[CanadianFella]

Many of the factory jobs here are relatively unskilled, tapping a labor force of which nearly half lack a high school diploma.

it's super easy to blame it all on chicom/wto/globalists/elvis, but in the 21st century unskilled labourers without HS diplomas should stop thinking anyone owes them a job.

[Dusty Rose]

What I'm looking for is a *skilled* laborer. There are so many techies and consultants around here. It's getting so that in the U.S. of A. we are no longer manufacturing anything nor are we repairing anything in this throw-away society. Things are breaking down around me and I can't find knowledgeable skilled people who really know what they are doing to fix things the way they need to be done. People with so called advanced degrees no longer have hands-on skills. I hired a guy to repair a leaking roof. It still leaks. I asked him to return; he "fixed it" again, and it leaks worse than the first time I called him. I've called repair people for projects -- the few who know what they are doing are in demand and do not even take the time to return my calls.

[A. Pole]

it's super easy to blame it all on chicom/wto/globalists/elvis, but in the 21st century unskilled labourers without HS diplomas should stop thinking anyone owes them a job

Are you saying that if they invest years of studying and tens of thousands dollars in getting the engineering degree they will have a job?

[ohmage]

it's super easy to blame it all on chicom/wto/globalists/elvis

Yes, it is. Especially when you don't read or hear in the news about meetings taking place where plans such as these are made...

From COA

The president has also announced an effort to pursue a free trade agreement with the nations of Central America. Success here will further strengthen our economic ties with those countries, and reinforce the great economic and political progress they've made over the last decade. Free trade with Central America will also move us toward an even broader aim -- a Free Trade Area of the Americas, up and running by January of 2005. The president is strongly committed to this goal, and all of our trade efforts are pointed in this direction.

The free trade zone we seek would facilitate commerce among nations with a combined GDP exceeding ten trillion dollars, and lift the lives of more than 800 million people. Later this year, the United States and Brazil will assume co-chairmanship of trade negotiations at the hemispheric level. We look forward to the partnership, to the important work ahead, and to the great opportunities in store for all the democracies of this region.

I can't wait to see where the 800 million people whose lives are going to be lifted live.