Free trade's victims turning against Bush, GOP

The Herald Sun ^ | August 25, 2003 | associated press

[snopercod]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- This year's highly publicized job losses in North Carolina manufacturing, including the Pillowtex bankruptcy, could mean trouble next year for President Bush in a region that was a stronghold in 2000.

Bush won more than 56 percent of the vote in both North Carolina and South Carolina in 2000. But his strong support of free trade has turned some against him in the South, where U.S. trade policies are blamed for the loss of jobs in textiles and other manufacturing sectors.

Andy Warlick, chief executive officer of Parkdale Mills in Gaston County, said he doubts he will repeat his 2000 vote for Bush next year.

"He made a lot of promises and he hasn't delivered on any of them," Warlick said. "I've had some firsthand experience of him sending down trade and commerce officials, but they're just photo ops. It's empty rhetoric."

Fred Reese, the president of Western N.C. Industries, an employers' association, said executives are beginning to raise their voices against Bush and are planning education and voter drives.

"We're seeing a new dynamic where the executives and employees are both beginning to see a real threat to their interests. You're going to see people who traditionally voted Republican switch over," Reese predicted.

The hard feelings were on display days after Pillowtex's July 30 bankruptcy filing, when Republican U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes walked into a Kannapolis auditorium to meet with former workers.

"Thanks for sending the jobs overseas, Robin!" shouted Brenda Miller, a longtime worker at the textile giant's Salisbury plant.

In December 2001 Hayes -- who is an heir to the Cannon family textile fortune -- cast the tie-breaking vote to give Bush the authority to negotiate "fast-track" trade agreements, trade treaties that Congress must vote up or down with no amendments.

At the time, Hayes said he won promises from the Bush administration that it would more strictly enforce existing trade agreements and pressure foreign countries to open their markets to U.S. textiles.

"Are we pleased with the way they responded? Absolutely," Hayes said. "Are we satisfied with where we are? Absolutely not."

Jobs in many industries have fled overseas since 1993, when Congress passed the Clinton-backed North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. About half the textile and apparel jobs that existed in 1994 are gone.

Since Bush took office in January 2001, it is estimated North Carolina and South Carolina have lost more than 180,000 manufacturing jobs.

And even more textile jobs could be out the door once quotas on Chinese imports expire at the end of next year.

Republican U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger voted for NAFTA and fast-track, and has seen his 10th District lose nearly 40,000 jobs, primarily in the textile and furniture industries.

"Certainly, there's a political cost to any controversial vote no matter which side you take," he said. "People are casting stones, but we're trying to pick them up and build something."

Democratic U.S. Sen. John Edwards voted against fast-track in 2002 after voting for an earlier version. In 2000 he voted for permanent normal trade relations with China.

Recently, though, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Edwards has attacked Bush's trade policies and called for fairer trade measures.

Robert Neal, vice president of the local chapter of the Pillowtex workers' union, said Hayes has worked to try to ease the impact of job losses in his district.

"Though he (Hayes) voted for fast-track, he is really concerned about the workers and their conditions in the state of North Carolina," Neal said.

Not everyone feels that way.

Reese is organizing 1,500 manufacturing companies across North Carolina in an effort to leverage what he calls a new voting bloc.

In South Carolina, voter drives are planned for the first time at Milliken & Co., which has about 30 plants in the state. Mount Vernon Mills of Greenville, S.C., is forming a political action committee.

The company's president Roger Chastain, a one-time Bush voter, doesn't expect to support the president or Jim DeMint, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Ernest Hollings.

"We're basically liquidating our whole middle class, polarizing people on the two extremes, have and have-nots," Chastain said of the manufacturing job losses. "We'll be a Third World country."

[WOSG]

Be gentle, he may not have known how bad the top rate was ... after all, the *average* rate in the 1950s wasnt too bad.

It's inflation that turned those rate into a daggar at the economy and turned us into a practical Soviet labor camp by 1979, until Ronald Reagan saved us and cut the tax rates.

[Mad Dawgg]

"...until Ronald Reagan saved us and cut the tax rates."

There you go again tax cuts for the rich, that's all you Merchant-Lovers ever talk about.

Well damn it I want my Job now and I want the tax rate on anyoine making more money than me to be at 122%.

