjected to tarrifs...That would do alot more for freedom and peace than his stupid war in Iraq and Afghanistan....

[NATIVEDAUGHTER]

H-P is downsizing...Read your newspaper....