Posted on 03/29/2016 11:31:17 AM PDT by central_va
No country or civilization has ever risen to such wealth and power to have receded so quickly to stagnation, dependency and indebtedness. The reason is twofold: our disastrous “free trade” agreements and our membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“Free trade” sounds nice, but it is an extremely misleading policy. In actuality the practice has wrought havoc on the American economy. It appears as though our leaders are either apathetic or clueless when it comes to the United States’ involvement with free trade agreements (FTAs). In fact, “free trade” lines the pockets and ambitions of CEOs and politicians while shipping American jobs overseas. They certainly are not doing what is in the best interest of our country.
(Excerpt) Read more at economyincrisis.org ...
Funny that Perot said that before the longest (or was it the second longest?) peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history.
A roommate from college (of 35 years ago) works for a steel manufacturer. It’s actually a Swedish company but they operate mills in Northwest Indiana. He says they simply cannot compete with the Chinese, and the prospects for his industry look very bad. The United States produces just over 5% of the world’s steel, China, with annual production approaching 800 million tons, produces 50%.
A former neighbor works for Dow Agrosciences. He says “Asian” fertilizers are now being dumped on American markets at prices that they cannot compete with. He fears American producers will be forced to close.
My brother in law works, but only for the next month, at the Alcoa shipment terminal in Port Lavaca Texas. The plant is closing and his job ends in June with very little severance and no health care. In 2005 there were 22 aluminum smelters in the United States. Today there are four, and one of them is heavily subsidized by the State of New York.
My son has his degree in Chemical Engineering. He is working quality control for a company that imports pharmaceutical and food supplement precursors from Asia. None of it is produced in the United States. I wonder how long until the final products are made overseas, and his job disappears.
My father put me through college by running an engineering firm that specialized in providing industrial production control equipment. His business was in decline before his death and folded afterward; there weren’t enough industrial plants left in operation to keep the business afloat.
All of this is very real and very personal.
Offshoring all means of Production in order to use Slave Labor in Third world countries. Then Importing those good back in to the US Duty Free, is NOT TRADE and it is NOT FREE, it is called National Suicide and every last person involved committed TREASON as far as I am concerned.
We are all on board the New World Order express to Hell.
Go Trump, go!
This is reality when poor economic, industrial, environmental and tax policies turn you into a nation of waitresses and busboys.
Bullcrap, the things you listed are used as a fig leaf to cover the fact this is all about looking all over the world for the very cheapest labor.
For example when the CEO of Carriet was asked name specific regulations and taxes driving the decision to move to Mexico he couldn't name any.
“All that matters is that a free trade treaty is in effect.”
Any trade treaty requiring over 1500 pages (NAFTA, or 5544 pages (TPP), has nothing to do with “freedom” and everything to do with carving out special privileges, benefits, exemptions, and exceptions for countries, companies, individuals, and organizations.
A real free trade agreement would require no more than one page.
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