I'm very tired of hearing the whining & woes of the free market labor troubles.
I am a survivor of the first round of plant closings as a result of NAFTA. The fact of the matter is that The Trade Act provided job & education assistance. I was able to go back to school (was working my way through, anyway) while my unemployment benefits were extended. THE PROGRAM DIDN'T WORK FOR ME - I MADE IT WORK FOR MYSELF AND MY FUTURE.
Now, 10 years later, I have gone from making 7.00 per hour in a textile mill in NC to making over 45K as a degreed accountant in OH.
Plenty of my friends had the exact same opportunities (and even started school with me), but squandered the opportunity to make something else of their lives. It was the difference in goals and outlooks of life that did it. I wasn't happy living in sub-standard poverty and was willing to do whatever it took to lift myself out of it. The others..... well, they gave up and, once the unemployment benefits dried up, they were back where they started with no one to blame but themselves.
Don't sit there and tell me that Free Trade is a bad thing because it displaces workers. It was the best thing that ever happened to my life!
You are the type of person I was talking about.
You had a program, these workers do not.