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."

[Texas_Dawg]

Or, did you miss the entire "Merchant" tirade earlier in the thread?

He was the one implying we're all being screwed over by Merchants to begin with. He got mad and sent me a FRee-mail saying he's going to kick my ass or something. Sigh...

[WOSG]

"A lot of people on this thread see this as only another insignificant trend; I see it as a fundamental shift. Until high skilled American salaries our
deflated, they will be candidates for outsourcing in the future. Right now it is hitting techies real hard; in the future it may be accountants or another
highly specialized field. "


This has always been true. There was always a possibility to move jobs to the cheaper location. Cheap transport opens up manufacturing jobs. Cheap communication (aka internet) opens up knowledge-based jobs.

"Will new opportunities incubate enough new high paying jobs to take their place? Will average displaced Americans be able to retool at an ever
increasing rate to keep up?"

We only have to retool faster than others to 'stay ahead'.

" Will this generations, or maybe the next, children be the first to expect less than their parents? "
No, since the same was said in the 1970s and the 1930s.


"Honestly, I don't see how this is good for America. However, to many I'm probably just being sure sighted naive." You are being accurate

here is how it is good for America in many ways.
1. First, this will likely *decrease* overall inequality, in the world and in the US. As you said, some (but not all) knowledge jobs are migrating. That means the 'blue collar workers' will have a bit more relative advantage. After the blue collar guys getting hit with this in the 1970s and 1980s, this is a rebalancing of the field a bit.
2. Since this is for cost reasons, it means lower cost products. Means it is good for all of us as consumers.
Havent you noticed how practically everything is dirt cheap these days, and stuffed with more features, that 10/20 years ago. Even a car of 20 years ago is unthinkably primitive in many ways.
3. This does mean retooling for some, but it hits alot harder because of the recession. IN FACT THIS TREND HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR 10 YEARS!! Since the mid-1990s there has been a large trend in outsourcing in knowledge fields.
For much of that, it was considered a great positive because so many tech companies just *couldnt fined enough US workers* to do the jobs.
4. This wont hurt overall employment long-term in the US, in fact it may help it. A company that can lower cost on average can try to hire more here to grow revenues.
Of course, it may shift things around a bit (a different set of skills, like marketing, sales and program management).
This is just like any resource - if the average cost is lower, you can use more! Total employment will go up enough to erase the differential.

All JMHO.

[Iscool]

That the best you can do??? Call me a socialist-communist because, like the founders of this country, I believe we should protect America and it's citizens??? Better try again...

[Texas_Dawg]

Look, we can disagree on trade, borders, illegal immigration, but you are strongly suggesting someone has made racists posting when he did nothing of the sort.

Seems to me if people were really worried about the possibility of being thought of as racists, they would stay far away from the type rhetoric that could logically be implied as racist? I know guys I went to college with in Georgia would get all pissed off about "Yankees" calling Southerners "rednecks" but then they would go out that night and watch professional wrestling and yell at the TV and crush beer cans on their face while starting fights with their underwear over their head. The next Monday when they were ranting about people calling them "rednecks" I took their concerns a little less seriously.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Call me a socialist-communist because, like the founders of this country, I believe we should protect America and it's citizens???

Only so long as you're not the one writing the check.

[Lael]

WOW!!!

600+ replies to this post.

I saw Dean perfecting his attack before a small group on C-SPAN...trotted out Bush's assurance to the Indian Government that NOTHING will be done to reign in "OUTSOURCING".

When it hits, it will be a Lightning Bolt!!!

Bush to Middle Class: Put your sons and daughters in IRAQ to get Blown Away while I flush your Livelihoods down the CRAPPER!!!

No wonder his re-Elect numbers have tanked!!!

[Texas_Dawg]

Call me a socialist-communist because, like the founders of this country, I believe we should protect America and it's citizens

Is there someone here who doesn't support this? Yet, not everyone here is a national socialist. What separates you from them? Think hard.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

...but then they would go out that night and watch professional wrestling and yell at the TV and crush beer cans on their face while starting fights with their underwear over their head.

Quit stalking me and my friends. Middle aged men deserve to still have fun, too.

[PigRigger]

"How can you do that when companies over here have to pay american workers social security, osha..."

That's my point. Congress would be better served looking at how to foster the desire of companies to believe that it is better to hire Americans than outsource to foriegn countries. I don't have the answer to that question.

I only beleive that if that answer ain't found a lot of hard working Americans will be looking to "retool" multiple times in the years to come.

Although that may be acceptable to those that tow the pure capitalist line; is that what we really want for ourselves and our children.

If things don't change our children (and a lot of us) should prepare to change careers many times thoughout their/our lives. It should also be expected that we may not do as well as our parents before us.

With the advent of technology and emerging markets of very cheap labor, combined with Corporate America's desire to increase profit margins, this is what we face.

Some say this is not new. I counter, it has never been easier than today to displace American jobs overseas. In the future it will only be easier as technology leaps forward.

This ain't gloom and doom, it is facing reality. Regardless of what the future holds, we as a nation better deal with it asap.

[WOSG]

Sad day when the great Frenchman Bastiat is maligned.