Further I wat 300% Tariffs on all imports and I want to Nuke any country that doesn't follow my plan on running a manufacturing plant.

GW better announce all of the above tomorrow morning on FOx and Friends or I am voting for Dean!

Oh Yeah, and I want a pony!

[bluejay]

China is developing the technological and industrial base to take the US on in an arms race 10-20 years from now and win. Equal or greater population. High tech. Resource base. World class industrial exporter. Every previous adversary we faced had only two of these attributes. Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union. China already has three of the above. In 10 years it will have all of the above.

This is a little outside the topic. Of course China wants to challenge US. My argument is commitment to free trade will make us stronger and more able to meet that challenge. I also think that 10-20 years is optimistic for China. As far as I understand it takes 10 years to roll a weapon system out (e.g., M16 was introduced at the start of Vietnam, but did not gain wide acceptance until almost the end of the conflict). Of course China will narrow the gap between their technology and ours. After the Cultural Revolution China was almost back to stone age, they have no way to go but up. However, based on the increase in technological capability between us and those technologically closest to us (Europe and Japan), makes me believe that our commitment to free trade over the past 20 years has definitely worked in our favor. There is no compelling reason to believe that it will stop working in our favor in the future.

Gee, I always figured that in democracies laws reflected cultural choices. The Europeans chose the easy life by taking themselves out of the great power business. Their costs are greater but they have chosen cradle to grave security as their priority.

How about abortion? Does that law reflect cultural choice of American majority? Based on the results of 2002 election, I don't think so. Regardless, in US you do have a choice of working less and making less money, in Europe you do not have a choice of working more and the only way you can earn more money is by moving to the US.

If you check www.bls.gov you will see that when discouraged workers are counted in it comes to 10.2% which is what it was in 1940. And that counts people who are vastly underemployed as employed.

I looked at the site, not sure where you got that number. As far as I could tell (at least on that site) historical data goes back to 1994. I looked at July 2003 employment report - that showed unemployment of 6.2% down 0.2% from June. I do not doubt that, statistics being what it is, different type of analysis will give different results. In that case, however, we need to compare to the results of equivalent analysis in previous decades.

[Poohbah]

It's a common debate technique for snake-oil salesmen.

I read The Straw Giant many years ago, and Arthur Hadley laid it right out. The nations of the world do not know if those missiles, under realistic conditions (no warning, no painstaking maintenance of each bird prior to launch, et cetera) will (a) clear their launchers, (b) stage properly, (c) fly the proper trajectory over the North Pole, (d) fly a proper reentry path on the far side of the globe, and (e) arm and detonate the warheads within the accuracy parameters supposedly displayed during flight tests with dummy warheads.

Nobody knows. Not one missile has been ever live-fired on an operational trajectory. Only one missile has been launched with a live warhead that detonated, and that was during the last string of US atmospheric tests, Operation Dominic (the Frigate Bird shot). The missile was specially prepared for the test; it wasn't randomly selected from the inventory. And that model of missile left the inventory more than thirty years ago.

How many people out there--no matter how desirous of world domination--would be willing to stake their personal survival on those things working as advertised?

[null and void]

Back in the late 80's I made a deal with a local "businessman", a very successful businessman I might add. The deal was I would work for him in the evenings each day of the workweek and my financial compensation would be nothing.

That is right absolutely no money whatsoever. All I wanted was his knowledge. I did errands and paperwork, I even helped unload cargo. I was allowed to ask questions and I was given detailed information on how this businessman made money.

Working for nothing was the best Money I ever made in my life!

Sounds quite a bit like what I did in the early '70s. I didn't work for free, but did work sub-minimum wage.

I got a 30 year long career out of it, doing work I absolutely love...

[Jorge]

China is developing the technological and industrial base to take the US on in an arms race 10-20 years from now and win. Equal or greater population. High tech. Resource base. World class industrial exporter. Every previous adversary we faced had only two of these attributes. Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union. China already has three of the above. In 10 years it will have all of the above.

I doubt this very much.
China is too busy oppressing it's people and it's manufacturing/engineering base.

In my opinion if anybody replaces the USA as the dominant world power it will be the EU.

[FITZ]

You can do it snopercod.

You have to stop thinking in terms of one person. It really doesn't matter if one person finds a job but 250 in the same town are laid off that same day. There is double-digit unemployment in many areas of the country --- it's not some kind of seasonal unemployment or temporary lay-off because things are a bit slow. Many plants are shutting their doors forever. How can you possibly believe falling wages and no jobs is a great thing for this country???

[bluejay]

Most of the parts that go into computers are made by contract manufacturers in the PRC and other locations (but increasingly, solely in the PRC) and are only US in label, but not in terms of country of origin. This is my area of expertise. Do you care to rumble?

I never intended to imply that there are no foreign-sourced parts in products produced by US companies. My argument is that the ability to manufacture/purchase products/components at the most efficient source leaves us better off. This is indicated by a number of factors, including (for example) growth of US economy compared to Europe and Japan as well as the strength of American corporations.

[null and void]

Bet me on it. Please. Put your money where your mouth is.

Nope.

In the first place, I want him to win, even though I don't think he will. Your slamming me for this is akin to blaming the fire on the smoke alarm.

In the second place, I don't have spare money to bet. Something about not having a job for a year will do that.

In the third place, I don't think you are a man of your word, and you'd stiff anyone betting you in a heartbeat, just out of spite because you lost.

[Mad Dawgg]

"I got a 30 year long career out of it, doing work I absolutely love..."

Why you dirty little anti-union-merchant-loving-free-traitor!

How dare you vary from the herd and make us all look foolish!

[FITZ]

You must understand, we must do what we must to save our jobs, besides its for the children you know.

You might not be aware of the July elections in Mexico --- the big beneficiary of NAFTA, the voters just took a sharp left turn --- Fox and his PAN party were big losers. The anti-NAFTA party --- PRD was the biggest winner. All this globalism seems to be causing some pretty shaky political situations in our neighborhing country.

[1rudeboy]

But wait! I thought that's where our high-paying jobs are going!

[PGalt]

When rumors were flying that our small factory was closing ("consolidation") 4 years ago, that is when I took action. I immediately got a part time job and they liked my resume so much I was offered a full-time job plus 2 more dollars an hour. I stayed part time, the factory didn't close and have since been promoted to the corporate headquarters, and am currently talking with my cousin to start a business (3rd job) in our spare time. I refuse to be a victim, boxed in by my thoughts.

[WOSG]

DONT WORRY BE HAPPY - THE OUTSOURCING IDEA MAY NOT BE SUCH BIG COST-SAVINGS ...


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/971046/posts

[ARCADIA]

Oh, fer gawds' sake, you just endorsed as high as a 90% marginal income tax rate!

That's funny. The highest rate reached in 1963 was 72%, however it only applied to someone earning in excess of $1 million 1963 dollars (~6-7 million today), and there were a broad spectrum of deductions available. On the other hand, you could earn up to 40,000 1960 dollars /year tax free, and the rate at 200,000 1960 dollars per year was still only 29% (that is equivalent to 29% on approximately $ 1.3 million (2003) in buying power vrs. the 39% you would pay today).


Here is a table:
http://www.nber.org/~taxsim/conrate/


Where did you get your 90% from?

[WOSG]

And the EU is too busy depopulating itself and becoming overrun by Muslim invaders to be a superpower ...


Advantage USA.

[Mad Dawgg]

"All this globalism seems to be causing some pretty shaky political situations in our neighborhing country.'

I can understand that I mean the devil-spawn-son-of-a-whore Wal-Mart Corporation has moved into Mexico. I mean the Mexican voters are much smarter than us and they are gonna exercise the Wal-Mart demon before it takes root in thier country.

Hell before you know it Wal-mart will have the Mexican Donkey Milkers Jobs outsourced to India and then where will they all be!

[sweetliberty]

Nully, you poor dear. I had no idea! ;-)

Chad, see post #137.

[Mad Dawgg]

"I refuse to be a victim, boxed in by my thoughts. "

Damn you PGALT now you have made me feel inferior because I can't think for myself and take care of myself and wipe my own behind.

Will none in the government help me?

Doesn't GW care if I have a dirty Behind?

What will become of me? Will I get my pony?

[PGalt]

I hear you Mad Dawgg.