You alsmost sound like the French polemicist Bastiat who argued tariffs were tyranny and the USA was wrong to have them. IMHO he was at best a naive idiot. No, he just had you pegged as one. Ever read the Candlestick Maker's Petition? More importantly, do you understand it? Your on the side of those wanting to deny 280 million Americans less expensive heat and light, under the guise of helping us and 'creating jobs'.

Bastiat has been proven right time and time again in his predictions and points. "THE LAW" is so simple - any regulation denying freedom gives to one person by taking from another. Government does not, CANNOT, create wealth. It only can create restrictions on freedom.

Had France followed his advice and pursued economic liberty they'd be the world's superpower today, not us.

[Texas_Dawg]

Quit stalking me and my friends. Middle aged men deserve to still have fun, too.

Don't get me wrong, being from Texas and a proud Southerner, I'm all for acting like a drunken Redneck... just so long as you are white.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Gee dude that sucks, what do you do for a living? I imagine I could make that much working at Wally world. Ever thought of changing careers?"

Why would I want to do that?

We just purchased a Ford Explorer (with cash) Just got back from vacation paid for in cash, and I just finished my monthly review of our investments and I am on track to start using my retirement income in about ten years when I turn 53 BTW I doubt if I "retire" then but I can afford to now if I really want.

Oh and both Mrs. Dawgg and myself have NEVER had more than a combined income over 32k from any J.O.B. (Stands for just over broke)

[luckystarmom]

I'm saying that I am in a situation a lot worse than how I was raised.

It use to be that man with a degree in engineering could buy a house and get married and have a stay at home wife.

It's a sad day when an engineer cannot afford to have his wife stay at home.

It's an even sadder day when a two-engineer family cannot afford their 35 year old fixer upper house. I'm afraid that I'll have to go back to work along with my husband, and we won't be able to afford our house.

I just ask myself. Why in the heck did I go to college????? Why in the heck would anyone pay thousands of dollars to go to college if after 10-15 years of work you have to find a totally new career?

Personally, I'd love to change careers. I was hoping that I might go back to college in the spring to become a speech therapist. I already know that I won't be able to do that. I can't do that with hubby out of work.

We can't afford to take off and go to college and get trained for another career. We have 3 kids, a mortgage.

My husband put himself through college while working several jobs. He's been out of college for 15 years. He's patented software. He was one of the creators of on-screen TV-Guides. Now, I don't know what is going to happen to us.

[riri]

Oh brother, does it ever end? Ever?

[dogbyte12]

Sure, he accuses people of being Karl or Adolph, of being supporters of the craziest anti-semetic fantasies of making passover bread with the blood of gentiles, of wanting a return to the third reich, of hating people who aren't white, but it is just sarcasm. He is just teasing you know.

No thanks. For some vain women, being called fat is the worst thing imaginable. For some pseudo-intellectuals, being called stupid is the worst thing imaginable.

I admit it, he has got my goat. For me, there is nothing lower than to be called an anti semite. It hurts. I have spent time, money, and intellectual capital, studying judaism, the history of the holocaust. I have never been so emotionally drained in my life as when I took Literature of the Holocaust in college, and read "This way to the gas chamber ladies and gentleman", "Survival in Auschwitz", "Schindler's List" the book by Thomas Keneally.

I met with a survivor from Auschwitz and 2 from Bergen-Bergen. They have refused to surgically remove their tattoo scars so they can bear witness to man's inhumanity against man. The woman from Aushwitz lost her father, mother, her younger brother. Her older brother survived, but killed himself in grief 2 years after liberation.

It is not a game to me. If I wasn't anonymous here, and used my real name, I would sue him for slander. I have never sued a soul in my life. I hate the legal profession. I take his slander seriously. I won't apologize for the way I feel about it. The Nazi attempt at annihalation of world jewry, the Turkish slaughter of ethnic Armenians, and the attempted genocide of Ukrainians by Josef Stalin are the greatest stains upon humanity in the last century. I am not amused when people suggest that I agree with, condone, or support it. Color me sensitive.

[luckystarmom]

Actually it is about saving our entire country.

I have 3 kids. I have no doubt that my husband and I will survive. We have been smart and saved our money.

Now of course, we may not be able to pay for our kids college, but what does that matter. If there aren't jobs for them, what does it matter.

[Texas_Dawg]

By the way, I like these guys who chime in occasionally to note the number of posts on this thread and use it to demonstrate that this issue is so important and the evidence so much against Bush that it will cause him to lose in 2004.

Riiiiight... Because seeing how 2/3rds of these threads are sarcastic posts about the Illuminati and shadow government I guess those will be huge issues as well.

[dfrussell]

still, it's interesting to note how many people on a conservative site think this is a great idea.

The appeal to the less politically astute must be overwhelming...

Everyone's for stiffing the rich guys... until they find out that they're someone else's "rich guy" :)

[Texas_Dawg]

We have 3 kids, a mortgage.

How much are you offering for?

[scottlang]

I agree. When I volunteered for the Army, it wasn't for the damn pay, it was because I believed - and still believe - in the ideals of America. Unfair trade that enriches a few who live in gated communities, and uncontrolled ILLEGAL immigration that prevents legal immigrants and citizens from finding entry level jobs and not the ideals I believe in.

Some things supersede the almighty dollar.

I could not agree more.